Third Time's the Charm
by SugarcaneSoldier
Summary: Just as she was about to finally get her place behind lines, where Being X and his war couldn't have touched her, Tanya is killed. Due to her body's age and her soul's origin, however, Tanya manages to reincarnate once more thanks to a certain 'goddess.' She knows exactly what she will wish for if she kills the Demon King.
1. The Gods' Blight upon this New World

The war hadn't been easy, up to that point, but they had made it. Not together, and not whole, but they had made it all the same.

Tanya, Viktoriya, Rerugen, and the scattered portions of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion had made it that far. As needed, they'd been divided or split up, to spread their ability or to train the next generation of mages, but the best of them had stayed together, fighting side-by-side until the death.

In Dacia. The Legadonia Entente. The Francois Republic. Throughout the Southern Continent, and even as far as the Russy Federation. Tanya had even flown over to 'Akitsushima' for a few days.

After her last… battle on the Eastern Front and her subsequent recovery, they had been given a bit of time off in one of the larger cities, Dresdun, taking a day to rest. Tanya had been sure that as long as nothing unexpected had happened, they would have been able to survive the war, regardless of whether the Empire lost or won.

Regardless of the other members of the 203rd, all of who Tanya was fond of, Tanya would have, no matter what. She had finally been given her choice of rear echelon positions, and any one of them were so close that she could taste the fine leather upholstery in the cushy offices behind lines.

She had been so close to securing her future and shoving a roughly-hewed wooden spike – roughly-hewed so that it had plenty of splinters – up Being X's ass.

And then… it had ended.

She had been having a drink – an alcoholic one, finally – with the rest of her troops at a local pub, when an explosion sounded above her and a burning sensation had overtaken her body.

As her soul had fled her body, she had remembered the usage of firebombs in the Second World War and the devastation they had caused in Japan. It stood to reason that the Cordiale would use them too.

And now she was here. A black, endless void.

She clenched her teeth.

No.

No, she had been so close. She had been so close to the rear, where she could survive.

Then, more thoughts occurred to her. She remembered those beyond her immediate person. Koenig. Viktoriya. Weiss. Rerugen. Neumann. Grantz. All of them. They had died…

No. It wasn't fair. It wasn't.

Tears stinging her eyes, she beat the floor she was sitting on. They weren't supposed to die like that, miles behind lines. They were supposed to survive. She was supposed to foster their development and have their prowess reflect kindly on her.

She was supposed to protect people she had grown to call friends in the privacy of her mind.

She sat there, feeling quite numb. Her friends – dare she think it, her family – were gone. Burned to cinders or choking to death on ash.

Tanya took a deep breath. No, she couldn't have a breakdown in enemy territory. Not now. She needed to figure out what that thing's game was, and she needed to fight it.

She knew that, in a straight fight, she didn't stand a chance against him. He could pause time like she was nothing but a cheaply-made cartoon. His apparent obsession with turning her into his prophet was one of her only assurances that he wouldn't just toss her into hell and be done with her.

Regardless, she'd resist and spite him, as she always had, for as long as he took to admit to himself she wasn't ever joining him and kill her.

With that thought, she took stock of her surroundings and immediately ran what she personally liked to call her 'diagnostic check.' It reminded her of the technology of her first life, and it was much less disheartening than calling it a 'post-crisis checkup on her health and sanity.'

She looked down at herself, hoping that she might have her old body back.

No, still the body of a sixteen-year-old underfed girl. She sighed, and surveyed the body she still had. The Type 95 hadn't decided to move, either.

Well, she still had that cursed piece of jewelry, not that she'd activate it in his presence. She continued to look around, to see if she had anything besides what was on her.

Nope. She only had a few medals, a rumpled uniform, and…

No gun.

Tanya groaned and fought the urge to curl into a ball. Now, she'd have to try and fight a being of incredible power without a gun. Sure, she could use her fingers, hands, and arms as scepters to channel mana instead of her guns, but she'd have to rely on pure spells instead of bullets, and if she messed up a spell, well…

She'd end up as an amputee.

She chuckled mirthlessly to herself. As if she'd even get the chance to take a shot at him. Her situation was hopeless.

Viktoriya's face flashed through her mind, and Tanya took a deep breath.

Tanya would fight. If not for her own survival – because that wasn't happening – then to avenge her faithful adjunct and her friends.

She scoffed. Had she really become the firebrand soldier bent on fighting any battle, no matter how hopeless, that she had tried to make everyone think she was? No, she had just grown personally invested in those around her instead of only caring for herself. That was all.

Finished surveying her available resources, she looked around, into the black, inky void, wondering if this was some sort of purgatory where she'd slowly be driven mad by her own mind. It didn't seem like some sort of eternal damnation, like Being X had promised so many years ago.

She was still alert, of course. This could be some sort of test. What the thing was testing for, she couldn't fathom, but she'd play his game. For now.

Grimacing, she chose to travel in the direction she thought she had been facing when she had arrived. Hopefully, she'd find… something while walking.

Unknown to the misplaced protagonist was a simple fact: Being X was taking the day off.

No directing mortals, no taunting The Atheist, no having to deal with the various deities, no worrying about The Atheist getting to safety and out from under his heavenly thumb, no having to try and brainstorm ways of saving…

Well. He wasn't doing anything stressful. Nothing like that.

Just one day to relax and try to find some peace.

Naturally, everything had happened while he was gone.

Without his careful guidance, the mortals had decided to use firebombs on the city of Dresdun, the place he was allowing his lost lamb to rest before he began the next round of attempted conversions, instead of some other city closer to their front lines. And with their attack, they had killed The Atheist.

Not that Being X knew yet. He was trying to take a nap.

Tanya continued to look around, unaware of her nemesis's sabbatical, and she eventually found a small area lit by some sort of overhead light. There were two chairs, a dark brown one and a light one. There was a desk next to the light chair, and a girl sitting in the chair, dozing.

Tanya slowly crept into the edge of the light, wary of a trap. She looked at the girl sitting in the chair.

The girl seemed to be beautiful, by western standards. She had a full chest, wore slightly revealing clothing, and had shockingly blue hair. She was currently hugging the light blue hagoromo that seemed to be trying to float in the air.

She also reeked of mana. It was on a scale that Tanya had only known in Being X and, when they prayed, herself and the so-called 'Bloody Valkyrie.' Tanya chuckled when she thought of that girl.

Her thoughts slowly spiraled towards what had happened after she'd killed her. The fall, her capture, her r-

She shook her head and bit down on the inside of her cheek. She wouldn't allow memories of the past to distract her, not here. Back on track, Tanya continued to study the girl, for a moment. Then her eyes began to drift down, to the creamy expanses of-

Tanya violently shook her head, biting her tongue this time. She wouldn't fall prey to the hormone-driven thoughts that puberty and her sexual preferences had been inflicting on her since she had turned thirteen.

She had better things to do – like trying to survive – than to let her thoughts stray in the middle of enemy territory.

After taking a calming breath, Tanya activated a few basic Observation spells that she could utilize without needing a Computation Jewel. She searched the chairs, the ground, around the girl, and everywhere in sight that wasn't the inky expanse that surrounded them.

She found nothing that might resemble a trap or illusion. She found nothing at all, in fact. Nothing indicated this was a trap, or that Being X was nearby.

She had memorized his mana signature the one time her Type 97 had been nearby during one of his 'sermons,' and the memory of that signature was the only reason she hadn't immediately assumed that he had reincarnated himself into the form of the Bloody Valkyrie upon her repeated meetings of that crazy madwoman.

Still suspicious – what if the girl turned out to be some sort of fighting machine? – she walked closer to the girl. The possible lackey didn't move, or even seem to notice Tanya's presence.

Tanya nodded – she hadn't been rendered unconscious by the girl yet – and she snapped her fingers in front of the girls face. She needed answers, and-

No change.

Raising an eyebrow, she began to poke the girl, who remained unmoving. Tanya tilted her head in confusion, and pressed her finger into the girl's cheek.

She still wasn't waking up. Tanya furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to think of a way to wake her up.

Tanya shrugged as she raised a hand. It wasn't her fault the girl was such a monumentally heavy sleeper.

Tanya's hand fell, and a loud smack issued from the point of impact. A mark stained the cheek of the girl, who remained unmoving, besides a slight shift in position.

Tanya stared at her own hand, trying not to get whiplash from glancing between it and the girl.

Had… had she even hit her, or was she hallucinating this entire experience?

Now wary of the sleeping embodiment of blue, she enhanced her arm, hand, and upper body with mana. The Reinforcement spells were, when kept weak, some of the easiest to do without a Computation Jewel.

"Here goes nothing," Tanya muttered, lashing out with as much power allowed to her by her mana and body.

SMACK!

The girl was sent sprawling and hit the ground, rolling for a few feet. Seemingly immune to the damage that Tanya had imparted to her, she yawned, and rubbed her eyes as she sat up.

"Whaa…"

"Stupid Eris…" the girl muttered, grumbling as she sat up.

Scowling, the girl looked back at where she'd been resting, finally noticing Tanya, and tilted her head. "Wait, you're not Eris. Who are you?"

Years of military training and the subsequent years of her identity being doubted – she didn't exactly look the part of a hardened war veteran, let alone a military officer – snapped into her mind, and Tanya quickly gave a salute. "Major-General Tanya von Degurechaff, commander of the 203rd-"

The girl cut her off, tilting her head, an expression of mild interest coloring her face. "Wait, some war world is using child soldiers now?"

Tanya stopped her explanation abruptly. This girl…

She was, no doubt, related to Being X. The woman knew there were multiple worlds or dimensions, even if she wasn't him.

"How…?" Tanya began to ask, eyes narrowed in suspicion, when the girl cut her off with a negligent wave of her hand.

"I suppose you wouldn't know," the girl said, clearing her throat, "but I am Aqua, a goddess who guides humans who die young to the afterlife." She supplied this fact simply while standing and walking to her chair.

She paused, and Tanya had to fight to contain her palpable anger. Another being that claimed to be god?

In her first life, Tanya had loudly declared her disbelief in god. She hadn't thought that god would come down to lecture a middle class office worker on their lack of faith, and she had told that being, to his face, that he wasn't what he claimed to be.

She had spent every moment of the next near sixteen years regretting that decision. She had had to grow up in a knockoff version of Germany and had to fight as a child soldier with magic.

She wouldn't be repeating that mistake again, no thank you. She might have made some wonderful friends along the way, but she did not like having to play Being X's games.

No, instead, she'd see what this… Aqua had to say, and then she would leave her in the dust if she couldn't make herself useful.

Unaware of Tanya's thoughts, Aqua had been looking for something, searching the scant furniture for something that wasn't there. "Usually," she commented, "whenever one of you gets here, I get a book that tells me your entire lifelong sob story, but I can't find it…"

Unknown to Tanya, Being X had, once more, been the cause of this. He'd locked up the file of The Atheist when she had been reincarnated, to make sure that none of the others tried something. There were far too many trickster Gods and chaos Goddess and annoying-son-of-a-bitch Deities that might try to mess with his plans simply because they could.

And, while Aqua knew the files were locked up, she didn't know that the puny, disgruntled, partially adorable girl in front of her was the fearsome Atheist.

The girl closed her eyes, and shrugged. "Well, what does it matter?" she said sitting on her chair, using the small table at her side as a footrest. "I don't need your files in order to process you."

Tanya was, honestly, personally offended by that. She might have gotten caught if this Aqua did have her book, obviously, but why wouldn't this person care about making sure that things were working correctly?

She was probably some sort of reject.

Tanya smirked. Heh. Reject god.

Aqua continued. "You have two choices. You can choose to start over at square one with a new life, or you can go to Heaven and carry on like an old woman."

Being X had lied to her, then. There was some sort of afterlife beyond reincarnation. Not that Tanya thought the bastard had been telling her the truth about most things that had spewed from his mouth, considering that he mostly ranted about how awesome he was and how doomed she'd be without him.

The girl leaned over conspiratorially, looked over her shoulders, and began to speak in a slightly lower but no less discernible voice. "To tell you the truth, Heaven isn't the dreamy place you all imagine it to be."

Tanya merely raised her eyebrows. She'd never imagined heaven.

"There's no TV, manga, or games. You have no physical body, so you can't do anything sexual." Tanya's anger spiked. How dare she remind her of-

Aqua just continued talking, ignorant of the angry whirlpool standing inches away. "There's nothing to do but bask in the sun and sing the praises of the Gods for all eternity." Tanya continued to glare. As if she'd ever sing the praises of any god.

The most she ever did was reluctantly scream them, when she wasn't-

Tanya bit down on her cheek again. Not here. She _wouldn't_ remember here.

Mistaking the anger and fleeting panic on her face as shock, Aqua continued to speak. "Yeah, you don't want to go to a boring place like Heaven, right?"

"Of course not!" Tanya snarled.

Aqua nodded. "On the other hand, starting over from square one isn't so fun either." Tanya looked down at her body. No, it wasn't fun to be reincarnated, especially when you had your memories and were locked in a battle with a supremely powerful being.

She nodded hesitantly, a delicate looking eyebrow raised slowly. Aqua proceeded to lean into Tanya, almost yelling, "On that note, I've got a great offer for you."

Thoughts crystallized in Tanya's mind as she ignored the violation of her personal space.

Was she trying to sell something to Tanya?

Aqua definitely was. In fact, she was slightly panicking.

That book usually allowed her to formulate some sort of way to convince the gullible losers that came in here to do what she wanted.

Wondering how she would convince this girl to go fight the Demon King, Aqua looked down at her – it was hard not to – and noted the military gear and the bauble around her neck. It looked… magical.

Smiling sweetly, Aqua took a few steps away from the standing figure of Tanya. "You like having magic, right?"

Yeah. She was definitely trying to sell Tanya something.

Suppressing the urge to giggle at the thought that this reject goddess might get her to agree to something willingly before Being X ever did, she nodded and crossed her arms. She needed to appear that she was open to whatever idea this Aqua was presenting.

She might as well hear it. Maybe it would be better than trying to sneak out of… wherever this was.

Not that Tanya would bite. It would depend, of course, on what she offered, and how this deal would be enforced. Tanya would try to get out of it, if things didn't turn out for the best.

She would listen to the girl, though. She seemed to be trying harder and more logically than Being X ever had. Tanya would give the girl a chance for that, if nothing else.

The girl struck a pose, and began to recite a speech that sounded like an ad for a crappy video game for a phone model that was three years old.

"That world, which had long enjoyed peace, is being threatened by the Demon King's army," she loudly declared, striking another pose, "Everyone lives in fear of the Demon King's army's merciless pillage and slaughter!" As spoke, she made various gestures to drive home the point, and an additional, golden spotlight shined down as she finished.

The light faded, and she began to speak normally again. "Since that's the sort of world it is, everyone refuses to be reborn, so the population is declining."

Tanya internally rolled her eyes. If heaven could contain souls as they praised Being X for eternity, then there was likely a way to create new ones. Otherwise, the universe would have run out of them, eventually.

Probably. She didn't have a lot of information to go on, but that would be her working assumption.

It was much more likely that the population was declining due to the fact that someone was terrorizing an area, killing thousands. People wouldn't want their children to be born in a place where they could easily be killed, and would take measures to ensure that they didn't end up pregnant.

"So we decided," she explained, "'Why not send people who have died in other worlds there with their bodies and memories intact?'"

An interesting proposition. Of course, the girl hadn't gotten to the point of why she would want to start fighting, but Tanya was sure she'd get there eventually. Tanya nodded in comprehension, and the girl continued her speech.

"Additionally, I'll be doing you a big favor." Tanya looked up from where she had been mentally scheming, thinking about how fast she could rise in an army with the knowledge and experience she now held.

"I'm granting you the right to bring any one thing of your choosing with you. It could be a tremendous talent or a powerful weapon." Tanya's eyes widened.

Having something that she didn't have to pray to Being X to utilize? That was tantalizing.

"You'll be able to redo your life with all of your original memories. To top it off, you'll be able to bring one thing of your choosing! And the people of the parallel world will earn them someone battle-ready to help them. Not a bad deal, don't you think?"

Tanya nodded. This was a good deal for all of the parties involved. The gods also benefited, of course; they didn't have to keep housing lazy squatters in heaven when they could be praying or spreading the faith.

But most of all, Tanya benefited. She'd get another life, and continue to spite Being X.

If he even knew where she was, anyway. He wasn't interrupting this proceeding, so she would just marvel at her good fortune in the back of her mind.

The girl now stood, straighter and more serious than Tanya had seen her yet. Tanya steeled herself, curling her fists for a moment, before launching into her questions.

"Ma'am, I do have some questions. Will I keep this… magical focus of mine? I don't really want to give it up…"

The girl waved her off. "I'm sure that nothing you smelly apes have created could possibly affect the system. You won't have to give it up," she said arrogantly.

Perfect.

Tanya smiled widely. Aqua thought the smile was created in thanks of her generosity, but any normal person could have told the goddess that the grin was, from one to ten, a fifty-three on the creepiness scale.

Tanya smoothed out her features, and began to speak again. "Another question. When you say 'original memories', do you mean the ones that I can remember now?"

She didn't want to lose what she had remembered and learned in either of her lives.

Aqua rolled her eyes, seemingly annoyed that she had to answer these questions. "Yes, that's what I meant. Sorry that you couldn't keep up, little girl."

Oh, how Tanya wished that she had her gun so she could split the head of this annoying girl open, or at least some way to contact her HR Department and get her fired for insulting a customer. But she didn't, and, more importantly, she needed her.

Tanya smiled. "I have one last question. What do I get out of this besides going to another world?"

This brought Aqua up short. Didn't she think it was privilege enough that she got to be reincarnated by her, Aqua?

She groaned, and began to answer the question. "Usually, we save this until you're already leaving, but if you survive, you get one rule free wish."

Oh.

Well, now she had to go. Being reincarnated again might spite Being X, but if she did this, she'd get a single wish. She could do anything. Become immortal. Have her old body back. She could go back to her original life, or to her second life! She could…

She smiled. She could wish that Viktoriya and all the members of the 203rd were alive, or even that the World War hadn't happened. She could-

Tanya's eyes widened and she took a deep breath.

She could even take direct revenge on Being X.

All of her second life, it had been her goal to get to the rear and spite Being X by surviving and being reincarnated. As she'd come to command her troops, those closest and most loyal to her had been worked into her plan. She'd wanted to take as many of them as she could with her.

But this…

She wouldn't just spite that once unassailable Being.

No, she could exact her revenge, pound for pound, blood for blood, every single pain and embarrassment for something equally bad.

And, if this new world proved to be too dangerous, she could just run away. She wouldn't have any documentation, and could likely just fly to some other country.

A wide, insane grin split Tanya's face. "What are you waiting for, Aqua? Show me- "

Then Tanya stopped, and the grin fell. What would stop them from simply going back on their deal?

Aqua, oblivious to the fact that the nasty smile on the human's face had not been one of awe, began to groan. How did she still have questions?

Suspicious once more, Tanya glared at the being. "Wait, how can I ensure that you won't back out of the deal once this 'Demon King' is dead?" she asked, staring at the blue beauties face.

The, apparently welcoming this question, rushed over to her table, from which she pulled out what looked like a pamphlet. "This is a contract. In essence, it details what you need to do, what we'll do, and how this process will work.

Smirking, Tanya ripped the thing out of the girl's hands. She'd be studying that. "Alright, now I'm done. Proceed with the theatrics," she said with a small motion from her hand.

Aqua, relieved that the annoying girl was done, went on to the next stage. "Wonderful! Now, chose! I'll grant you one power that is second to none!"

-OxOxO-

Tanya had figured out a few things.

Firstly, every single thing that she offered was completely overpowered compared to anything she had ever heard of, excluding the cursed Type 95.

The blue brat – because that was what she was: an annoying, self-absorbed, water-themed brat – had kept badgering her to hurry up, spouting demeaning drivel to incentivize her.

It was getting on her nerves, but Tanya endured her annoying attempts to get her to hurry and suggested that she go back to sleep while she was choosing. Aqua had thought her suggestion was excellent, and had promptly dozed off.

She'd tried to read the contract, but the pamphlet-sized housing for the contract was impossibly enormous. Whenever she turned a few pages, preceding pages would disappear and new ones appeared in their place, creating something that was a few hundred pages long, at least.

She had gotten to the parts she was interested in, however.

She had to stop the Demon King, or the contract would kill her.

Or, at the very least, she had to side with whoever opposed him. There were quite a few loopholes she could see from even the first few pages, but considering the fact that Being X was overworked by his failed business model, she had guessed that he wouldn't be able to write a foolproof contract.

This meant that she could abandon the fight against this person, as long as she helped the people opposing him from time to time. That went for her new 'Divine Relic' as well. If she didn't fight the person…

It would disappear. She wondered if it would also take her Type 95 – and that would be a good thing, considering she literally couldn't get rid of it. She had tried to damage the thing with knives, but her body's control was taken from her if she dared to try. When she'd tried to toss it into some unnamed river deep in Russy territory after-

She shook her head and ignored her most recent horrible memories and focused back on her situation.

The wish was enforced by heaven's mana, and couldn't be surpassed by anything. If the wish was voided, then she, as the Reincarnated, would be free to go and no longer beholden to the contract, and heaven would face serious… repercussions.

With that over with, she had started to survey the veritable flood of overpowered… things.

Because it wasn't just weapons. There was clothing and armor, abilities that sounded fanciful, and even race changes. This world, it seemed, would be much more diverse than her second one.

In that world, it was just humans, as far as humans could tell. Here, there were apparently elves, dwarves, beastmen, and all sorts of other things.

But, eventually, she whittled down her choices to simply three.

Her first option was a power boost. It was probably the best for ensuring her own survival, regardless of whatever happened.

The paper that described the object was titled 'Circlet of Greatness.' When activated, it boosted whatever the wearer's best attribute was by a factor of ten.

Tanya was salivating at the thought of how much mana she would have access to. The downside was that it would also devalue the wearer's worst attribute by that same factor.

'You might have the charisma of a god, but if you're stamina's lacking, even charisma won't help you,' was the tagline of the card. Tanya had grumbled about extremely powerful perverted beings upon reading that, and thought of the practical applications instead.

Sure, her physical capabilities wouldn't be wonderful, but she'd have so much mana, she didn't think that anything could kill her, besides Being X. Not having to pray to Being X every other week and losing her memory would be nice, as well. With that much power, the Type 95 wouldn't be necessary for much.

Of course, wearing something that looked like a crown might get her a few odd looks, but she was sure she'd be able to wear a hat over it, or something.

The next thing she could get was far more… indulgent than the first.

It was a skill called 'Shapeshifting.' The more she powered it up, the more she could change her body.

Early stuff would be hair and eye color, and bone structure and muscle density would follow. The final abilities included being able to make pieces of your body into weapons and armor. It seemed good, but Tanya liked being away from the danger, and this ability seemed to lend itself to stealth or physical fighting.

On the other hand, this could help her escape, if need be. She could become anyone and everyone.

And, of course, she could look and feel like her old self again. Which was a big plus.

The last option she had thought of was probably against the rules, but she included it nevertheless.

As Aqua had said that she could take anything that she saw before her, Tanya had thought to take the self-proclaimed goddess with her. Sure, she was more than a little annoying, but Tanya had thought that about everyone who wasn't a superior or trying to be the ideal soldier in the last life, for a time.

She'd even thought that about innocent Viktoriya, when they hadn't known each other well.

How bad could she be once they got to know each other?

Besides, regardless of her ability to connect with the goddess, the practical bonuses of having someone as powerful as her should outweigh the possible negatives.

As she deliberated, mind whirling between possibilities where each of the things she could take with her, she reached a decision.

Tanya stood, and walked over to Aqua. She nudged her, and she rose easily this time. Tanya didn't really want to slap her anymore. She didn't want to risk what she had.

Aqua looked around worriedly, probably concerned that that Eris person, likely some other powerful being, was there. Her dark blue eyes met Tanya's vivid blue ones. "Oh, it's just you," she said. She sat up straighter in her chair, and whined, "Do you have more stupid questions, little girl? I really-"

Tanya snarled out a response. "No, you-!" She calmed down, and bit out a response between clenched teeth. "I've made my decision."

She seemed relieved. "Finally. So what have you chosen?"

"I choose…"

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Well, here it is. After nearly a year of work, I've finished a chunk of this story and have finally worked up the courage to post it.

"This is all you have to show for a year of work?" might be your question, and to that I say:

I have over thirty six chapters backlogged, along with a handful of Omakes. We've got OCs, a vast timeline of every event to happen in Konosuba, and way too much time spent doing this.

Lol oh well. I hope you're enjoying this, please leave a comment – it will probably give me the power to write, like, twenty more chapters – and tell me what you want her to choose.

It won't impact the story – I decided over a year ago, remember? – but I want to know what you all think she'll pick.

Oh right. I'm releasing the first ten chapters at once, so I hope you enjoy the beginning.

**A/N 2:** You should all know that I'll be using the Light Novels of Konosuba as reference material. That means we'll be seeing a whole host of characters from the various Light Novels in this story. If you want to avoid 'spoilers' for the (practically imaginary) season three of Konosuba, don't read this.

**A/N 3:** This is going to be your one and only warning, as far as things like this go:

THIS IS GOING GET VERY DARK. MENTIONS AND SCENES OF PTSD AND RAPE WILL BE INCLUDED EVENTUALLY. IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THAT – WHICH IS COMPLETELY OKAY AND UNDERSTANDABLE – THEN YOU SHOULD NOT READ THIS.

**A/N 4:** And, for everyone that's wondering how the war went… well, it won't have many ramifications for the story. However, everything in the anime (mostly) is canon. As for what happens afterwards…

1925: Albion (UK) doesn't join after the Empire rejects it's calls for a 'status quo' deal, as it is attempting to hold its overseas empire together and doesn't have any ground units to fight them yet.

1925, August: Ildoa (Italy) is politically forced to allow Imperial Military access to the southern continent through their colony. Fighting is largely inconclusive and is much more drawn out. Sioux and the multinational volunteers are deployed here first, and Sioux directly communicates with Being X, who has realized that expecting people to take on Tanya without more… direct guidance isn't going to work well.

1927, March: Federation begins to mobilize. Things from the movie play out more or less the same, besides being moved ahead a year.

1927, June: Tanya is reassigned to her Kampfgruppe, and Rerugen is their liaison to the General Staff. They want someone to reign her in a bit, after Moskva. The Unified States and Albion begin lend lease programs with the Federation and smuggle supplies to resistance movements in Dacia, the Republic, and the Entente. Fighting becomes protracted.

1928, October: Early snowfall allows the Empire to advance into Russy Territory and establish friendly nations there. New troops from nations all used for a suppression of insurgents in other areas.

1928, December: Ottoman Empire declares an alliance with the Empire and begins to invade the Balkan countries that had no part in the war, as well as the Caucasus. Albion had guarantees on the countries there and uses it as an excuse to begin their war with the Empire. The Empire is forced to move troops from the East to the west in order to anticipate a landing.

1929, spring and summer: Empire is forced to fight the Balkan nations, and their front line in the east is pushed back. Caucasus are taken by the Ottomans, and the Federation is beginning to flag due to mismanagement. Tanya suggests that the Empire attempt to make nice with remainder nations not at war, Being X makes the General Staff misinterpret this as 'ask Japan for help'.

1929, autumn and winter: Japan, who had been thinking about preying on a weak China, instead attacks the Russy Federation. America begins to cut off oil supply, they're butt hurt, Tanya is panicking. She's had to fight Sioux a few times more, and she's become a real soldier. She opens up to Viktoriya about fears of Bloody Valkyrie, they go everywhere together unless ordered not to.

1930: Empire makes further gains into the Federation, who is pushed back farther, and RF releases mages in the gulags. They aren't all that healthy, however, and none of them are exactly loyal. Cracks are beginning to show, and people begin to abandon the Federation, turning traitor.

In the meantime, Japan almost attacks the US, but Tanya makes a personal trip around the world in order to tell them not to. It's another black spot on her record, but Tanya's knowledge of the future allows her to point to a large source of oil on their continental holdings that weren't discovered until further in the future, so they don't invade and use that instead.

1931, spring: Most major cities – besides Moskva – in the RF are taken, but mages are still fighting. Ildoa has declared war at the urging of the Cordiale and of the Pope, Empire is able to beat them halfway down the boot before Cordiale forces show up. Tanya is tasked with finally killing Sioux, who has gotten as good as her, even without the power of god. The Bloody Valkyrie is killed, but they win at a great cost.

1931, summer: Although there is still fighting in the Balkans and the channel, peace talks are (finally) beginning. Unified States finally declares war, and Empire tries for a Peace with Honor. Tanya's untimely death pushes those that were on the fence about ending the war over the edge. Things are not reset – no one liked the Federation – so the Empire is allowed to create a neutral country in its place. A chunk of land is taken out of the losers on the continent – French, Scandinavians, and Romanians – but no reparations happen because of Tanya's work.


	2. The Decision and its Ramifications

Tanya had almost said what she wanted to take with her when another thought struck her. She didn't really know how the Elenium Type 95 Computation Jewel worked – Being X had forced the malfunctioning piece of junk to work – much less how it might react to similarly cursed items.

She asked, "Why not just send me down with all of these items and powers? I'd be able to finish off this 'Demon King' in five minutes."

And that was _with_ quotation marks, thank you. She didn't know what this Demon King character was doing, and he could be like her. He could have been forcibly reincarnated and unable to fully control the surrounding around him.

She'd see if his ideas had merit and if he could protect her from Heaven. If he could, she'd break her contract, rule free wish or not.

Her first priority was safety, after all, and she hadn't had the luxury of choosing sides in her last life.

Aqua groaned, tired of the questions the little girl kept giving her. She was like, twelve, or something. Literally no one expected anything from her, so why was she asking these questions?

Face pointed toward the overhead light, she said, grudgingly, "Because, little girl, we don't have the power. Sending people into a new life with their memories, bodies and a whole new language is taxing on our stores of mana." Tanya's eyebrows rose. She'd be learning another language?

Before she could ask about that, the girl continued. "Sending them _with_ a relic of awesome power means we spend a whole lot more mana trying to do that, which means we are limited to how often we do it and how much we send."

Suddenly acutely aware of the Computation Jewel around her neck, she prepared to ask another question. The girl in front of her looked desperate, and she was more likely to let things slip that she shouldn't if she were trying to get her to move on.

Careful to keep the worry out of her voice, lest the blue-haired girl begin to suspect something, she asked, "Would that kill – err, destroy – the soul of the person? If you sent them with more than one relic?"

Aqua began to wail obnoxiously. "Noooo. It'd take all of our mana, and we'd be unable to do much afterwards, but we could."

Tanya nodded. She was ready, now, and this time, she'd defy Being X, and live for more than twenty years. "Fine then," she said, quickly stuffing the contract into her clothing. "I choose…"

She had thought over her options and goals. What was she going to do? Stay alive? Join the Demon King? Beat the Demon King?

She, of course, lacked knowledge about the world she was going into, but if it was like either of hers, then she'd be facing the wrath of nations armed with guns, tanks, and Aerial Mages. She couldn't survive them, not without either allies or power. With that in mind, she had gone through her options.

First, the ability to Shapeshift.

While she really, really, _really_ wanted to be her old self once more, she knew that that power wouldn't really be conducive to survival. Sure, she could avoid people or nations, for a while, but eventually, she'd be boxed in by the paper trail she left and caught.

Besides, Shapeshifting seemed like it would take too long to fully utilize, and she had her 'Optical Decoy' spells if she really needed to look different. She could change organs and become a living weapon, sure, but that would be after years of hard work and training. Years she might not have, considering the fact that wherever she was being transported to was at war.

Second, the girl in front of her, Aqua.

While she could try to take her, Tanya didn't know if she could, and she might get her ability to reincarnate once more revoked in the uproar she might cause. Plus, she wasn't going to be ruled by emotions or sentimentality and pick a self-purported _goddess _just because she _might _be like Viktoriya.

Which left…

Tanya held up the paper in her right hand. The Circlet of Greatness.

It was best. She really did need any and all options that could be afforded to her, and in any world like the two she had left, power would allow her to get on the fast track in any army she joined with. She could always use the power to escape, as well.

Aqua looked like she might cry tears of joy. She wouldn't have to listen to this annoying brat's questions any longer. Aqua ran over to the desk by her chair. She slapped the paper on top of it, and poured a tiny bit of mana into the paper. It disappeared immediately, and Aqua began to get a few provisions that she would need for her next life.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in heaven, a large red button appeared next to Being X.

He hadn't been stupid. He had known that people might try things like taking two relics of awesome power, or trying to take the Heavenly being on duty with them into the testing world of his relocation and reincarnation project.

So, he had developed a fail-safe. A large, red button with a sticky note that read "Press to Break Rules." If he didn't press it, then the rules didn't get broken.

He'd reincarnated The Atheist with their memories in a world that wasn't being plagued with a Demon King using this button, and he had also taken second helpings from the Heavenly Box of Eternal Winter.

Being X really did like ice cream.

Unfortunately, the moment the button materialized next to him, glowing red and blaring loudly that rules were about to be broken, Being X was trying to sleep.

He'd been having wonderful dreams about The Atheist finally admitting that he was God, and then conquering that world while spreading his holy word.

Being X didn't like having his dreams interrupted.

So, without looking to the side, he smashed the button, quite used to smashing the alarm clocks that he made for himself so he'd actually get out of bed and deal with the stresses of being God.

This was no alarm clock.

The button was depressed, and several things happened at once.

For starters, the red lights that lined the blank room that he had made for his rest began to blare. He shot out of bed, eyes widening and fighting the urge to let his swearing become screaming.

Those lights meant one thing. The Atheist was being tampered with.

He rushed quickly to his view of that world, searching frantically for a person that wasn't there.

Around Tanya, the black, inky void began to flash between red and the normal black.

A ring of symbols, resembling the ones that she was told the Type 95 often created, appeared at her feet, and Tanya began to float into the air. Content that, if Being X was going to show himself, he would have, Tanya began to monologue.

Among other things, it was cathartic to vent her frustrations to enemies that wouldn't be able to do anything about either their death or her retreat.

She glared down at the panicking Aqua below her, who seemed to be alarmed by the red flashing. "Well, Aqua, I would love to stick around, but I don't think I will. This is the _second _time I've been reincarnated, and I'll show Being X that there isn't anything that can get me to acknowledge him as god."

Laughing maniacally, Tanya reveled in the look of terror on Aqua's face. It was fun to pretend to be some stereotypical, cartoonish villain, but she meant what she said. Regardless of what happened, she'd never call Being X 'god.'

He'd had his chance.

With that last thought ruining her mind, she floated off towards the light that had opened up, content in knowing that she'd not have to interact with Being X for a good, long time. Heaven had used up its mana, and she'd be free, for that time.

-OxOxO-

Aqua gulped. The girl – no, Tanya was her name – disappeared.

Aqua began to sniff sadly. Really, how should she have known that that girl was The Atheist? The one that the higher ups talked about in hushed whispers and that everyone kind of feared.

She was one of the only people, _period_, who had decided that when faced with the power of God, she'd still doubt him. After sixteen years, she hadn't broken, even under the onslaught of an entire world.

Aqua had just violated one of the only rules surrounding the girl. _Don't interact with her_.

And she hadn't just _interacted_ with her. Oh no, she'd used Heaven's power to _reincarnate _her, and she had two relics.

Yeah, Aqua was definitely dead.

As the red light faded, the area around her changed subtly.

The void didn't grow any less black, and the overhead light didn't become less white, and the chairs didn't stop existing, but it changed all the same.

The chairs became tarnished, less polished. The light began to flicker. Not often, but noticeably for a place that was supposed to be the definition of perfection. The all-encompassing void around her didn't seem to be so all-encompassing.

That would be the mana depletion.

Heaven, of course, wouldn't stop existing. Nothing could do that, but things could deteriorate substantially without enough mana.

As a red telephone materialized on her desk and began to ring, Aqua gulped. _He _wasn't going to like this.

She gently picked up the phone, hopeful that by doing so, the voice at the other end of the line might be less angry.

Her hopes were quickly quashed.

"AQUAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

She recoiled from the phone, and, after fumbling with the thing when it had flown from her hand in shock, she dutifully held it up to her ear. "Y- Yes, Boss?" she asked, hopeful that maybe she wouldn't be demoted past her current position.

She didn't think was supposed to be possible – she was only able to take in souls from a single country on a single version of the planet called Earth – but she wasn't sure He might bend the rules to punish her for _this_ transgression.

"What did you just _do_?"

Whimpering, Aqua began to explain. How the girl had slapped her, and how she hadn't even known who the girl was because she didn't have her book. She was even able to convince herself that it wasn't entirely her fault, when the facts were all laid bare.

Aqua concluded her attempt at mitigating her involvement in the affair by saying, "And really, whose fault is it that I didn't have access to her file? You really should have been more considerate."

That had, apparently, been the _wrong_ thing to say. The only sound that echoed through the telephone was heavy breathing. After a moment, His voice echoed through the receiver.

"You listen _very_ carefully, water goddess. I would very much like to demote you to a position that obligates everyone else to ridicule you. Fortunately for you, you have subordinates who appreciate your way of running things. Be nicer to Eris, would you?"

Aqua felt a vein bulge at that, but he continued on anyway. "Regardless of your subordinates… mark my words, I _will_ find some way for you to regret this decision."

The line went dead, and Aqua set the phone down, pouting. Really, it wasn't entirely her fault. Right?

Aqua huffed. Like that overblown, self-important windbag had said: he couldn't demote her, so she didn't have anything to worry about.

On the other end of the phone, Being X was trying not to panic. Heaven would survive sending The Atheist there, as it had survived her first reincarnation and the reincarnation of hundreds of others.

It might not survive her getting that _wish_.

Alright, he couldn't do much about it now. He would fix the contracts, of course, and label the button better. Maybe put an unbreakable glass box around it.

He then remembered something he _could _do. Smirking, he brought up the book that told of the laws surrounding the reincarnation project.

While that self-important, insignificant, minor goddess might be annoying, Being X didn't think he would demote her to a position where everyone would be obligated to humiliate her.

Deities had more important things to do than interact with her, like picking their noses, watching paint dry, or making a working supercomputer using nothing but abacuses.

No, he'd remove a few _restrictions_. He wouldn't do anything directly, no, but if someone decided they wanted to take her…

Well, he wouldn't stop them. One less thorn in his side, as far as he was concerned.

-OxOxO-

Tanya breathed a sigh of fresh air. Finally, she was free from Being X, for a while at least.

She didn't know how long it would take for their realm to regenerate its mana, but he'd be able to send someone after her, eventually. For now, however-

A loud noise interrupted her thoughts. It sounded like the crack of a whip…

She turned to her left, and saw something she hadn't seen in a long while.

A horse-drawn carriage, with a driver. That driver had cracked some sort of whip, which, she guessed, would motivate the animal.

It was simple. There was a brown horse, and it was pulling a carriage, covered in those typical manila… coverings, just like in old western movies. It had wooden wheels, and barrels hung from each side. By all accounts, it seemed like something representative of the human spirit of adventure.

There was only one problem.

In both of her times, horses were used sparingly, by either the very rich, police forces, and, in her second life, by a certain backwards country that had taken a few weeks to defeat.

If people were still using horse-drawn carriages in everyday life… then…

She glanced around wildly. People, clothed in simple garb and carrying boxes of food, went about their day. Children chased each other around, waving sticks as if fighting with _swords_. A group of people, much farther away, were dressed bizarrely. The streets were paved with cobblestone instead of asphalt. The streets didn't even look regulated, twisting slightly as it went.

Oh.

She had assumed that, like her first two lives, this one would have people fighting with guns, machinery, flight, and have positions of power that weren't based on how close you were to a king and how far back you could trace your lineage.

Tanya whimpered.

She wasn't fighting in a post-industrial place at all. It was all rural. Preindustrialization.

This changed everything.

-OxOxO-

Blazing eyes opened.

Compared to the rest of his aging, decrepit body, they had a vigor to them that made him look ten years younger.

The old man didn't do much, these days. He sat around in his castle, waiting, planning, or conversing with the people here and outside the barrier. His generals were all lazing around, as usual.

No matter what he did, they couldn't work together for long. They squabbled among each other, vying for his place even though he wasn't yet dead. They were expecting it, sooner or later, and he couldn't really stop them from doing so.

Only his prowess had saved him from the few assassination attempts carried out by the more cunning among the Generals that wanted his position – Hans and Sylvia. They were never implicated, of course.

They were smarter than that.

The more loyal of them – Vanir, Verdia, Ragcraft, and, of course, his daughter – had also been instrumental in maintaining his power. Whether familial or personal loyalty, the latter three could be trusted.

Wolbach and Celestina, too. A formerly imprisoned evil god had been an unexpected boon, but Wolbach had aligned with him immediately when she'd discovered the fate of her followers. Celestina was also aligned with him, if only while she searched for her god.

Oh, and the retired one. He was technically useful, but he was just as lazy as they were, choosing to 'retire' so he could laze around and mooch off of him without having to fight anything, owing to the barrier that protected the castle he drew his power from.

It was cute, how they fought and bickered and lazed about like children.

It was also annoying.

If they would just work together, instead of trying to fight to succeed him or undermine their power to kill him, they would have been much more successful against the Kingdom of Belzerg.

Of course, he groused, if that Lich or the General she had replaced fought by their side instead of just draining their money, this conflict would have ended years ago.

But something had… changed.

A quick spell left his weapon, appearing to fizzle out in the air, and he grinned malevolently. The howling of the prophet finally his ears, but he didn't need her to tell what was going on.

Heaven was acting against him. They had sent yet another 'Hero Candidate,' and this time, they'd given them more than one of their relics. Doing so, of course, risked them not being able to track his movements, but it also heightened the chance that they would survive against his forces.

More importantly, however, was the fact that Heaven would be out of commission for a while. Sending down a Hero Candidate with so much taxed their reserves, which would make them…

Inattentive.

Instead of having to constantly ensure that Heaven wasn't acting against his forces directly, he could act while they were unavailable.

Licking his lips in anticipation, plans were taken down from the dusty shelves of his mind, long forgotten due to his part-protection, part-sealing in his own castle. Verdia could spend a few months away from the front lines, and Elroad's minister would need to have an 'accident' at the hands of Belzerg, in some way. Yes, things were…

He then paused.

He snarled, remembering what had caused Heaven's inability to stop him.

Sitting on his throne, the Demon King planned. First, he would need to find out who their new hero was.

Whoever they had sent… they would be formidable. Intimidating. Dangerous.

And above all else, they would be a devout believer in the sanctity of Heaven. They would need to be stopped.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Here we go! The next chapter is up. We don't know much about the Demon King or why they're even fighting, beyond the Axis Cult and Crimson Demons being annoying shitheads – the light novel is beginning to explore that in Volume 16 – and I hope you like this version.

If you're upset about the variable capitalization of 'god,' 'goddess,' and 'heaven,' I'm sorry, but it _is_ important, so shush.

It really is too bad that Tanya's assumptions make things so incredibly complicated for her. It really is too bad she doesn't find out everything before leaping forward.

That was a hint, by the way.

Anyway, leave a comment – 'What do you want to see from this story?' is a pretty good question, right? – and continue onwards!


	3. New Beginnings

Indeed, everything was different.

If she had known she'd be dropped in the middle of a preindustrial civilization, she would have taken either of the other two options.

Aqua was likely to know more about this world than Tanya, since she'd never been to a place like this, and the Shapeshifting ability would have been much better here, where bureaucracy was more limited and she could claim to be whoever she wanted.

Speaking of her options…

She felt the top of her head, and found the so-called 'Circlet of Greatness.'

She held it up to the light of the sun, studying it.

It didn't form a complete circle, like a hat or crown might, but it instead tapered off to two points near the back of it. It was richly decorated, with the metal woven forming sculptures of wings, clouds, and other things commonly associated with heaven.

Tanya scoffed at it. Some the metalwork resembled spirals and geometric shapes, and those portions were fine. But the rest of it looked quite… tacky. Especially considering the metal it was made of.

Tanya couldn't tell what sort of metal it was. It seemed to shine more than even a highly polished piece of metalwork in the sun should. She didn't know what it was, but she was fairly certain it definitely wasn't normal.

Well, she knew it wasn't Mithril. She…

She shook her head violently. She couldn't dwell on the past. She had too much to do.

Sighing, she attached it to her belt. It wouldn't be wise to wear something like that here. She might be mistaken for royalty, and while she'd learned some basics of royal etiquette the two times she'd personally met the Kaiser, this world could have entirely different rules.

And it likely did.

Well, first thing was first. She needed to ensure her mana still functioned like normal. If she couldn't access it, for some reason, she would be completely doomed. About to activate a simple spell, she cast a suspicious gaze around.

She was garnering a few odd looks from the people passing her by, but nothing more.

Wait, there were pedestrians here?

She confirmed it. Yes, these people seemed to be milling about.

That meant that this place might not be as rural as she thought. Laborers would likely be working in the fields right now, considering how labor-intensive agriculture was without the help of advanced tools.

She was in some sort of city, then. Nodding to herself, she began to stroll about, quietly analyzing the buildings and people around her.

None of them seemed particularly scared or worried, which bode well for her. The Demon King and danger were likely far away, enough that the people here felt a small minority of his effects.

She kept walking, soon coming to an area that seemed to be less on the periphery. The small areas of grass she had seen earlier had now disappeared, giving way to an area of the city that was densely packed and filled with people.

Tanya searched the buildings for some sort of alleyway or area where she wouldn't be interrupted or seen. Magic hadn't existed in her first world, and it had been seen as more of a branch of science in her second. She didn't know how it might be seen here.

For all she knew, it was a taboo subject that no one wanted to acknowledge.

She ducked into the alley, dogging past the scraps of trash. Her nose didn't even twitch at the smell; she had encountered far worse on the front lines.

Within a second, she began to work through the math required for a Reinforcement spell, flexing her limbs to get a feel for its power.

She studied her movements, and noted the drain on her mana. It was…

Larger.

Doing something like this was supposed to be trivial. She'd used something similar in her classes in order to be at the top of the class even before they'd been issued Computation Jewels. This shouldn't have done too much to her mana! But now…

The loss was noticeable.

Tanya scowled. The well, magic was harder here, then. That limited her options, unless she wanted to call on the Type 95's help.

She wouldn't be able to zip around the battlefield like she used to, and the best of her arsenal would be limited to a few uses a day, if she didn't pray to Being X.

The light filtering in from the streets was suddenly cut off, and Tanya scowled. She was trying to think, and having someone interrupt her thoughts was decidedly… annoying.

She quickly dispelled the Reinforcement spell and turned around, only to tilt her head in confusion. Someone was blocking the street, staring at her. He wasn't saying anything, either.

He wore shabby clothing, even by this time's apparent standards. They were a patchwork of other, once better clothes, and seemed to hang about his body. He was hunched over, and though Tanya couldn't make out his face, she thought she saw a flash of black-gray hair.

The one good thing about the man, appearance wise, anyway, was the scabbard at his side. While not ornamental or anything, it seemed well cared for.

"Can you move it, buddy? It's kinda dark in here," she said in a relaxed tone, waiting for his reaction. He just grinned, and drew a long knife from the scabbard at his side.

"Are you lost little girl?" he asked, advancing towards her. Tanya didn't move an inch.

Right… she still looked like a little girl, and now she wasn't well known throughout the land thanks to propaganda and being flung from front to front. In the Empire, people hadn't questioned her on who she was, after a few years. They accepted that she was an elite soldier after a simple introduction.

He was seemingly disconcerted by her lack of reaction. Eyes narrowed, he stepped towards her again. "Now, now, little noble girl. Don't cry or anything. Just come with me, and I'll bring you back to your parents."

Tanya snorted. Really, this thing thought he could take her?

She might not have been dressed in any sort of battle gear – she'd need to fix that once she found out where she could get clothing – but she could definitely take care of this loser.

The creep seemed even more confused, but he continued to advance, nonetheless.

"Listen here. I have better things to do than to beat you down, so if you leave now, I'll pretend to never have seen you," she supplied. She doubted the man would comply, and she really honestly want him too.

She wanted to test a few spells, and this schmuck – someone willing to kidnap children – would be a perfect test dummy. He didn't look important, and no one would look for him.

He peered at her, for a moment, until he began to crack up. Loud peals of laughter issued from underneath the man's shabby hood as he doubled over. She didn't take her eyes off his sword. She wouldn't risk this being a feint.

He straightened up, looking towards her once more. "Awfully brave, even for a noble, since you don't have any weapons. Now come along," he said, motioning his sword towards her.

She just smirked and pointed at him while pouring mana into a spell, deciding that she would kill him.

He seemed to violently flinch as she began to grin at the feeling of mana coursing through her, but before he could do anything more, she began to work through an Explosive Vaporization spell to send towards the dumbfounded man.

She didn't want to destroy the buildings around her, after all, and that spell would be a perfect test.

As the mana continued to build up, she became worried when the spell didn't shoot out of her index finger after a long ten seconds. He was glancing at her with a confused look on his face, but she was saved from any further panic as the spell completed itself, albeit while draining more mana than usual.

The man was now rushing away from her, fear apparent on his now visible face. Tanya gulped, and hoped that the extra start time for the spell wouldn't translate to a spell that could damage the buildings around her. She pulled the mental trigger and watched as the ball of light left her finger and propelled her backwards.

It sailed towards the man.

In an instant, his torso and head were consumed in a ball of fire. His forearms fell to the ground, the sword that had been clutched in his hands clattering as the scabbard was set flying away.

Tanya attempted to rise for her position, panting slightly.

She grimaced as she walked towards the sword and picked it up. It seemed that she still needed Reinforcement spells, and it also seemed that spells cost more mana here.

Tanya swung her new sword as she walked towards the entrance to the alley and picked up the scabbard.

Now, she had a weapon. It might not have been much, but it would work in a pinch. Hopefully, she'd get a gun, but if she couldn't…

She shook her head. If she could reinforce her body beforehand, she could pack enough punch with just the sword to defend herself, if nothing else.

She continued to look around the alley, and found the singed cloak of the man. She searched it, glaring at the garment.

It was dirty, of course, but she soon found enough to justify touching the thing. A small pouch of money and a smaller dagger were quickly added to Tanya's belt.

Now sure that she had taken everything, she headed back into the street.

Instead of vaporizing the man and the rest of the five feet of alleyway left between him and her, it only destroyed his head and chest it a ball of fire. The rest of him quickly fallen to the ground.

That was hilariously underpowered for the mana she had poured into it. It seemed her thoughts about her powers being weakened were correct. Though, that problem would be solved if she used the Type 95…

She shook her head. She wouldn't fall for that temptation. It wasn't worth it.

_GROWL!_

Tanya blinked and looked down at her body. Her grumbling stomach reminded her of what she needed to do.

Find somewhere to eat.

-OxOxO-

After concealing her weapons, Tanya had utilized her cuteness and still-high-pitched voice to ask pedestrians where the center of the city was. They'd been strangely accommodating, spouting off about "the town of beginning adventurers," whatever those were.

Others had been quite… apprehensive of talking to a twelve-year-old, which was a bit odd. She had eventually gotten directions, despite everyone's varying reactions to her.

She'd woven between the streets, marveling at what she saw. It was relatively peaceful, and people didn't seem all that concerned. Maybe this place was more advanced than she had thought?

There were public areas of recreation, after all. She'd seen what looked like a park, and a lot of the buildings had trees and grass in front, like the typical American home.

Maybe they just _looked_ like peasants?

It hadn't taken long for her to reach where she'd been directed to. She needed to find somewhere to eat, sleep, and get information. She didn't really have that long to look, either.

The sun was beginning to set.

So, she followed another group of people who had weapons. She saw a few swords, some sort of quarterstaff, and a bow. Hopefully, if they were going to rest here, she could too. They headed towards an inviting building, and she followed them, noting how it looked. She might want to come back.

It was, from what she could tell, a fairly large building. The outside was some sort of brick, while a number of windows dotted the outside of it. There was some sort of sigil on the front of it. Maybe it was for the person that owned it?

A red-tiled roof topped the building off. The group pressed inside, but Tanya didn't when the sound of breaking glass echoed from inside. Now cautious, she cast one last look towards the merchant stalls in front of the building before walking in and pushing past the doors.

Tanya peered inside, mouth agape as she stared at the interior. It wasn't what she'd expected.

Instead of some dimly lit room, with tables and people strewn about in whatever way they desired and a low hanging ceiling, it was fairly open and well furnished.

The stone floors, instead of mismatched cobblestone or uneven floorboards, was made of some sort of polished stone, arranged in a clear pattern. The ceiling was far above her head, a large statue stood in front of her, and potted plants decorated the entrance to her right and left.

Instead of candles, some sort of lantern dotted a pathway, illuminating the interior. In neatly arranged tables, groups of people, in various states of dress ate, talked, or laughed.

The food…

It looked delicious, and it looked modern.

There had not been much recognizable fare in Germany. None of it was like anything from her homeland, and even the overseas products that were available in Japan, like hamburgers, were nowhere to be found in that world.

Here, however, she could see salads and fish that were so very different from the meaty diet most soldiers got that was only occasionally bolstered by soup, bread, and, during a particularly memorable month, sawdust.

She smiled in remembrance. Viktoriya had stomached the worst of the sawdust-bread and 'meat' that was just animal hide so that Tanya would get more nutritious food, in the hopes that she might grow a bit.

She shook her head and continued to look around. She could see what looked like an actual hamburger clenched in the hands of a large man who was devouring it with gusto.

Like many people in the room, the man was wearing a bizarre arrangement of clothing. Other wore varying pieces of armor or no metal plates at all and simple cloth.

For the most part, Tanya could say one thing about all of the attire: nearly all of it looked like it was straight out of a video game.

Really, who wore metal armor on their arms, leather pants, and bared their chest? That didn't seem particularly protective. That said nothing about the extremely impractical armor she saw one of the females wearing.

Tanya didn't think it there was any reason to wear nothing but a few measly strips of cloth besides a desire to show off.

Above all of them, in the rafters of the building, was a skeleton of some sort of creature. Who would put something expensive like that in an area where drunk people could damage it?

"Welcome! If you're here to…" trailed off a light, airy voice coming from in front of her. Tanya looked down from the ceiling.

Someone wearing a typical maid uniform, excepting the muted green colors that highlighted the white apron she wore, had greeted her. Tanya looked up, passed the person's clothes, to look at her face.

"Er… are you looking for your parents, little one?" she asked, looking around.

Tanya's wonderment quickly passed. This world wasn't like the other two, and it had exceeded her expectations of what an actual preindustrialized world would be. So what?

"I am here to eat, ma'am," she declared while glaring at the girl. Subtly, Tanya shifted her weight as she rested a hand on her newly-obtained sword.

Tanya had forgotten how it felt to have people constantly question you because of your age. People had gotten out of the habit of it during the First World War, either because they knew of her and her record, or because they knew her personally.

No one that had known her personally dared to describe her as a child.

The pseudo-maid merely tilted her head. "But you're no older than twelve," she stated.

_Twitch._

Tanya sighed, body drooping. If they couldn't tell that she was _sixteen_, then at least they didn't think that malnourishment was the norm. Of course, it was also good that they didn't think she was even younger.

Someone had thought that she was ten once. It had been humiliating.

Just then, their fledgling conversation was ended by a rude interruption. Both the maid and Tanya looked down.

Tanya's stomach protested not being allowed to eat when they could see so much of it. Tanya turned red in embarrassment, and held up the bag of money she had been given by Aqua.

The maid directed her to one of the tables, and Tanya trudged towards it silently.

She handed Tanya a menu, and she felt an eye twitch at the options.

Lizard and toad seemed to be common, while more regular items, like beef and fish, were all priced fairly low.

She shook her head at the oddity. This world had menus and restaurants, but it didn't know what good food was. Who ate _toad_, besides the François?

After a while, the maid came back, and Tanya placed her order while hoping her stomach would stay silent.

It did, and the food soon arrived, leaving Tanya to mope over her situation with the comfort of food.

She had decided to dive into her homeland's cuisine – her _original_ homeland – first. They had looked at her weird for the specific way she wanted the fish and rice prepared, but she couldn't care less.

It was truly wonderful to finally eat something that didn't taste like it had made with sawdust or shoe leather, and while coffee and sweets were nice, she had been deprived of her favorite food for far too long.

"So. What job do you have?" came a voice from her right.

Annoyed at being interrupted, Tanya turned, glaring at the person and raising an eyebrow. She knew the effect of her stare was likely decreased by the fact that her mouth was stuffed full, but she didn't particularly care.

A twenty-something man stood there, grinning down at her. His hair was blond.

Not like her own hair, which was a muted yellow even in the deserts of the Southern Continent, but so pale it could pass for white on a sunny day. A deep red jacket, complete with zipper for the neckline, hid most of his body, while bandages covered his forearms. Some sort of choker wrapped around his neck, and red eyes peered down a short nose at her.

She grinned idly. If this world had zippers and jackets, then maybe it had guns?

It wasn't likely, of course. She'd seen a number of people who were carrying around swords, spears, and other truly archaic weaponry, which meant that she might have to find some gnarled stick to use as a scepter until she could find a way to make a proper gun.

As Tanya thought about her situation, the silence stretched on. The man seemed perfectly willing to wait. Until, after ten seconds, Tanya finished her mouthful of food, set down her utensils, and raised an eyebrow at the man again.

He merely grinned at her. "See, my party's taken a bet. Taylor and I think that you're some sort of warrior, Keith thinks you have a rogue-like job, while Lynn, bless her generous heart, thinks you aren't an adventurer," he explained, motioning towards each of them in turn.

Taylor was the tallest of the bunch. Her had short brown hair and some sort of headband, a piece of armor over his left shoulder, and a necktie, of all things, while a sword longer than her own stolen goods was strapped to his back.

Keith wore an outfit similar to Dust, with longer dark hair and a blue jacket with white fur as lining. He had a bow and, presumably, a quiver strapped to his side.

The last member of their 'party' wore a green jacket, a cape, and wore her long hair in a ponytail. Tanya didn't see any weapons on her.

As she studied each of the people he had pointed out, Tanya's eyebrows were furrowed. Rogue-like? Warrior? _Adventurer_?

Tanya let the silence continue to go on as her face continued to scrunch up, trying to think of an excuse or a reason that such… _video game-like_ words were being used to describe jobs. Was the language she'd been given faulty?

She'd seen something on the menu proclaim the fish had been freshly grown earlier that month, so it was a definite possibility.

Seeing her face grow concerned, he waved his hands in front of him in a calming gesture. "Oh, we won't rat out on you. We don't care if you aren't an adventurer and have that sword anyway, I just want my money," he said, a bit of panic overcoming his face. "I have a few debts with them, and I'll be free if you're some sort of warrior."

Tanya, meanwhile, had a conclusion. Maybe the language was approximating words that she knew that meant the same thing. That would work, she guessed.

She turned her attention to the panicking man and the people behind him. He seemed to be trying his best to calm her down and they seemed awfully mad at him.

Oh. They must have thought he was going to make her cry or something. Judging by the motions he was making, he thought so too.

Well, she wouldn't let them down. She let tears – of frustration at yet another situation she didn't understand, of anger that she had been separated from her past life _again_, and of sadness that her friends were most likely dead – well up in her eyes.

She knew exactly how she'd get information, and she'd have a nice, long, stress-relieving cry as well.

Tanya laughed. Internally. Outwardly, she began to bawl like the baby she hadn't really been only sixteen years prior.

-OxOxO-

She wasn't about to let these people, as nice as they were, onto the fact that their friend Dust hadn't actually done much.

She'd spun a sob story about her family being killed – true enough, if one considered her second life – and that all she had was what was on her. The other three had treated her nicely, given her some of their food, and generally cooed over her for a while as they shot harsh looks at their friend.

Sometimes, it was nice being malnourished and resembling a girl four years younger than you were with a voice to match.

Not often. But sometimes.

Now, they were waiting. She had stopped acting like a petulant twelve-year-old, to squeak out a few questions about the place she was in.

Tanya had gotten good at lying to both friends and higher-ups about how she had knowledge that she really shouldn't have, or how she knew that the Alliance Cordiale's forces were going to try any specific thing. Trying to justify her ability to speak Akitsushiman to Viktoriya had been the hardest, if only because the looks of suspicion had been so unfamiliar and…

Shame-inducing.

These three were considerably easier, and they bought her act hook, line, and sinker, as expected.

"What was this… this town? She had only been travelling with her father in order to sell some of his stuff."

They were in Axel. It was the beginning town of adventurers, a major crossroad for travelers, and one of the Kingdom of Belzerg's greatest assets. It was isolated from the forces of the Demon King, due to the distance from his castle, as well as its distance from the border.

The Demon King was having enough trouble with the Kingdom of Belzerg and the tentative help of the countries surrounding it. He didn't want to antagonize anyone else, and attacking a town so close to the border wouldn't do him wonders.

"What… what was the money called? She wasn't from around here, and didn't know how to use this weird currency."

The money was called Eris. They were named after a goddess whose followers had a strong presence throughout Belzerg.

Judging from the meal Tanya had gotten, they were probably similar to Yen, although that wasn't all that likely due to the inflation and wildly different economies that the two nations had. She'd figure out more as time went on, she supposed.

Tanya had merely hidden her anger at the mention of the 'g' word, letting her left eye twitch for only a moment and hoping her hair wasn't doing that thing Viktoriya said it did when she was thinking too hard or annoyed.

"How would she survive? She didn't have any family, as her siblings had all perished."

They couldn't support her, but she could earn money by either becoming some sort of servant or by becoming an adventurer. Tanya had thought, for a moment, about becoming a maid and avoiding Demon King entirely.

Then the contract, still pressed into the folds of her clothing with the relics heaven had given her, burned hotly. She winced, and the adventurers had expressed concern.

Tanya just waved them off, explaining it as "Tummy trouble."

They'd all melted at that, and they had directed her to the Guild's admission desk.

Tanya had thanked them in the high-pitched tone she had been using, and walked away briskly towards the desk she'd been pointed at.

It seemed that the contract would take steps to ensure she would try to oppose the Demon King.

Fine then. Hypothetically, if someone in her situation were to become a maid, then they would be guaranteed freedom and wouldn't have to risk their lives. Tanya paused her steps, hoping that searing pain wouldn't strike her again.

It didn't.

Emboldened, she continued her 'hypothetical' thoughts. On the other hand, said person wouldn't be able to get that wish.

Tanya sighed. She supposed she would look at what an adventurer could do, and then compare it to the army.

Tanya turned a corner, and stopped the carefree skip that she had adopted as she had walked away from the group.

Now that they couldn't see her, she sighed. Sure, they might not have thought anything was weird with her questions. This was, apparently, some sort of crossroads for travelers, meaning that it wouldn't have been out of place for someone to wander in not knowing anything about the place.

One could never be too sure, however.

Quickly, she strode up to the front desk, studying the receptionist as she approached. Blonde hair, a kindly face, clothing as… _open _as every other maid that she had seen here, she seemed to be perfect for this job, as far as looks went.

If nothing else, enticing young people into taking up whatever job they were offering here would be fairly simple, if they only thought with the organ between their legs.

"Hello. What can I do for you today?"

Tanya rested an elbow on the countertop, privately wishing that she were taller so that that action wasn't so uncomfortable.

Fighting the urge to glue her face to the woman's chest – sixteen years of orphanage-brand rags and military uniforms to hide whatever bodies women had underneath their clothing could do that to someone when they finally encountered someone showing a bit of skin – Tanya began to speak.

"Yes. I've come to learn about being an adventurer."

The blonde woman smiled, and pointed at the signs that sat to the side of the receptionist area. Tanya walked around, circling the signs, and began to read the chalk boards.

WHAT IS AN ADVENTURER?

HELLO READER! IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT PURSUING A CAREER IN ADVENTURING.

POSITIVES OF DOING THIS:

YOU CAN HELP THE KINGDOM OF BELZERG AGAINST THE CONTINUAL ONSLAUGHT OF THE DEMON KING'S FORCES

YOU GET PAID MONEY TO FIGHT THE VARIOUS MONSTERS THAT CAN ATTACK THE CITY OF AXEL

IF THERE ARE NO MONSTERS, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE ON JOBS NOT USUALLY AVAILABLE TO COMMONERS

And on it went. It described many, many positives of the job, and not one negative.

Tanya just shook her head with a rueful smile. If it didn't list any negatives, then there must have been some sort of drawback – there was with nearly everything. Would she be pressed into fighting? Was the pay lackluster?

Tanya shrugged. If this job wasn't willing to reveal what might be so bad about it, she'd just join the army. She knew how those worked, after all.

Tanya, once again, strode up to the counter. "Ma'am."

The woman looked down from where she had been… filing paperwork.

"Yes. Are you ready to register?" she asked kindly. Tanya shook her head. This world seemed to be an odd mix of advanced and backward, if it had paperwork and, presumably, the printing press, but it didn't have advanced weapons.

"Actually, I was wondering how old you need to be to join the army."

The woman went stiff, clasping her hands together quickly. "Oh, you wouldn't want to do that," she said.

Tanya scowled. "Actually, I do. The army probably allows for much faster advancement, and-"

The girl cut her off. "No, it doesn't. The people who join, who aren't connected, are thrown into the conscript force, shown how to hold a spear, and then told to pray. No training, no nothing. I would suggest that you become an adventurer, little girl," she warned, her face losing some of the carefree cheer it had contained.

Tanya blanched. She'd been part of the Empire's relative meritocracy, which allowed for someone to advance through the ranks quickly, regardless of skill, apparent age, or lack of connections. She'd forgotten how much the wider world didn't really like having young girls with no background in their army.

Well, there went becoming a high ranking commander and dealing the fatal blow to the Demon King. She wouldn't even be able to command troops and train them her way. She'd be locked into the lower ranks, constantly passed up for nobles of lesser skill.

"And besides," the woman added, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "the minimum age for recruitment is eighteen. The Princess would have joined it if it was the age of majority, and the King didn't want that."

Tanya filed away that tidbit. It seemed that this world wouldn't be as inherently opposed to her for her outward appearance as a woman as the last one would have been, had she not been born in the Empire's meritocracy.

"Fine, fine. I'll become an adventurer," she relented, throwing a bag of Eris onto the counter. The woman smiled, took the money, and ducked underneath the counter. A few moments of grunting and heaving later, she stood up again, carrying some object.

She soon came out from behind the counter, placed the object down, and held up what looked like a blank index card.

The device looked… odd. There were golden gears and other mechanisms on parts of it, while some sort of sphere, similar in its glowing brightness to her Type 95, sat at the top. Something that resembled a nozzle dipped down between the two legs of the thing.

"Let me formally explain," she said.

The woman held up the card and began to do just that. "Adventurers each have their own occupations, which is kept track of on your Adventurer's Card. It keeps track of how many monsters you've vanquished as well, among numerous other things," she said, gesturing to the blank card.

Tanya, however, was panicking slightly. Did people count as monsters?

Because, if so, she'd have to explain how she'd managed to kill upwards of two hundred mages and an unknown amount of foot soldiers, pilots, and seamen, and she didn't really think they'd accept any explanation she could give them.

The woman carried on, unaware of Tanya's serious thoughts. "Whenever you eat food or kill something with a soul, you absorb a portion of its memories, which increases your experience," she said.

"When you have enough experience, your level will increase, unlocking new skills and earning you Skill Points. So please, work hard to increase your level," she finished, bowing at the waist. Tanya nodded back, hoping that her card wouldn't be able to tell what she had already done and wondering about how much this world sounded like some sort of cheap, mobile MMORPG.

Levels? Skills? Points? Experience? None of that sounded like it should apply to real life!

But here she was, in a world where that was reality. Tanya sighed. She'd make the best of her situation, like she always had. She turned her attention to the device the woman had gestured to, on top of the counter.

The woman gestured to the device. "Please hold your hand above this crystal."

Slightly dubious and letting her skepticism show through on her face, Tanya held her hand out as indicated, and watched as the mechanisms on the side began to turn and the crystal began to glow brightly. She raised an eyebrow as it drew in a bit of her mana. That must be how it was able to describe what she was.

A piercing whine erupted from the thing, and a laser erupted from the nozzle, moving quickly across the surface of the Adventurer's Card.

Tanya leaned in, both anticipating and dreading what it might say. Hopefully, it wouldn't record the people she had killed. If it did, and someone asked questions, then she'd just fly away before she was asked any uncomfortable questions.

It wouldn't be her fault that she couldn't fight the Demon King, and the stupid contract would know it.

It stopped after a few seconds, and as the light died down, the woman picked up the card.

"Let's see… Tanya von Degurechaff?" she asked. Tanya nodded.

"Yes, that's me," she said, motioning for the card.

The woman muttered, "What an odd middle name," and continued to hold it, studying it. She gasped in surprise, and Tanya's face fell.

She had been found out. She would have to fly as far as she could, and hope that she outran the authorities. How would she fly without the Type 95, anyway? She needed to fix that-

"Interesting! You have a mix of different stats. Your Strength is Decently Low, and your Health is Below Average, but otherwise, almost all of your stats are-"

Then the woman stopped. When she continued to stare at the card, a look of disbelief plastered on her face, Tanya saw her chance and asked another question and hopefully distract her with whatever was wrong. "What did you mean when you said 'Below Average'?"

She looked up from the card, tilting her head at Tanya in bewilderment. "Huh?"

Tanya sighed. "Average compared to what? All living things? All Humans? All sixteen-year-old girls?" she asked, staring pointedly at the card.

If her Strength was 'Decently Low' was compared to all humans, then it would make sense. She wasn't that strong without reinforcing her body.

But if her Strength was 'Decently Low' compared to all living things, including stuff like grass, then she'd be humiliated. Because being weaker than grass was probably impossible, unless the grass here was a type of… monster, or something.

The receptionist opened her mouth, for a moment, as if to respond, then shut it with a snap. She chuckled nervously, and began to explain. "Well, we think it's compared to everyone else that has an Adventurer's Card, but truthfully, that's only our best guess."

Tanya sighed again. Advanced in some way, backwards in others.

They could easily test that by looking at all of the Adventurer's Cards and calculating the averages, since it seemed adventurers needed to communicate with this 'Guild' in order to survive.

The woman – whose name she should really find out – shook her head, and continued to stare at her card. "Now, as I was saying, most of your stats hover between Below Average and Above Average, and…" she trailed off again.

Tanya merely made a grabbing motion with her hand, hoping that she wasn't reading something that told her she was from another world or that she had killed a few hundred people. For rather obvious reasons, that would be detrimental to her continued well-being.

"Besides your Strength being Decently Low, your Magic-Power is Extraordinary! And you already have a bunch of skills!" she shouted. Tanya gave her a weak smile, and continued to grab at it.

Please don't see the people I've killed. Please don't see that she was from a different world. _Please_, _Please_, _Please_.

The woman didn't hear Tanya's inaudible pleas, and started to lay out what she could be. "Of course, you won't be able to become any sort of Fighter-type jobs, but you could pick up a few of the advanced classes right away! And you even have some Skill Points too!"

Tanya nodded, and cringed as the people from around the bar began to surround them and murmur.

"Like what?" she asked, shifting her eyes nervously, still hoping that no one would see anything about her past lives on that card.

"Plenty! Judging by the skills you already have, some of the classes you could pick up right now are: Ranger, an Archmage, or even Enchanter!" she cried out.

The people around them erupted into cheers, but Tanya was just confused. She could guess what the last two were, but she had no clue what a Ranger was. Maybe it had to do with scouting?

"Er… can I see what those are?" she asked, motioning for the card again. The woman nodded, and Tanya snatched it.

Finally, she could see what it looked like.

Her name was written across the top, while a simplified picture of the profile of her head was in the upper right corner. Scowling, Tanya noticed that it even depicted that stupid fucking _ahoge _on the top of her head that twitched occasionally.

Underneath her name, her age, race, and gender were listed out, and under that was a section titled 'DESCRIPTION'.

'ONCE A WORKER IN HIS COMPANY'S HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT, AND THEN A BATTLE-HARDENED IMPERIAL MAGE: TANYA VON DEGURECHAFF HAS BEEN THRUST INTO A THIRD LIFE, INTENT ON TURNING THE GODS' BARGAIN ON THEMSELVES. WILL SHE SUCCEED? WHO KNOWS!'

Tanya breathed a sigh of relief that the woman hadn't read it. She continued down, surveying the other fields.

Her 'STATS' resided underneath that description, with a number resting next to each of them. Her Magic-Power number was imprinted in bright blue, while her strength shone a dull red. A box labeled 'LEVEL' sat near the center, with a 1 on the inside.

Next to her stats was the most important thing: a list titled 'SKILLS', with a number ten next to it. That number was presumably the number of 'Skill Points' she had.

She looked at the first entry on the list.

'Passive Shell: Deflects debris and small caliber bullets. Shield strength determined by Magic-Power.'

That was pretty accurate. And so she looked down the list. It described each of her spells, and put them into different categories. Her shields and most of her spells were considered under Magic-User Type, while a fair few of her Observation spells were considered Rogue-Like Type. Her ability to pray and then activate the Type 95 was marked as Priest Type.

Most importantly, however, were a fair few of her skills were labeled 'Crafting'. Almost all of them were related to her ability to imbue her projectiles with spells.

She needed all of them to continue to function as she had, and trying to learn some new way of doing things could take too long.

Being X wouldn't let this go unpunished, after all. Tanya was sure that once heaven had enough mana, Being X would, at the least, send her another angry rant detailing how she should have just submitted to him already.

Tanya looked up at the woman. "Er… miss. What is your name?"

The woman, who had been leaning in, straightened up and chuckled a bit. "Sorry about not introducing myself. I'm Luna," she supplied. Then, she leaned in again. "Have you decided which ones you will give up?"

Tanya sighed. She hadn't looked at every skill she had, but she knew one thing. She didn't want to give up any of her current arsenal.

While each of her skills had been listed as a different type, none of them had been described as belonging to a single job. She wasn't about to lose what over five years of training and fighting had instilled in her, not without a _much _more concrete future ahead of her.

Of course, she was most familiar with using a gun, something that she doubted the people here had invented yet. She wouldn't be able to imbue her bullets with spells if she didn't have any bullets. Which meant that she'd probably need to learn how to make one, or pay someone to do it for her.

"Is there any class that would allow me to keep everything I have?" she asked, looking up from her card.

The face of Luna fell as she played with her hair. "Well… there is… one. The Adventurer Job is the most basic one possible. Your skills won't get boosted like they do if you choose a regular class, and learning more advanced skills from other adventurers means you have to pay more Skill Points," she laid out.

Tanya nodded, and the woman continued. "But you can learn any skill once you've seen it performed, regardless of class, and the Adventurer Class can be easily switched to a different one later on."

Tanya nodded, and began to weigh her options. She looked back down at her card.

'Crafting Type', huh?

"Er… what are the Crafting Type jobs?" she asked.

Luna smiled brightly again, happy to be talking about any other job than the Adventurer one. "Crafting Type jobs are a wide variety of different things. They do, as the name implies, involve creating something. The Enchanter can imbue objects and weapons with mana, while a Creator can mold the elements into beasts to do their bidding," she explained.

Tanya nodded. "Are there any other ones?" she asked.

"Well," she said, counting her fingers, "those are the only two I know of that you could have. The Blacksmith is the other well-known one, but that has a Strength requirement."

Tanya grinned. That meant that she could make her own weapons or pay someone else to do it. She wouldn't have to give up her style of fighting, hopefully.

"Alright. I'll take the Adventurer Job, please. I'm already used to what I have," she said, handing her card back to Luna.

She sighed, shrugged her shoulders, and began to fill out the card using the device that Tanya had first seen. "Alright, then. Your loss."

Tanya looked at the crowd, who seemed to become less interested. Tanya crossed her arms, and attempted to sound as confident as possible. "That's just what you think. I could beat anyone in this bar at an arm wrestling contest using my skills," she claimed.

Laughter echoed from the crowd, and Tanya turned to them as Luna handed her back her card. "Oh, you don't think I can? Or do you all think that someone with a Strength stat like mine can't win?" she said boastfully, eyeing the crowd.

"Heh, I'll take you on!" came a voice from the crowd. Tanya watched as Dust stepped forward, pushing past the people. The crowd began to mutter.

"How despicable, Dust will even fight children…"

"We should have expected it, from the pathetic Dust."

"How deluded is this girl, to think she can beat Dust with such a low Strength stat?"

Dust walked to a table and the crowd glared. Tanya was confused as to why everyone was looking at Dust like he was the scum of the Earth, but she wouldn't complain. It seemed that they thought he'd win, even if they disliked him.

Head shaking slowly, Luna strolled back behind the counter, and Tanya thanked her silently. That the receptionist wasn't intervening meant she'd have free reign to establish herself.

The faster she was established as being powerful, the sooner she could gain allies that could help her take down the Demon King.

Team members, sure, but also regular people. People who had skills or services Tanya might need to increase her own chances of survival, considering none of that would be given to her if she wasn't in the army.

The man walked over to her, sat down at a nearby table, and crossed her arms. "Before we start this, we've gotta have some sort of wager," he said, grinning.

Tanya, having taken her seat, raised an eyebrow. "What kind of wager?" she asked hesitantly. She wasn't going to do some vague 'in the future' promise. But, based on his first words to her, he probably wanted…

"Monetary."

Tanya's skeptical eyebrow lowered, and she retrieved the remaining money she had from within her clothing. Most of her money had already been spent registering as an adventurer and on her meal. This was what she'd taken from that thief.

Dust caught her unsure look at the bag, and Dust waved a hand. "We can skip that, I guess. It's almost not worth the effort."

Tanya shook her head, grinning. "No, you're right. Need to show I think I can beat you, right?" she said, placing the money on the table.

Dust's eyebrows rose now. Then, he grinned and placed a similar looking bag on the table. "Alright, little Tanya. Let's go!"

With that, Dust slammed her arm on the table.

A person who had spent years of his life adventuring. A petite little girl, wearing what amounted to dirty, thin clothing and a tattered rag of a cloak. Based on how they looked, it seemed obvious who would win.

Appearances were deceiving. No one here knew that Tanya had two items worth more than a good portion of the interior of the guild for their artistic value alone. No one knew that Tanya had spent nearly half of her current life subverting everyone's expectations besides her own and, near the end, the ever-faithful Viktoriya's.

Languidly, Tanya placed her elbow opposite of Dust's. Her speed in doing this wasn't just to present an air of superiority. She was also stalling for time to test how much the Reinforcement spells would cost in terms of mana.

It had taken hours of using the Reinforcement spells in her last life before they could show signs of damage in a user, but that was with a Computation Jewel and in a different world. She would have to use more magic, based on her earlier experiments with the spell.

She'd see what this experiment yielded.

As Dust grinned, Tanya began to calculate her Reinforcement spell, taking care not to let any of it stray towards the Type 95. She wouldn't be known as anything other than a religious nutcase if she began spouting off about some invisible man in the sky.

"Nervous? Don't worry, I'll go easy on you, squirt," he claimed as he gripped Tanya's had.

She just smiled at him, and cheered victoriously inside her head as a confused look overtook his face. He wasn't taking her seriously.

The two of them waited a moment more, and when Keith said, "Give her a lesson Dust!" she took it as the signal to start.

Muscles bulged. Mana flowed. Neither moved, and the crowd grew quiet.

Or, Tanya didn't. To the observers, it looked as if Tanya hadn't moved an inch, and that she wasn't struggling. Her arm remained perfectly still, her clothes didn't make so much of a whisper.

Dust, meanwhile, arm taut beneath a layer of clothing, was pushing with all of his might as the table groaned beneath the force of their struggle.

Tanya, aware that she could, maybe, keep this up for an hour or two, brought her other hand to her mouth. "Is that all, Dust?" she said, pretending to yawn.

He grabbed her hand with his other hand, and pulled down on it, cheating to try and move it at all. Still, it didn't budge. Tanya just smirked at his rising frustration.

He continued to try and move her arm, muttering, "How the hell are you doing this, loli?"

_Twitch_.

A strand of hair at the top of her head danced as she processed what he'd said, before it became still.

She had not had that word thrown at her, ever. Germanian had no equivalent, and she had been thankful for that small mercy of the demanding language.

_How _dare _he._

She smiled widely at him, and he tilted his head, likely confused. He was also wholly unaware of the massive amount of mana flowing into the spell.

_I'll make you pay for that!_

The force on her hand – strong, to be sure, but not as immense as the presence of Being X when he decided to stop time – slackened for a moment. Tanya's smile, small and innocent, turned predatory as she finally decided to stop waiting and to really _push_.

Dust, still shocked by Tanya's appearance of immovability and very demented smile, was sent flying from his seat as Tanya launched him across the room.

The crowd remained silent for only a moment more, until a grand cheer went up in the crowd. Tanya stood on her chair and raised her arms up, brandishing the money, all the while laughing at the look of fear that marked Dust's face.

Served the bastard right. She didn't even break any of his bones for that comment.

Keith rushed over to the toppled man, while Taylor and Lynn walked over to her. "That sure was impressive, Tanya. How'd you do it?" she asked.

Tanya looked to the one she had beaten, and she saw that Dust was looking happy about something Keith had said to him and the small slip of paper in his hand. Tanya wrote it off; as long as he wasn't trying to get this money back, he could look at whatever coupon all he wanted.

The crowd around her, who had heard the question, all quieted down, wondering how she had thrown him across the room with a Strength as low as hers. Tanya just laughed. "Sorry to say, even if I could tell you, you wouldn't be able to learn it. You all have _regular _jobs, right?" she questioned.

A round of laughter began to bubble up, and more people lined up, eager to test their strength. Tanya sighed in relief. No one asked her how she'd done it, and that was good. It showed no one would be overtly nosy about her business, as long as it looked clandestine.

Tanya looked at the two bags of money in her hands, and then began to grin. She'd be able to afford a room in no time at all.

She eyed the crowd, watching maids deliver drinks. Maybe a drink or two wouldn't be out of place, with such a wonderfully light atmosphere?

-OxOxO

**A/N 1:** And that's that! She'd just started out on this journey, and already she's beginning to question the sanity of this world. Not only is it at war, it sounds just like a video game. How odd.

Well, I hope you're enjoying the story. Please, continue onward. Tanya has a lot to figure out – mostly due to her assumption that, since the last two worlds she visited had advanced past the steam engine, that the next one would too.

Do you think she'll give up her weapons? I don't – I mean, she's held out against Being X for so long, so she'll probably have to have something… _drastic_ done to convince her of the futility of that action.

But what do you all think? Please, tell me what you think in the comments.


	4. Chance Encounters

A bright light shone into the room, and Tanya groaned as she tried to feel not-bad. It didn't work.

Last night was… muddled.

She had had to consume alcohol in her first lifetime at various company parties. She had gotten used to it, and even enjoyed relaxing and having a drink occasionally.

This body, however…

It was what one would call a _lightweight_. Plus, Tanya hadn't had anything that even resembled alcohol in sixteen years.

She winced in remembrance. The closest she had been to having alcohol in her second life was when she'd died. They had been at a bar specifically because she was at the age she was allowed to drink in the Empire.

Tanya didn't remember much after that last drink in the guild, besides that she had probably had one too many arm wrestling matches.

She sat up and looked around. Where was she, anyway?

Fearing the worst, she looked around. A room bare of decorations and smaller than a walk-in-closet greeted her vision. Compared to her first life, the room was rather dismal. Compared to her last one it was alright.

She'd been well housed whenever she was away from the front, but housing on the front itself was variable.

Regardless of how nice it was, however, she'd make due, as she always had.

More importantly, it didn't seem like anyone else was there, thankfully. She sighed in relief. She didn't even want to contemplate doing… _that_ with a man.

She shivered, pushed unwanted thoughts of her last life out of her head, and began to check her body for possible injuries. Nothing was sore, besides her arm.

Tanya smiled. She wasn't sure if it was just the sleep, but it didn't hurt too much. She'd probably be fine pulling off some of her more impressive maneuvers in the air, then.

She felt through her clothes, which she must have fallen asleep in, ensuring her possessions in place.

Type 95? Circlet of Greatness? Contract? All in place.

She saw the sword, still contained within a polished blue scabbard, at the foot of her bed. Her money bag – now bulging – sat atop it.

Nodding, she rose out of the bed, and began to get ready for her day.

There were fewer amenities here than in her second life, however, which meant that preparation amounted to trying to tame her hair a bit and straightening her clothes.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She took the pouch of money from her belt, the ones she'd received from Aqua, and the other bag that had been on top of her sword.

She placed the circlet in the slightly larger bag, and placed the smaller bag with her money in it inside that.

She smiled. She'd concealed the more risky relic without having to stash it away in her clothing.

Speaking of clothes…

These things didn't fit in at all.

They were, by her second time's standards, normal for a soldier on leave. Just a simple white button-up shirt, green pants, and black boots. But here, where the culture was different, she was sure that more than a few of the odd looks she'd been given on her way from her… spawn point...?

Well, they looked at her like she'd had a second head. Once she figured out her monetary situation, getting proper equipment would be key.

An army couldn't run, after all, without rations, ammunition, and plenty of supplies, which meant she needed to evaluate her resources and options.

She tread down a dimly lit hallway, into an area above where she'd been last night. It seemed like more seating, to her, but maybe it was some sort of day café.

She'd seen weirder things.

She walked down the stairs, looking out into the room. She started to walk towards Luna, at the reception desk, when people began to call out to her.

"Thank you for the drinks, Miss Degurechaff!"

"That was amazing what you did to those three warriors!"

"Are you buying tonight again?"

As she walked, she smiled and waved, giving them back empty assurances and trying to remember what the hell she'd done last night all the while.

Soon, she reached the front desk. "Er… Luna? What did I do last night?" she asked tentatively.

The receptionist chuckled. "You arm wrestled nearly everyone to a standstill and earned money in the process. You even beat three of the strongest warriors at once!"

She chuckled nervously. Was that all? She hoped so. Anything more might have been seen as suspicious.

Luna continued. "After that, no one else wanted to try their luck, so you bought everyone even more alcohol to try and butter them up. Of course, you passed out after a drink, so the maids arranged a room for you," she said, staring down at Tanya, apparently amused by the whole affair.

Tanya was much less amused. Sighing dejectedly, she asked, "How far in debt am I?"

Luna laughed. "Not at all, actually. You even came away from it all with a bit more money, since we paid you a bit for being an entertainer."

Tanya nodded, casting a quick glance at the money bag hanging from her belt. "So… how do I earn more money?" she asked plainly.

Luna pointed to a board Tanya hadn't noticed yet. "There are quests over there. They give you a rating of difficulty, depending on the number and type of stamps on them," she said.

Tanya strode over, and began to peruse them.

Tanya didn't understand all of the terms they used, but judging by the stamps, most of them were probably outside her ability. At least, until she had tested out all of her skills.

"Luna? Do you have anything easier?" she called out. The woman rushed out from behind the bar, looking at them.

"Well, not really. Most of the monsters were cleared from the surrounding forests long ago, which means that the only monsters available are the easy, seasonal ones that pop up, or the ones that are farther away from town," she explained, looking at them all.

Tanya nodded, considering her options. Then, Luna spoke again. "You could get started on the Giant Toads," she said, pointing to one of the signs.

Tanya looked up at the thing.

'MARCH OF THE TOADS BEGINS SOON. MINIMAL REWARD OFFERED.'

Tanya sighed, resigning herself to yet more questions. "Why the minimal reward?"

"Well," Luna began, "the Giant Toads emerge at two times in the year: spring and autumn. They mate and breed in the autumn, and the young grow to their full size in the spring. They usually stay far away from the city during the spring, satisfying themselves on weaker monsters."

"Lately, they've been coming near the city in the spring, too. So we need adventurers to get them to leave," she finished, smiling.

Tanya tilted her head. "Why not just kill them all if you know where they usually hide?" she said.

Luna shook her head. "Well, they burrow underground to hibernate, so it's hard for beginner adventurers with few skills to find them. Also, they taste pretty good, so we don't want to destroy a valuable food source."

Tanya grinned. This would be nice and easy, then. She'd faced armies of humans in the past. How hard would a couple of overgrown pests be?

-OxOxO-

Tanya grumbled. _Not hard at all_ was the answer to her question.

The quest had been to remove any Giant Toads that strayed into a certain area. She'd rushed to the area, skipping breakfast and intent on finishing it quickly to be back in time for lunch. She'd come out, stood in the middle of a farmer's field, and waited.

For two hours.

The old geezer had told her that if she did anything other than chase out the Toads, he'd give her a bad report. Tanya didn't know exactly how much the supplies she wanted would cost, and she wasn't about to come up short if she could avoid it.

So she'd stood there, doing nothing.

Until now.

She'd had enough, and she was fairly sure that he wasn't watching anymore. He was probably in a different field right now, so she'd just test out a few things inconspicuously.

First, her Flight spells. Her fighting style relied on her speed, agility, and maneuverability in the air. Without those, she'd be a glorified foot soldier.

She took a deep breath. She hadn't been completely idle. She had spent a large part of those two hours attempting to craft a Flight spell that would allow her to circumvent the use of her Type 95. She had been pouring mana into the spell for over ten minutes.

This was it. She took another deep breath, and…

Slowly, she rose into the air, until she was floating an inch off the ground.

She smirked, and rose another inch up. The increase in the mana drain was almost unnoticeable. Tanya frowned.

An increase in only an inch shouldn't have even registered in her mana drain.

Tentatively, she continued to rise, foot after foot.

Soon, she was floating above the rudimentary fences the owner had constructed.

Tanya breathed a sigh of relief the increase was noticeable and not… debilitating. She'd be able to continue fighting how she liked it, if she could replace the cursed jewelry around her neck with something more appropriate.

Just then, she noticed something on the horizon.

A large, bulbous, bright blue toad was hopping. It was nearly double her height, and it was supposed to only be an adolescent. The way its skin shone in the light of the day reminded her of something.

She inhaled.

Something _else_ and _worse_ that towered above her, engulfing her in size and staring down at her with its beady little eyes and it was bald and had power and it was engulfing her and try to to to-

Tanya shuddered, briefly, and pushed down those memories, instead choosing to rocket towards the thing. She was airborne, so she'd never need to fear being engulfed by the thing.

She then began to barrel through the air, propelled by momentum instead of mana as her spell malfunctioned.

There had been a sharp increase in the mana drain, and she cut it off, in fear that she'd go rocketing off at an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound.

She soon impacted the ground, only just slamming Reinforcement spells into action.

Dazed, Tanya looked up into the large, bloated eyes of the pest. It looked down at her, for a moment.

It then lowered its head down, intending to gobble her up.

She snarled. Not that she'd let that happen.

Fast as a thunderbolt, Tanya drew her sword and imbued it with mana as it sliced through the air.

Her attack struck true, showering Tanya with a flood of blood and bodily fluids leaking from the gash she'd torn in its stomach.

Gagging, Tanya shot away from the thing in a moment, airborne once more. She might have smelled worse, sure, but that didn't mean she wanted to get coated in frog guts!

She realized she was airborne once more, and flew around the dead corpse. The drain wasn't nice, when she was moving through the air instead of just hovering. That much was evident.

But… she could manage it. She would have to, actually, until she figured out how to make a Computation Jewel.

Landing, she studied the body.

Her job had been, specifically, to drive them off. Killing them was fine, but she'd need to get rid of the body.

Tanya began to drag it away, towards the uncultivated hills nearby, when a loud, wet _ribbet_ emanated from her left.

Slowly, she turned, and saw three more Toads, all eyeing her. Tanya growled in annoyance, before remembering her greatest asset.

She rose from where she'd been trying to find purchase on the dead toad's slippery skin to begin dragging it, far above where they could try and eat her. She smirked down at them.

"What's wrong? Oh right, you idiots can't fly! I guess you shouldn't have tried to mess with me then, huh?" she shouted. Sure, it was childish, but she'd been standing in a field for over two hours. She wanted to vent.

The lead frog of the trio, apparently, did want to try and fight her. It raised its head, looked at her, and-

Shot its tongue at her.

Oops.

Tanya narrowly avoided the long, pink, rope of a tongue it had shot out. Right. Frogs could do that.

Tanya rose higher, nervously eyeing the road. If someone came by and saw her flying, well…

She didn't know what they'd think. She still didn't know if that was considered 'normal' or not. Flight spells came easily to people from her second world, but they might be seem impossible to the people in this day and age.

She soon retreated to a hill outside of the farmer's land. They seemed content with this, and began to hop towards the home. They were likely headed for the livestock.

She sighed. What a dilemma. What had Luna said? They liked livestock, right?

A new plan in mind, Tanya began to pour mana into another spell she had been working on in those two hours. She these pests needed to be fooled, but this was going to be unpleasant.

Five feet away from her, a… blob of white color that might resemble a child's drawing of a sheep materialized. She frowned and hoped it looked real enough for them.

"Hey, you Toads! Look at this!" she called out. They turned, as one, and saw a fluffy, white looking object.

It was enough for them.

They began to hop closer to her, moving as quickly as their large bodies could. Tanya ran down the side of the hill, and made it look like the illusion was running away. They pursued, and were soon off of the property.

Tanya laughed triumphantly as they hopped away. She turned back to the body, decided that dragging it to the side of the road would be enough, and returned to the field. She'd done enough, for now.

-OxOxO-

It came to an end. Eventually.

A few more of the things had come by, but she'd just led them off with illusions. Overall, it had been a nice, relaxing day full of nothing but watching clouds fly in the sky, reworking her spells to work without a Computation Jewel, and trying not to wince at how much mana she was using without a proper Computation Jewel.

It was peaceful, nearly stress-free… and boring.

Tanya was concerned about the boring part. She knew she'd acquired a… taste for the kind of fights the war served to her regularly – it was hard not to at least enjoy the air, not to mention the challenge – but she shouldn't have missed the opportunity to just take a minute to stop fighting.

She sighed as she walked to the man's house. Having so much violence in her life probably didn't do wonders for her taste in people either.

She arrived at the door and peered inside, searching for the man. She didn't see him at first, but she did eventually spot the old man's small form.

He was curled up on a chair, snoozing away. He greatly resembled some sort of cat, with how content he looked.

Tanya shrugged. She needed to report to him that she was done. She walked into the house, and gently shook the man.

"Hey. Wake up," she said. He rose quickly, grinning.

"Finally decided you've had enough, eh? No worry, I'll show you-" he began. He stopped suddenly, when he saw her clothing.

"Er… Did you fight something?" he asked. Tanya scoffed. Of course she did. She'd had to patrol the livestock for half a day, clothes bathed in blood, and he was asking if she fought something?

"Yeah. One of those frogs was on your property, so I killed it and moved it to the road," she explained, an eyebrow raised.

This, apparently, brought the man up short. "You… you moved it? By yourself? Without anyone telling you to?" he asked.

"Well… duh. The job said to keep the Toads off your property," she said. He looked down, suddenly, a look of shame on his face.

He licked his lips, and took the small hat on his head off so he could nervously wring it in his hands. "I apologize, young girl. I had meant for you to stand in the field until you quit. This job is usually saved for newcomers who don't have any respect for the people who don't roam the world, fighting monsters," he explained, eyes downcast.

Tanya just smiled. "It's fine," she said, heading for the door. Apparently, she had exceeded what had been expected of her, as usual.

She had other things to do, and it was already past midday. Heading for the city itself, she left behind the farmer without another word.

The farmer's wife, hovering in the kitchen, smiled triumphantly. "Told you that one of them wouldn't actually be a brat about standing in the heat, watching crops grow."

He glared back at her, sullen. "Oh, quiet you. It hasn't happened before now, and with her name and looks, I hadn't actually expected her to be understanding."

-OxOxO-

Tanya had gone back to the guild, to get her payment. Unfortunately for her, Luna said she needed confirmation that she had done her job, and since the job was about completing a task instead of just killing monsters, she needed confirmation from the person that had put it out.

Luna had said that she could look at the number of toads she'd killed, if she wanted one transported back to the guild so it could be used for food. Lacking anyway to transport its corpse, she'd agreed. Every little bit helped, after all.

She'd wanted to enjoy lunch, but she realized, after comparing the money she was supposed to earn and looking at the price of the food, that the Eris and Yen were in no way comparable. The food was horribly expensive compared to similar fare from her last two lives, and the Toad hamburger she had eventually settled on had tasted much worse for it.

Afterwards, she left the building. While the sun was beginning to fall from its height, she still had errands to run.

Luna had given her directions to a few places that Tanya needed to get to. Clothing, of course, was on her list. She needed better clothing, and she needed to get something made that would cover her Circlet. She knew this was a Kingdom, and wearing a crown might be seen as some sort of affront to the nobility.

Tanya wasn't about to get thrown in jail because of her _attire_.

More importantly, however, were the second set of directions. Luna had directed her to one of the city's Blacksmiths.

It wasn't even a matter of saving money. She _needed _to get levels in the Blacksmith Job to make her weapon.

A gun it would allow her to greatly increase the range of her spells, give her something she _knew _how to wield, and allow her to stop casting spells through her fingers.

The risk of blowing them off wasn't high – a Mage in the Guild had scoffed at the idea of such stupid drawbacks, which was a good sign – but the possibility was there as far as she was aware, and it rose they more difficult the spell was.

Which was the problem.

The Type 95 was, unfortunately, her best bet at survival. It meant that the casting time of any of her spells was shortened and that the risk of failure was next to nil, as long as she didn't grossly overpower something.

Without it, the majority of her spells would take far too long to use to be useful against anyone with two brain cells, and that wasn't even factoring in if this world's magic functioned or altered her own.

Of course, those benefits to her survival also came at a price. It was very, very detrimental to her mental health – but the temptation was gnawing at her. She was hoping she could recreate the Type 97 by working backwards. She did, after all, know some of the inner workings of the Type 97 by heart from deconstructing them for maintenance.

Computation Jewels didn't need much in order to function, as long as they weren't damaged. They did, however, require basic maintenance once a month, which included cleaning and the replacement of worn-out components.

The Type 95 needed even less maintenance, probably due to its divine nature, but it still needed replacement parts every once and awhile. Keeping it in top shape and trying to recreate a bleeding edge Computation Jewel would be next to impossible using only her memory.

So she needed a Blacksmith's Skill, first and foremost, because she wouldn't entrust either task to someone who might squeal on her and reveal any of her secrets.

Following Luna's directions, she soon arrived at the building she had described. Somewhat small compared to the buildings around it, the building had a number of shields hanging in the front and a dingy window that didn't look like it had been cleaned in ages.

Tanya just sighed and walked up the stairs to the door. Why would someone leave pieces of equipment out where anyone could take them?

She peered into the room from behind the door, making the decision to walk in after only a moment. It certainly looked like a blacksmith's shop.

Or, at the very least, it looked like the room of someone with a fetish for weaponry, since nearly every inch of free space was covered in it.

Stands in the middle of the room held up an assortment of swords, while baskets of daggers lay next to those. A barrel full of spears sat in a corner of the room, while even more shields and even larger swords lined the walls.

Tanya stared at the largest ones in shock. Could people actually wield things like that? Maybe they were just decorations for someone with a weapon fetish.

A countertop, reminiscent of your everyday grocery store checkout aisle, sat near the back of the room. The room behind the counter was shrouded in even more darkness, which wasn't surprising. The windows were covered in dirt, even on the inside. On the far wall, stands of full plate armor two times her width showed themselves off, while other, miscellaneous pieces of armor sat on a shelf above them.

Tanya looked around the room again, searching for the blacksmith. Luna had told her the man didn't really leave his house that much…

Shrugging, she began to try and cast a few Observation spells. They'd tell her if there was any magical activity. If the man didn't have any mana it wouldn't detect him, but it was still worth a try.

They found nothing in the front of the shop, and when she turned to the back…

Still nothing.

She walked over to the counter, and saw a note.

'Look up.'

Readying her mana in case of an attack, she did just that. Tilting her head upwards, she saw more nothing.

A rush of movement in front of her sparked action. She drew her sword quickly, thrusting it towards the disturbance.

"Hey, watch out there, little miss!" someone exclaimed as her sword was batted aside by a similar looking weapon.

Tanya looked at the man who had deflected her sword.

Taller than her by over a foot, he smiled easily, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. In the other glove-covered hand, he held a small dagger, which had deflected her strike.

Tanya looked at her own blade. Was she that weak?

"Sorry about startling you, miss, but you really shouldn't attack people like that," he said, posture relaxed and face glowing. Tanya lowered her blade, and the man did as well, setting the knife down on the countertop.

"Why'd you try to scare me to death?" Tanya exclaimed. If he didn't want her to kill him, he shouldn't have scared her.

He rubbed the back of his head. "It gets boring in here, and I like to mess with people."

Shaking her head, Tanya asked, "Would you happen to be the Blacksmith?"

He grinned and said, "Well, I don't know about _the_ Blacksmith, but I am a Blacksmith."

Tanya nodded, studying the man's darkly tanned face. He had a short beard and a few strands of hair groups together on his upper lip that might constitute as a mustache. Above those wisps was a long, sloped nose and small eyes.

Tanya nodded. "Er… I was wondering, sir, if I could learn some Skills from you?" she asked hesitantly.

He looked up, gripping his face in contemplation. "Well, I don't think I have the skill to warrant me taking on an apprentice, but-"

Tanya shook her head. "No, sir, you misunderstand me. I am an Adventurer, capital 'A,' and I wanted to learn some skills, at some point in time. I was just wondering if you would be open to that," she explained, raising her card by the upper left corner, in order to block the revealing description of herself and show him what her job was.

"Ohhhhh," he exclaimed. Tanya squinted at the man. Did he disapprove of her or something?

"Well, while I would like to help out someone as- er, misguided as you, I can't just do these things for free," he said.

Tanya raised an eyebrow skeptically. Misguided?

She shook her head. She didn't have time to explain why she needed to be an Adventurer, nor did she particularly want to. "Of course. Why would I expect you to give away things for free? I was just wondering what it would cost," she said. The man squinted at her, this time.

"Well, alright, then," he said. Tapping a finger on his chin, he suddenly smiled.

"50,000 Eris so that you can watch me work," he said. Tanya raised an eyebrow, careful to ensure that the man didn't catch a whiff of her excitement and dread.

Haggling. Bargaining. Something she was vaguely familiar with in this odd world. She smirked as she began to mentally debate what she could do.

50,000 Eris. She didn't have it, but she could hopefully earn the money in the next week.

Not that she'd pay that much to watch the man. She made sure to seem outwardly skeptical of the price as she stared him in the face. "Oh please. It's not like I have to work with you. I could just go to another blacksmith and get a much better price. And considering the state of your windows, I don't think you can even justify earning that much without a special order. 25."

"I bet you can't even meet the Strength requirement for taking a level in the Blacksmith job. 55," he countered.

The price raise stung a bit, but she didn't let on, only smiling. "My Strength doesn't matter, since the Adventurer job means I can surpass any requirements to learn a skill. 30."

"I wouldn't want you running off and starting a rival business, would I? Plus, I'll lose whatever business you could have done with me, if you take enough levels. 45."

Tanya smirked. That sounded fine. "Just to watch you melt some metal? I don't think so," she said. They stood there, staring at each other, waiting for the other to move.

"Fine, then. I'll cut you a deal," he said, crossing his arms. Tanya nodded. This would be the actual offer.

"I'll demonstrate to you a single skill, Smith, and if you can keep up with me after taking it, I'll only charge you 40, for proving me wrong. Otherwise, it'll be 45" he said.

Tanya frowned. It was only one, but…

That was fine with her, as long as it worked. "Deal," she said, holding out a hand. He shook it, and Tanya headed for the door.

He called to her retreating form, "Hey, where are you going?"

She called back as the door swung open. "Well, I have other things to do. I'll be back in a week!"

She ran out, leaving behind an amused blacksmith. He was used to adventurers just coming in, choosing what they wanted, and leaving again with what they wanted.

She was paying him a premium, too. Thank Eris for that.

He smiled as he walked into the back room, towards his equipment. It was a nice change of pace to be acknowledged instead of just seen as the support.

-OxOxO-

Tanya looked skeptically at the building in front of her. This was it?

Not that she doubted Luna's directions. The woman had been very helpful, to the best of her knowledge, and Tanya was thankful for that.

But… well, if she had to describe the store in one word, it would be 'eccentric.'

There were designs of spinning wheels and pins and needles, cloth and fabrics, and a menagerie of other things associated with clothing painted on the front, while a small sign jutted out from the building's face that read 'Tailor Shop'.

The outside might have been bizarre, but the inside had just been nostalgic.

And… creepy.

It resembled any other clothing store in modern Japan, with clothing on racks or being showcased. That would be nice in Japan, but it was a disconcerting here, to see clothing that looked like it belonged at some historical reenactment on nearly modern shelves.

"Welcome!" greeted the woman behind the counter. She was dressed in pastel pinks, with a rather over the top looking headdress and a long, floor-length gown that covered everything but her shoulders.

Tanya nodded back, and began to peruse the shelves. None of it screamed out to her more than the rest of it, if she was honest.

Just then, the woman cried out, pointing at Tanya's clothes. She looked down, and realized she was still covered in blood. Right, that was why she was there.

New clothes.

The woman rushed out from behind the counter, ushering Tanya over to a pseudo-changing area. She pushed Tanya into the wooden room, and ordered through the closed door, "Change out of those clothes, or I'll do it for you!"

Tanya objected, "What do you-"

The woman cut her off. "My store, my rules. You're not leaving until you've changed into something much, _much _better!"

Tanya sighed, but began to diligently strip. Viktoriya had, on the few occasions they'd been given leave, done much the same thing, and Tanya wasn't going to argue with someone who probably knew better than her in the clothing department anyway.

Soon done undressing, she detached the Type 95 and her bag of money, throwing both of those onto the bench present in the small, potentially claustrophobic room.

She shoved her clothes under the gap between the door and the floor, picking up what looked like a menu in return. Tanya began to look at her options.

Well, the more… womanly clothes were out for her. She didn't want to wear anything like that.

She was still a man, underneath the biology, and she wouldn't stop beating that into her own head until she keeled over dead in forty to sixty years.

She had only had to wear a dress once – during that stupid propaganda photo shoot – and she hadn't worn one since. Even her attendance at that party where the Kaiser had been present hadn't warranted one, as she'd been able to wear her uniform instead.

Tanya shook her head. She didn't have the foggiest idea about what might be good for her, besides something that didn't restrict her movements too much. She needed to be able to maneuver in the air, after all.

"Miss…." Tanya began. A loud sigh was heard through the door.

"Sorry, that I didn't introduce myself – I'm Lavandula – but what you were wearing was unacceptable! Can I help you?" she rattled off.

"I haven't been an adventurer for long, so I was wondering if you had any recommendations," she admitted.

Tanya heard, from farther away, "Well, do you know what you'll be doing the most on the battlefield?"

"Well, I'll use magic the most often, from a distance, and I'll be moving around a lot. Does that help?" she supplied. Tanya had never had much time to play video games in her first life, and a decade and a half had muddled her memories further.

Considering how much like a video game this world seemed to be, she'd let an expert decide in this matter, as long as their choices weren't too bad.

The woman made a noise expressing agreement through the door, and began to talk.

"Based on your description, you definitely won't want any heavy armor, if you're moving a lot. A poor Strength stat means that you can't equip most of the heavier armor, so you'll probably be fine with some light leathers and cloth…" she trailed off.

Tanya waited for more information to come through the door, but clothes were slipped under it instead.

Eyeing them, Tanya picked them up and-

No. _No_. Absolutely not!

She blushed as she fought the urge to tear them to pieces, regardless of the price. This was… pathetic. Demeaning.

She wasn't some sort of slut!

There was nearly nothing there. A few pieces of cloth that looked like they were worn over her privates, but other than that, nothing.

"I don't know what kind of person you think I am, but I assure you, I am going to wear more than this!" shouted, shoving the clothing back under the door.

Silence reigned, and before Tanya could ask for her old clothes, more than happy to wear them dirty than wear practically nothing, the woman spoke back, softly. "You're not from this Kingdom, right?"

Tanya blinked. Had she been that transparent based on her _clothes?_

"Yes, looking at your clothes as something other than bloodstained rags, they do resemble some of the other things we've gotten over the years," she commented, drifting away again.

Tanya sighed. Yeah, she'd definitely made some sort of mistake, if she could tell that easily.

"Let me see… I'll try to find something that fits your tastes, then," she said from farther away. Tanya just stared down, kind of guilty.

She wasn't guilty about rejecting the clothing, of course. She'd never wear something like that.

The woman did know her stuff, however, and Tanya felt sort of bad for essentially insulting someone for something they hadn't realized after she had specifically asked for their recommendation.

Another pile of clothing was pushed under the door, much more hesitantly this time.

Tanya picked it up. It was… better.

A green cloth shawl-like thing with yellow borders sat on top of the pile, while a short white undershirt with a few strings to hold the neckline together sat underneath.

She picked up both, and marveled at the shawl. It was much heavier than it appeared. Did it have leather inside it, between two pieces of cloth, perhaps?

She looked at its neck and was surprised to see a price tag. Under the price – suspiciously pricey, by her estimate – was the word 'mantle.'

She looked at it again. Was that what it was called?

Shrugging, she set them aside, and looked at the rest of her provided clothing. A simple leather belt was fine with her, but the black shorts and a pair of sandals were a bit too open for her.

Plus, her boots still fit her fine. She might need some new ones, if her body ever decided to grow, but until then, she'd stick with the military grade footwear.

"Er… ma'am? I like most of it, but could you alter some of it?" she asked, pushing the pants and sandals beneath the opening again. She heard a long drawn out sigh behind the door, but the woman asked, "What do you want done?"

"Well, I'm going to stick with my boots, but longer pants would be better," she said. She shoved the shirt back under the door, and continued. "The shirt sleeves need to be lengthened as well."

Tanya heard a small growl of anger as the shirt disappeared, soon followed by a response. "You do realize that you will look quite… traditional wearing so much, yes?" she said, hesitancy and annoyance warring in her voice.

Tanya tilted her head. Was that what the culture was like here?

"How so?" she asked. The woman sighed.

"Right, you really aren't from around here. Look, I don't say you can't wear this much, but people are either going to think you're trying to show off, that you're hiding something, or that you're deeply religious," she explained.

Tanya grit her teeth at the last option. "How so?" she asked again.

The woman chuckled, and if Tanya had taken some sort of x-ray vision as a power, she was sure that she would see the woman shaking her head. "If you were a Mage, you wouldn't have blood on you. They don't get that close. If a Thief wore that much, people either think they must have a reason to restrict themselves."

"Besides," she continued as Tanya realized where the confusion was coming from, "people don't have a lot of money in the _starting _town of adventurers. Wearing a lot of clothing that can be easily torn means you have the money to hire people to fix it or replace it constantly."

Oh.

She'd wondered why so many people had been wearing an odd mishmash of clothing…

She grimaced. If they couldn't afford _clothing_, then how much was she going to get paid, then?

Tanya shook her head. She'd put off thinking of that until she got back to the Guild. For now, she'd finish this. "First of all, I'm not a Thief. I'm an Adventurer – mind the capitalization – that can use long ranged attacks and magic spells. Does that help?"

A silence began, and before Tanya could break it, Lavandula's voice rang out. "Well, you'll choose one or the other. Pants and shoes, or the shirt?" she asked.

Tanya sighed. Well, if she would be moving as much as she had, then proper shoes were a much better option than having to run around in sandals.

"The first one, please," she asked. The woman took off, her pointed shoes disappearing from the gap under the door.

In a matter of minutes, the woman returned, sliding a new set of garments under the door.

Now laid out next to each other, the pants were indeed longer, reminding her of her other clothes. The shirt's sleeves, instead of being lengthened, were now shortened, barely extending past her shoulders. She put them all on the bench, looking at the newest additions.

A pair of gloves that extended passed the elbow, judging by their length, and a pair of socks. She set the latter aside, studying the gloves dubiously.

Conceptually, she knew they were normal gloves. But they reminded her of the not-a-goddess's sleeves, if in different colors.

They could be useful, at the least. Lavandula didn't seem like she'd take no for an answer with these, if her continued presence behind the door of the stall was any indication.

Sighing, she slipped the gloves back under the door. Tanya would have them be useful, at the very least. She could probably hide a knife or something inside one of them.

"Ma'am? Would you please shorten the gloves and cut off most of the fingers?" she asked.

The woman chuckled. "And actually show off a bit of skin? I thought you'd never ask, darling."

Tanya silently bristled at the pet name. The gloves disappeared, and as the woman's steps echoed away, Tanya heard, "Pick out a set of underwear and a bra from the selection catalogue, while you're at it."

Tanya blushed, but did as told. At least the woman wasn't doing _that _for her as well.

Soon, the woman returned, slide the altered gloves under the door, and took off after Tanya told her to get plain, simple, unadorned boxers, as well as the smallest bra they had. A sigh had come after that declaration, but no admonishment.

Tanya waited for a moment, studying her outfit.

It wasn't… _completely _outlandish by the standards of her own time, and most of the oddities – the mantle and gloves – would be minor.

Her underwear was given to her, and Tanya began to put on the clothing.

Soon, she finished. She looked around for a mirror, and… she couldn't find one.

She supposed it was sensible; they were probably more expensive here.

She shook her head – she was going to have to invent quite a few things to get what she wanted – gathered the rest of her belongings, and walked out of the door.

Lavandula clapped her hand together. "There, much better. Now, that'll be 20,000 Eris, if you wouldn't mind." Tanya almost balked, and then remembered her treatment of the woman and what she'd said about affording clothing. Tanya opened her bags, handing over the majority of the rest of her money.

Just as she was about to leave, she turned back. "Er, about my other clothes?"

The woman seemed put out, and pointed to another corner of the room. "They're over there, if you really want to wear them."

Tanya nodded in thanks and walked into the back corner. As she lifted her clothing up, she realized that they were resting on a closed box marked 'SALE.'

Tanya shrugged. She might not have any money now, but maybe she'd want to get something in the future. She didn't have to deal with military regulations anymore, after all.

She opened the box and gasped.

This was all clothing from her world!

Brand names, iconic characters, stupid sayings – it was all there, tags that said 'Made in China' and all.

Tanya looked at Lavandula sharply. "What is all of this?"

The woman scoffed. "Oh that? It's all the stuff we get from out-of-towners. Whenever adventurers die, people are sent after them to ensure they don't rise as the undead. If their gear is salvageable, they sell it to us if they don't want it. We're required to take it, even if no one will ever buy it. They just have some weird designs on them."

Tanya nodded to herself, looking at the clothing. Made sense that no one would buy stuff in a language they didn't understand.

She'd probably get something later. For nostalgia, if nothing else.

As she left, waving to Lavandula, she said, "And make sure to visit the baths!"

Tanya tilted her head. Baths?

"Where are they?"

Shaking her head, Lavandula gave her the directions, and Tanya thanked her one last time before leaving.

-OxOxO-

Tanya surveyed her 'room', glaring at her surroundings.

It wasn't completely horrible. She had some hay to sleep on, there was a roof over her head, and the sound of enemy fire wasn't constantly ringing above her head.

It wasn't what she had expected on her way back from the baths, where'd she'd scrubbed herself thoroughly. You never knew when you'd get your next bath on the front, and Tanya was going to enjoy soaking if she could.

She had expected being able to afford her old room in the guild, but things turned out poorly in that regard.

Luna had told her the price of the room, and Tanya had balked. She didn't have the income to pay those kind of fees every night, not if she wanted to pay for that lesson from the Blacksmith.

That wasn't what Tanya was mad about. She was annoyed that she hadn't been told earlier, of course, but living in a stable was manageable.

What _wasn't_ so manageable was the pay.

Luna had handed her a total of ten thousand Eris when Tanya had asked for her money. Six thousand for patrolling the man's land, and another four for the dead toad. Tanya had taken the money and eaten her dinner sullenly.

She earned half of that every hour during her job in her first life. She would have earned over three times as much money by working at that job, and while she might have been paid in both Marks and promissory notes in her second life, those could get her more than what she'd been paid.

Tanya continued to glare at the repurposed stable, wishing that she could transform it into something better. Perhaps somewhere with lighting, or glass in its windows.

Nothing changed, and Tanya sat on the pile of hay that dominated the room, defeated.

Today had been interesting. Not bad. Not good.

Just interesting.

She explored her limits, learned about this world's culture, and figured out how she would get a gun, eventually. She had also lost the majority of her money, hadn't earned that much, and had to barter for somewhere to sleep.

Tanya smiled.

But it had been _liberating_.

She hadn't realized with how long she'd been fighting, but it was nice to relax, wear clothing that wasn't issued by the military, and not have to worry about the lives of the people she commanded and her relationships to the people above her station.

Tanya chuckled a bit. Here she was, the feared Devil of the Rhine, the White Silver, laying in a bed of hay in clothing that looked like it belonged to some underequipped goody-two shoes bent on blindly murdering some far off villain.

She settled into the bed, wearing her old clothing. She'd use them as sleep clothing, until she could get something more proper.

Not that that would happen anytime soon. She needed to find over 45,000 Eris, while also eating and paying for her housing. She'd only kept around 2,000 Eris from today's payoff. Adding that to the money she had left from the arm wrestling meant she had a total of 4,000 Eris.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that she wouldn't have enough money by next week to pay off the Blacksmith, never mind all of the backup equipment she wanted to get.

She looked at her money pouch, laying on top of her 'Adventuring Clothing'.

She shot up again. She hadn't tested out the Circlet of Greatness!

Rushing over to the stool she'd set her pouch and her clothing on, she pulled it out of the bag and held it up to the moonlight. It still looked just as ridiculous since she'd first seen it.

She placed it on her head, and waited for a moment.

Nothing seemed to have happened. Maybe a bit of mana would help?

That was the last coherent thought Tanya von Degurechaff had for the next twelve seconds as she pushed a mote of mana into the crown, and a tidal wave of energy returned in its place.

Inhaling sharply, Tanya woke up, noting a slight change in her surroundings. Why was she on the floor?

That question passed as euphoria overtook her. This felt…

Well, it felt as good as the Type 95 had, in the beginning. It was incredible. She giggled a bit.

It was also likely giving her some sort of high, like the oxygen sickness she'd experienced whenever she went up to heights not meant for the Flight spell.

She looked around, noticing the room was suddenly much brighter.

She looked up, and saw that yes, the pseudo-crown glowed a brilliant array of colors. Tanya pouted cutely.

She might have been more in awe, but this was something created by heaven and it was the middle of the night. Hoping it would work, she willed the thing to stop glowing.

Its glow receded, but it still shone. Tanya clapped her hands together, grinning idiotically.

See cast her eyes about the now darkened room. How to test this…

Well, she might as well try illusions first. Those didn't cause any noise, at least.

She quickly went through the 'Optical Decoy spell' – why the military felt the need to make it more complicated than simply calling it an Illusion spell, she'd never fathom – and imagined…

Tanya giggled again, and watched as the room around her changed. Instead of a small, dirty stable, fit only with a pile of hay, a stool, and a singular hook on the wall where she'd hung her mantle, the room now resembled a scene she could only have ever dreamed of.

The room looked five times larger and able to house some sort of party, if she'd wanted. A long table was centered in the room, while some sort of white stone made up a majority of the floor.

All around the room, gold shone. The roof was gold. The tables were gold. The lamps were gold. The windows had golden window frames and yellow-colored glass. An expansive bed occupied the spot where the pile of hay had been.

On that bed were a number of things. Mountains of Japanese food, television, phones, and other amenities she hadn't had in sixteen years populated the bed.

Now, Tanya began laughing happily. It was here, the life of safety she'd wanted. With several upgrades, if everything was as expensive as it looked.

She heard someone knocking on the door to her room, and she blinked as clarity returned at the sound of the voice.

"Colonel, I've got some chocolate and coffee for you."

The illusion broke down and she sank to her knees, sighing tiredly.

Viktoriya. Tanya…

She shook her head. She wished that they had lived in modern times, when homosexuality was accepted.

Of course, Viktoriya didn't seem all that interested in love or romance. She hadn't hooked up with anyone – or even entertained the thought – throughout their time on the various fronts.

Nearly all the others had. Tanya had kept a diligent record of the exploits of the other members of the 203rd, if only so that she could fend off any false claims and rumors. Viktoriya hadn't though, and Tanya had respected the time period's obvious lack of advancement and Viktoriya's seeming disinterest.

She shook her head, and tried to stand. She blinked, and the sound of other adventurers complaining about how loud she'd been and wanting to hear that noise again reached her ears. Tanya shook her head.

She looked down at her body and tried to stand again, only to find that it took an incredible amount of effort to do so.

Scowling, she tried to walk to her new clothing. The Circlet had a cost, right?

She made it exactly two steps before she crashed to the ground, exhausted.

Grunting, she filtered mana into a quick Flight spell, and rose off of the ground. Floating, she rotated herself and picked through her clothing, now as heavy as the iron armors in the Blacksmith's shop had looked, searching for her Adventurer's Card.

Soon, she found it, and blinked rapidly as she looked at it. It was pretty heavy to lift, actually. Not impossible, but it felt as heavy as if it were made of steel.

She shook her head and began to study the card.

Her Magical-Power stat was stronger than it had been, and the numbers were now _glowing _blue. She wasn't _exactly_ ten times the low-hundreds number that had been their earlier, but it was a great degree higher. What she was confused about was her Strength.

She had known that it would be low, obviously, but was it really _negative_?

Yes, negative. Somehow, the card was displaying a negative number where it really shouldn't be. Most likely, the card was broken, or her Strength was so far below the average it had rolled into the negatives.

If hay weighed a few pounds like this, then how would she hold a gun?

That… would be problematic.

She quickly began to enhance her limbs with her magic, pouring mana into her Reinforcement spells.

Nothing. Her strength rose a little bit, but otherwise, she felt nothing.

Tanya frowned. How on earth would she fight if she couldn't hold up a _gun?_

A breath of air escaped clenched teeth. Another thing she needed to deal with. She didn't exactly have a deadline to meet, but the longer she waited, the more people that not-a-goddess would reincarnate.

Slowly, she cut off her connection to the small mote of mana she had placed within the relic, and sighed in relief as she felt the euphoric feeling left her.

That could get addictive, and without the deterrent of having to pray to Being X, it might be harder to resist the temptation.

She placed the Circlet back in the bag, and walked over to the hay.

Today had been interesting. The week would probably be interesting while she worked to level up and obtain Skill Points and somehow find the money to pay for the blacksmith's show-and-tell-me-how-to-be-a-smith. The next months and years were a mystery to her, right now.

Tanya drifted off to sleep, visions of revenge dancing behind her eyes.

-OxOxO-

Tanya woke in an instant.

Being able to wake fast was necessary in the war, when an enemy could have tried a sneak attack. Here, she hadn't expected to be woken at all. She knew no one.

And yet, people _still _decided to try and get her.

She couldn't see who they were, but they definitely shouldn't have been in her room. They didn't seem to realize she was awake, softly moving closer to her.

They bent over her silent form. Tanya cursed herself, wishing she had kept her sword by her side. She did have one thing she could do, though…

As Tanya filtered as much mana as she could into her hands, a hand clamped down over her mouth, and that was all the provocation Tanya needed. She slashed with towards her assailant, magically sharpened fingernails biting into unprepared flesh.

A scream echoed through the building, and Tanya threw herself out of bed, towards the Circlet. She slipped it onto her head and made it light up like a light bulb.

The face of someone she didn't recognize greeted her light. She advanced on them slowly, and, blinded by the sudden light, they tripped into the large, empty space present in the stables.

"W- Wait! Please! Don't hurt me anymore!" he begged.

Eyes glassy, Tanya didn't take any note of his pleading. He'd tried to assault her, maybe more, like…

Like…

She snarled. "I don't think so. Now, if you'll-"

Another person popped out of another room. "Please don't kill him! He can't help it if he was aroused by your moan earlier!"

What.

_What_.

He apparently saw the question written in the incredulity on her face, and began to explain. "W- We were just curious, that's all. 'Why you would make a sound like that,' and other questions like 'can you make it again?' were all we wanted to ask."

Barring the apparent gap in her memory – that was why she'd been on the ground, after putting the damn thing on – she really was going to murder them. She wasn't even sixteen.

Of course, the chance was high that the age of consent and other such things were much lower. Still, that didn't mean she had to accept them.

First she needed to confirm what had happened. "How long was the sound?" she asked.

The two men seemed confused. "You don't remember?"

Blushing, she shouted. "Of course not! If I had knowingly made that sound and you'd tried to make me do it again, you'd be _dead_." She bit out the last word between clenched teeth.

Both shook, and one tried to jump back into his room. She jumped in front of him, aided by a slight burst of a Flight spell. He shrunk back, and sputtered that it had gone on for a few seconds.

Tanya sighed. "Whatever. If you ever try to touch me again, I'll make sure to give you genital scarring to go with the scars on your face."

Both nodded rapidly, and fled into their room. Tempting as it was to punish them further, they had at least shown her that leaving her things out of arm's reach was foolish.

This wasn't the army anymore. No one was going to respect her for her rank here.

Stalking back to her room, she made a mental note to keep her things on her. Sharpening her nails without the Type 95 wasn't hard, but she needed to make it more efficient.

Grumbling, she settled into the hay once more, her Computation Jewel resting heavily on the hay by her head. If she just slipped it on…

She shook her head and sighed. Tanya just hoped her life would settle down as she worked to get that wish.

Visions of repaying Being X for the pain he had caused her and trying to ignore how itchy the hay was, Tanya drifted off to sleep.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** There. Tanya's done her first day of questing, and I've attempted to explain a logical inconsistency with the anime's depiction of many of the background adventurers.

She's also discovered that, as with the Type 95, her Circlet comes with a drawback.

As always, please leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter, and continue reading on!


	5. Questing with Allies

Tanya sighed hopelessly, looking at the bulletin board quests. The quests that would allow her to meet her deadline in a week were rated too high over her level for her to do alone, according to Luna. The ones that were at her level, however, wouldn't let her earn enough money.

She had leveled up in the past few days, the number six replacing the one that had sat in the level box of her card. With those levels came Skill Points, which she had been saving up in preparation of her lesson, ignoring the temptation to funnel them into one of her other abilities she'd kept from her past life.

She didn't think anything he could teach her would take up more than twenty, but she'd saved the ten points she'd started with and the ten she'd earned while leveling up regardless.

In order to get as much money as she could, she'd taken a number of high level quests that were technically outside her ability that Luna had barely let her try. She had fought an assortment of monsters – groups of Horned Rabbits and Giant Worms, for the most part.

Those had been fairly easy. Nothing here could even scratch her Active Barrier spell, which easily withstood the force of unenchanted bullets in her last life. That shield, unsurprisingly, ate up a massive amount of mana, which meant she'd had to use it sparingly and in bursts.

Being able to fly higher than any of the monsters could reach was quite helpful as well, allowing her to wait while they tired themselves trying to get her. Things were becoming harder, however.

She needed money to make that deadline, so she'd stopped eating full meals and had sold her stolen sword for a smaller dagger and money. She probably looked like crap too, since she had even stopped going to the bathhouses to save money. She got disgusted looks from people as she passed, but she wasn't concerned. She just needed to get that skill.

She still hadn't come close enough, though.

She was off by a few thousand Eris, and today was the day she was supposed to turn up. This meant…

She needed a loan. A terrifying prospect, if it was worded in a way that could take advantage of her, but she was from a future where capitalism and the free market had reigned near supreme. How hard would it be to outmaneuver possibly nasty businessmen in a sometimes-backward fantasy realm?

Of course, she would need to find somewhere to get the loan in the first place.

Making up her mind, Tanya walked up to the front counter. Luna was giving the speech she'd given her to someone else new.

Sighing, she waited her turn. Soon, the person, dressed much more appropriately than she had been a week ago, finished their business, and Tanya walked forward, greeting Luna with a small wave.

"Hello, Miss Degurechaff. How can I help you?" she said. Tanya smiled. Luna's presence was nice to have, considering what she'd done for her.

She'd waived the level requirement on the easier monster hunting quests Tanya had asked for, after ensuring Tanya knew what she was up against. That was the only reason she was as close as she was to getting that lesson.

Tanya smile faded as she remembered why she was there. "I was wondering if you knew where I could obtain a loan, actually," she admitted.

Luna smiled. "Well, the guild will loan you up to one hundred thousand Eris," she relayed.

_Twitch_.

Luna began to stare at the top of her head, but Tanya paid her no mind.

She should have just come here in the first place? Gotten to eat something worthwhile, smelled better than the backside of a pig, and kept her sword?

Tanya sighed. She _really _should have just asked Luna. She had been nothing but helpful after all, and-

"For more than that, you'll need to see some of the debt collectors," Luna said, pointing to a dangerous looking pair of muscle heads that were standing in one of the darker corners of the guild. Since it was daytime, it wasn't very dark, but they still gave of an aura that made the area seem… sinister.

"I'm guessing they give you loans at some sort of outrageous price?" she asked, seeking confirmation. Luna nodded an affirmative, and Tanya shook her head.

"Well, I'll just take the guild's loan," she said. Luna nodded, bent down beneath the counter, and brought up a piece of paper that she laid out before Tanya.

As Luna explained the details, Tanya began to read the document. "You'll just have to give us a portion of all the earnings you make over a period of time."

Yeah, that was true. But they would also be looking to make money, and would probably charge her more the longer she took and the more she asked for.

Ah, there it was. They…

They'd only take a tiny bit extra? She shook her head and began to read the paper closely.

For every quest she completed during a specified time frame, they would ask for only a small bit of her earnings. If she opted for a quest-a-day timetable, they'd only earn two hundred Eris from each of her quest. If she opted for the price to be attached to one quest a week, they'd earn eight hundred.

It wasn't that much. In fact, she was fairly sure that charging so little money would have gotten a bank from either of her last worlds accused of being a front for some crime ring.

Tanya looked at Luna quizzically. "Why aren't you charging more?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you wanted to make money, then why wouldn't you charge progressively more the longer it takes?" she asked.

Luna gave her that smile that told her that she thought Tanya was every bit the inexperienced girl she resembled. "The Guild is here to help adventurers and protect the Kingdom. They can't exactly do that if they're in debt, can they?" she asked rhetorically. Tanya nodded, unsure.

It wasn't the best way to run a business, but if they were more like an extension of the government, then that wasn't necessarily their goal.

Tanya shrugged. Regardless, this would be better for her.

Like many forms that she had filled out in her first world, it asked a slew of questions about her, her plans for the money, and how much she'd need. Filling it out quickly, she opted to ask for 8,000 Eris. It would meet the threshold for getting that skill, as well as a few thousand Eris for herself.

Sure, it was a bit more than what she needed, but she also wanted to eat. She didn't know how long this process would take, and not eating lunch afterwards might actually cause her to pass out, with how hungry she was.

Finally finished, she signed her name at the bottom and pushed the document back to Luna, who smiled. She took the piece of paper and placed it in a shelf, where many other such papers seemed to be kept.

Before she could examine them more, Luna turned around again, money in hand. "I hope you spend it well!"

Tanya smiled, before giving the woman a perfunctory wave goodbye as she walked out the doors of the Guild. Sure, it was early morning and she hadn't eaten breakfast yet, but that didn't mean she couldn't get this done fast and then eat a big lunch.

Walking through the twisting turns of the city, Tanya relaxed. She wasn't out in the various farms that surrounded the city, fighting off pests or minor threats, nor was she anywhere near the front lines of this war. She could take a bit of time to enjoy herself.

Soon enough, she arrived at the Blacksmith's shop. Taking a step in, she searched the room. It didn't look like he was here, but it hadn't looked like he was here last time, either.

A steady gaze surveyed the room, before landing on the counter. A note, much like the last time, sat on it.

Not that she'd trust it, of course. She cast a quick glance at the ceiling, before walking towards the back and around the corner of the counter.

He wasn't behind it, it seemed. She picked up the note, and read 'In the back.'

She shrugged. He was probably waiting for her, since he would have closed the shop if he was making something.

She walked into the dimly lit area behind the counter, surveying what she saw.

A variety of tools lined the walls of the room. A sort of desk sat in the middle, covered in other such implements. What she assumed was a forge sat in the back, based on how it extended up to the ceiling and likely beyond, forming the chimney she had seen the edge of on the roof. An anvil and a large tub of water sat closer to the door she'd just walked through.

The Blacksmith wasn't there, though.

Before she could decide on whether to explore further in, towards the other door she saw, she was tapped on the shoulder.

She fought the urge to swing around her blade, instead only spinning her body around quickly.

The man was smiling, but the creases on his forehead told her he was confused. "What are you doing back here?"

Calming at the sight of someone familiar instead of an enemy, she undid the bag at her side, lifting the bag with her money out of the bag with the circlet in it. "I have the money, and wanted to get started early."

His eyes squinted, he appraised her. Tanya stood strong, holding out the bag. She'd faced much worse appraisals in the Empire's army from dubious officers skeptical of her achievements.

A smile broke the weak facade of scrutiny, and the man walked passed her into the dark room. "Alright, then. We'll talk about payment afterwards," he called, pulling out a few baskets from underneath the table in the center.

Tanya looked at them curiously. There were baskets of rocks, ingots, what looked like leather, and skinned animal hides.

Tanya looked up at the man. Why did he have all of this? Shouldn't most of this have been processed already?

Gesturing to the woven baskets, he began to speak. "Now, since this is a one-time deal, I think I'll teach you the foundation of most Crafting Type jobs," he declared.

He began to lay out a number of tools on a table. A mallet, sandpaper, sewing needles, cloth, and more joined the baskets. He lifted one of the ingots out of the basket, and walked over to the forge.

"Just watch me, little girl."

Tanya bristled at his description of her, but she stayed quiet and watched as he said, "Smith," and began.

The next two hours were interesting. He moved in a flurry, heating, shaping, cooling, and finishing his work.

She was amazed that it only took two hours. It seemed ridiculous to make a sword in that amount of time, but she had seen it for herself.

That meant this power must have been able to speed up the rate at which swords, and perhaps other weapons and objects, could be made.

Somehow. Magic was an obvious answer, but even magic couldn't violate the basic laws of physics.

She blinked and looked down, thinking furiously. At least, her version couldn't. It was entirely possible that this world's magic didn't care what was possible according to physics.

He held the gleaming sword up to the light of the still-hot forge. "_That_ is how you do it. You can learn the skill on your card," he said as he walked to the front.

Tanya quickly retrieved it from her bag, and stared at the newest addition. There, at the top of the exhaustive list of the numerous spells and techniques she'd learned in her last life, was a new one, glowing gold.

Just as the man had screamed, it was titled 'Smith.' Before she could work out how to get it, the man began to speak to her again.

"Now, this is the first skill that all Blacksmiths-in-training learn. It allows the user to shape materials into shapes they desire!" he said.

Tanya nodded, eyes fixed on her skill card. "Can I make any object?" she asked. That was the entire point of this exercise, after all, and he seemed to be in a much more talkative mood now.

He nodded his head. "Of course, as long as you have the materials and it isn't too big." Tanya looked up sharply. The ability to create whatever she wanted sounded nice, but she needed to know the limits. "Too big?"

He chuckled a bit. "You can't just make anything. Your Intelligence, mana, and the Skill Points you've invested in the Skill determine what you can make, and your Strength determines the durability of the object," he said.

"I don't have too much mana, which means I can't use the skill to make something as advanced as an entire set of armor. That's why I get more specific skills if I want to make anything very detailed or very strong."

Tanya nodded again, looking down at the card. "Just tap the skill you want, and then tap the picture of yourself," he said, watching her.

Looking at her card, she tapped the glowing word. It changed from green to red, and she lightly tapped the picture of herself.

Tanya's eyes widened. The card was glowing, and her hair was moving as if she were flying through the air on patrol.

That was, by far, what she was _least _concerned about.

There was something. She didn't know what it was, but all she knew was that this something was being changed. Somewhere inside her, her mana, or soul, or… _something_ was being altered.

It ended soon enough, and Tanya shook her head. It hadn't been a bad feeling, per se, but she was wary of anything that made her feel good without a proper explanation.

The Type 95 _felt _good, but what she had to do to make it work and its additional effects were barely worth it. The Circlet had knocked her out for a few seconds from the abundance of mana in her system.

Looking back down at her card, she saw the gold skill had disappeared, likely buried underneath the list of her other skills. Along with its disappearance, a whole ten of her Skill Points had vanished, leaving her with the ten she'd started with.

She sighed happily. She'd be able to put points into other skills she had. She'd explore what she could improve upon later. She tucked away the card, and jolted as the Blacksmith spoke again.

"Well then? Give it a try!" he said, inches in front of her face.

Tanya backed up a bit, but shook her head. How he'd gotten so close to her, she didn't know, but she would be getting that discount and not paying 45,000 Eris.

Her penny-pinching was mostly because she wanted to eat, not because the skill wasn't worth it. It was completely worth the higher price, if she could use it to make a rifle.

She wouldn't have to buy clothing, weapons, or tools for a nice, long while, as long as she used enough Skill Points. She might just make about anything she wanted instead of buying it for herself.

That left the question of what she should make to avoid a higher price. She might have been familiar with a number of guns, but those would likely be above her current skill to make. Pistols would likely be out, as well.

Tanya grinned she knew something that might be simple enough for this.

Silently, she began to boost her Strength with Reinforcement spells. She did want this recreation to be as durable as the last one, after all.

Now one question remained. How did she activate the skill?

She thought about the feeling of learning the skill. Was that it?

Tanya stood there for a few more moments, waiting for something to happen. She assumed this was all she needed to do. What was she missing?

The Blacksmith coughed, and Tanya snarled, "Why isn't it working?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the man's eyebrows furrow in confusion. Tanya whirled towards him. "What else do I need to do?" she hounded.

"Er… you know. Say 'Smith?"

Huh?

"What do you mean? That wasn't just for effect?" she asked. He seemed to become more confused.

"Well… duh. You can't add the ability to silently use a skill until you've used it a lot. I could, but you haven't even used it yet," he supplied, eyeing her skeptically.

Oh.

Was that why everything had seemed to be taking so much mana? This world had a different and nonsensical rule where you had to say a few esoteric words out loud to make things happen?

Cheeks tinged red and eyebrows creased, Tanya turned back to the forge, muttering "Smith" as she did so.

Tanya blinked rapidly as information surged through her mind, and her earlier embarrassment was forgotten. She knew now how to shape metal, leather, and a variety of other materials and how to use the pieces and processes she now knew to make weapons and armor.

Most importantly, Tanya also realized just how inadequate the materials around her would be to make her gun. Instead, she settled on the idea she'd had earlier.

Back in her last life, no one was given swords anymore. Not for actual fighting, and only rarely for ceremonial purposes. The Empire had discarded the practice as a remnant of a bygone era and claimed that they didn't need blades in the modern age.

That they didn't have the resources to spare to make anything beyond bayonets was conveniently forgotten in the reports on why they weren't awarded, but Tanya could read between the lines well enough.

She _had_ earned that medal above Norden, however, and she'd even been given a second name. They'd decided to treat her and have a nice propaganda tour to complement her promotion to Colonel and to hammer in to the population just how important the fabled 'Mith-'

She grimaced, and she bit the inside of her cheek once more. She wasn't thinking about that she wasn't wasn't wasn't wasn't-

She sighed and focused back on what she wanted to make as she began to gather materials. Instead of getting some parade saber that wouldn't see actual use, she'd put in a request for something much more… _practical_.

Tanya worked, ideas about how she'd ever make a gun rattling around the back half of her head.

She hadn't expected to be nearly as fast as him. He had much more experience, after all.

Despite her slower pace, It was still grueling. The forge was hot, and the room wasn't well ventilated, beside the small hole the smoke pushed through in the chimney. Constantly banging, banging, banging a hammer into burning steel was a lesson in monotony.

But Tanya had learned that lesson several times over, watching for the smallest movement on the front or cleaning every last piece of her guns, so she learned to ignore the ache in her muscles, dulling any pain with Reinforcement spells.

Soon, but not soon enough, the blade was mostly done. She still needed to finish it, but her mana was running low. Perhaps…

She shook her head. No, the Type 95 wasn't an option. She honestly had no idea _what_ would happen if the Type 95 was turned to any other task than dismembering her opponents, and while the Circlet would reduce her strength, she only needed it for a few moments.

Gritting her teeth, she flicked a small bit of mana into the Circlet of Greatness, hanging at her side, and she felt her mana reserves replenish.

She blinked it wasn't nearly as much as it had been last night. Perhaps not wearing it on her head reduced both its benefits and costs.

She shrugged. She would finish this and worry about that later. Renewed, she laughed as she funneled over half of the magic into her Reinforcement spells to continue hammering the metal, winding and molding leather, and grinding the blade with the files the Blacksmith had.

In just over three hours, it was finished. She ripped the mana from the Circlet and almost collapsed. She managed to stay standing, however, and Tanya held it up to the dim light still present in the cooling forge.

A shallow saw blade on one side, a sleek, study edge on the other; the foot-and-a-half blade of her specially made _Seitengewehr_ bayonet shone. The engravings on the side, wings and halos the last time she'd had it, had been skipped – she didn't have the skills, and she hated that addition to it anyway.

Along the hilt, a dark leather covering the metal underneath that matched the sheath, were the initials of her friends, meticulously recreated from memory.

Viktoriya's stood prominently on the base of the hilt, and Tanya smiled in remembrance.

Tanya might not have liked how close she had to get to her enemies, but that didn't mean that she wasn't good at it. So when it came time to pick what she wanted as her 'official' blade…

Well, this had been nice then, and it was nice now. It even had her name inscribed on the blade.

Of course, it wasn't perfect. Most of the little ornamentation, like the gold-leaf version of her signature, was no longer present. Now, that signature was gone, with just her initials in a different colored leather. It showed ownership, and she preferred that it wasn't as flashy.

The man behind her, forgotten as she remembered the ceremony where she'd received the thing, whistled in appreciation. "Very pretty. And maybe better than making a simple sword." He smiled, and Tanya smiled right back, happy to have this new power.

She wouldn't be able to get a gun for a nice long while, sure, but it was nice to have a piece of useful memorabilia from her last life.

-OxOxO-

Tanya snacked happily on nice, juicy Giant Toad leg. Not an entire one, of course. Those were too big, even for the voracious appetite of a former Aerial Mage.

She'd been able to negotiate a price of 35,000 Eris with the Blacksmith. Giving the man the knife she'd been given when she'd sold her stolen sword, she'd been able to haggle for that price.

He'd even given her a scrap of paper that she could use to name the thing, officially.

She hadn't seen the need for it – it was just a blade, after all – but she'd done as he suggested and named it.

'_Seitengewehr_' wasn't original in the slightest, but it was just a blade to her. He'd been pleased by the fanfare, for whatever reason.

After that, she had come back here and spent the rest of her money on a proper meal, instead of the rather bland fare she'd treated herself to over the last week.

As she wolfed down the food, she began to plan her next steps.

She needed some sort of scepter, until she could make a gun. Using her fingers was fine, but using some sort of equipment, regardless of how antique it might have seemed to her, was better on the off chance she lost control of a spell.

Besides, even if she could make something that looked and functioned like a gun, she would still need bullets.

One thing she had never taken too much time to dissect, bullets were going to be tricky. She knew the basics of a cartridge: put some sort of powder in a casing, a metal cone on the top, and a primer on the bottom.

Simple, sure, but she didn't know what materials she would need, besides lead and copper. There was something about sulfur in gunpowder, she was sure, but besides that, she was at a loss.

She needed to find some sort of suitable replacement for her gun, until she could replicate it and figure out how to make a bullet. Losing some gnarled stick would be better than losing a hand, after all.

Using her blade as a scepter was also an option, but channeling mana through something so irregularly shaped would be much more tricky, and if her _blade_ exploded…

Well, she might not need to worry about finding a gun anymore.

She licked her fingers and continued to think. She'd need some sort of hat, as well, to cover up the circlet. Keeping two bags and having to open both to get to her money was just a bit tedious, and having something else that resembled something from her last life would be nice.

With this skill, she wouldn't even need to reveal that she was hiding anything in her hat to anyone. She'd just purchase the materials and make a hat herself.

Suddenly, commotion from the other side of the bar caught her attention. It appeared Dust was groveling again.

She swallowed her mouthful of food and chuckled as she remembered her last meeting with the man. He'd accosted her during the week, begging her for a bit of the money she was saving up. She'd shot him down, of course. But now that she had a bit of extra cash…

Well, she could take him up on his offer to observe his party for a day, and she would try to learn as many skills as she could.

He'd said something about her being desperate, and she hadn't contradicted him. She might get a better deal if he thought she was just as desperate as he was.

Not that she expected to need many of them, but that girl who she hadn't been able to guess the job of was a Mage. Tanya wanted to compare the magic of the two different worlds.

She quickly scarfed down the last of her food and walked over to him. He seemed to be begging Luna for money.

She arrived to hear the receptionist speaking down to Dust. "Dust, I would like to help you. You haven't paid back the guild, however, even when we gave you a loan _above _our usual amount," she said to the figure that had collapsed on the counter.

"Please Luna! I just need a bit more money, to pay back them!" he slurred, tossing a glance over his shoulder at the intimidating looking gentlemen in the corner. They seemed to be amused by his situation, if the subdued laughter was anything to go by.

Tanya shook her head. It seemed that the man was drunk, if the way he was unabashedly gripping the sides of the desk and not staring at her rack like he usually did was anything to go by.

She looked towards his usual table and saw the half full mug of beer Keith was carrying and sighed.

Drunks. She didn't like how wasteful they were, but they were so very easy to trick.

Tanya swooped in, prying Dust off of the counter. "Come on, Dust. I'll help you pay off your debts. For a price."

Dust whimpered, and looked at the two men in the corner like he would very much enjoy whatever they had to offer him than what she would want.

She _had _thrown him into a wall, after all, but he also deserved that and much worse for calling her a loli.

As she dragged him away, she saw Keith talking to a figure clad in blue armor and pointing at her.

She narrowed her eyes. He certainly looked impressive, if the cape and his self-assured look were anything to go by. It might be nice to be noticed by important people, but her promotion to head the 203rd showed her that being noticed wasn't always a good thing.

She filed away the man's oddly familiar features for later as she marched Dust towards the men.

-OxOxO-

As she stared at the three irate adventurers and the slightly apologetic drunk, she thought back to how her dealings with Dust had gone.

The amount of money Dust had owed the two men was disgusting – did the fool just drink away _all _of his earnings, and just how much of his blood was made of alcohol?

Nevertheless, she had helped them fix their relationship.

She'd given them some of the money he owed them, and they'd thanked her before grinning evilly at Dust. He'd stumbled behind her, trying to hide behind her petite form, and she had worked out a deal for them and him so he could pay up.

The two debt collectors had welcomed her help, and more importantly, Dust had promised that she could tag along with them on their next quest, observing their skills. He'd then promptly borrowed more money from the two and drowned himself in alcohol.

After helping him, she'd gone about her day. She'd taken a nice, easy quest being a physical laborer, enjoy a leisurely afternoon of strolling through Axel, looking for wherever magical equipment was sold. The day had seemed pretty good.

It had gotten better that afternoon.

When Tanya had returned to the Guild, the Blacksmith had been there. He'd treated her to a nice meal, and then offered to continue her training.

She'd turned his offer for apprenticeship down – she did need to get that wish, after all – but she had asked to have a part-time job.

He'd agreed, and Tanya, whenever she had free time, now had another way to earn a bit of cash. All she had to do was make equipment as he specified, and he would pay her for whatever she made.

She'd be able to get practice using the Smith skill, he'd get quality items, and Tanya would have easy access to whatever materials and tools he had.

After another night of restless scratching at old hay, she woke up ready to observe Dust's team at work.

Tanya had needed to remind him of their deal that morning, since he barely seemed to remember his debts being paid off, much less his grovelling in front Luna.

That brought her to right now, where Taylor, Lynn, and Keith were all glaring at Dust.

This would inform her of how she should interact with her own party. Was she a superior commander, a friend, or a partner desired only out of necessity?

Judging from how the group often got together and ate at the Guild, she was betting on the first of second option.

They, as well as most everyone else in the guild, respected Tanya for her Strength, as well as whatever else she had done that she couldn't remember due to the alcohol. That didn't mean they didn't speak of her in hushed tones, due to her choice of class and lack of team after over a week.

She didn't exactly have many options, if she wanted to keep her fighting style, so she ignored the naysayers. Plus, she hadn't met anyone who seemed to be willing to submit to the leadership of an Adventurer.

Their loss, really.

A belly full of food accompanied Tanya as she met the group at the front of the guild. All four of them seemed to be staring intently at her, while three were scowling at Dust. For his part, he looked only slightly sheepish.

Tanya smiled. It wasn't her fault if he hadn't told his fellow adventurers that she was tagging along.

"Hello, everyone! Thank you all for agreeing to have me!" she announced, bowing her head deferentially. They did have more experience adventuring, and she was there to learn from them, after all.

All of them greeted her in turn, glaring at Dust all the while.

Taylor strode forward. "We haven't been formally introduced, but I'm sure Dust has already told you about us, yes?"

Tanya nodded, but they introduced themselves all the same. Taylor was the leader, wore some armor and, strangely, a tie of all things. He seemed pretty level-headed, and she was interested in how similar their command styles would be.

Keith was the Ranger, and specialized in all things archery. He was, apparently, the closest to Dust in personality, and she had seen the two loitering around town often.

Lynn was apparently their Mage. A green jacket and a cape clothed her, while her hair was pulled pack into a ponytail. She was very good at Intermediate Magic, according to both her and her teammates.

How magic could be 'Intermediate,' she didn't know. She would probably find out, though.

"So, where are we headed today?" Tanya asked. Taylor held up one of the notices, taken from the quests.

"Since we're all going out, we agreed to take something a bit more dangerous. Apparently, someone out hunting spotted a Brutal Alligator. We're to confirm it exists, and either kill it and any others we can find, or simply report them to the guild," he relayed.

Tanya nodded. She didn't know much about Brutal Alligators, but the name alone implied that they would be something of a challenge.

"All right, then! What will I be doing?" she asked. All of them blinked, and then began to laugh at her.

She narrowed her eyes. What was so funny?

Keith, a small grin on his face, answered her unasked question. "You're just an Adventurer, right? The weakest class that doesn't learn any skills on its own? You can carry our supplies, I guess."

Tanya now raised an eyebrow. They were still underestimating her, it seemed. It might help in negotiating with Dust, but it seemed that their immediate reactions to her hadn't yet been dispelled by her feats.

She grit her teeth and pushed down the urge to lash out. She needed to pay off her debts to the guild and get experience.

She gave them a glowing smile. "Alright. I should be thankful for whatever work you give me."

-OxOxO-

Chances to prove herself had been less than forthcoming. They had spent most of a few hours walking in relative silence, passing plots of land where farmers were working hard tending their fields.

Trailing behind the group of four, Tanya had broken the silence after half an hour of discomfort with a question.

"What's with the tail?" she asked.

She wasn't a part of another race – not that Tanya had seen many of those or could tell the difference. It must have been some sort of accessory, but Tanya couldn't tell what it could possibly be for.

Lynn turned around, an eyebrow raised. Tanya didn't move to add to her question or back down from the skeptical look. She really did want to know.

Sighing, the woman put a hand behind her cape, and held up the tail. It seemed to be a generic, ringed tail, from what Tanya could see, besides the clip on the end.

"This is a tanuki tail. Whenever I'm wearing it, I get a slight increase in Agility and Magic-Power," she explained. Tanya just nodded.

She wouldn't know better, and it did make sense in this world. Magic had obviously been the focus of advancement, instead of science like in her last one. She'd seen several things run by magic, like the box that Luna put her card into to see if she'd killed those Horned Rabbits.

It was like a credit card reader or an internet history in function, verifying if she had done what she said she'd done.

"I'm not some beastman," she added hastily. The others chuckled, and Tanya just felt her eyebrows furrow at the questions that created.

"Where'd you get it?" Tanya asked, filing away the term 'beastman' for later.

She wanted a scepter, and if Lynn had gotten it somewhere cheap, she might be able to get something to channel her mana through, if it was some sort of magical general purpose store.

"It was a special purpose item I bought in the markets. Tanuki aren't all that common these days, and items like this usually get discarded if someone can get a better item," she said.

Tanya sighed again. She'd already searched the open markets, and no one had any scepters on sale. At least, none that were in her price range.

It seemed she was destined to go on more quests, forever trying to pay for the next trinket she needed.

Certainly different from life in the military, constantly doing what you were told and then some in search of advancement and just fighting an enemy. You didn't have to really worry about resources personally, not at the level she had been at. She just did the best she could with what resources had been allocated to her.

Lynn had presented her with a wonderful opening to ask her a bit about how what magic was available in this world. "So Lynn. What kind of magic do you like?"

The girl puffed up, and she slowed her pace to stride next to Tanya. "Oh, you're thinking about actually getting a proper job, then?" Tanya smiled indulgently.

Let her think what she would. Tanya wouldn't disabuse her of the notion, not when she was getting free information.

"Well, I skipped a lot of the Beginner Magic to move onto Intermediate Magic. I didn't have the money or support to get the Skill Points to learn Advanced Magic, but what I have is good."

"What's the difference between Beginner and Intermediate?" Tanya asked. It seemed like a bad idea to skip the basics. She hadn't been one of the best Aerial Mages to start with, after all.

The woman squinted her eyes, annoyed. Tanya just raised an eyebrow. She didn't know, and if she was going to act annoyed because she didn't know something, then she was going to be annoyed at a _lot _of people in her life.

"Well, it mostly has to do with cast time, how long you have to chant to invoke the spell, power, and mana requirements. Beginner Magic requires the least investment, consumes the least mana, and takes few Skill Points to learn," she explained.

"Appropriately, all of it has very little power unless you pour a lot of mana into them. And to get basically the same effect, Intermediate Magic costs less."

Tanya nodded, all the while remembering that these people didn't know everything. Just as the mages of her last world had thought Aerial Mages should function similarly to planes – she'd proven them wrong with the maneuvers she had done that no plane could have _tried _to do – who knew what Beginner Magic could do in the right hands.

"Advanced Magic packs a lot more power than Intermediate Magic, but it costs so much that most people just don't have the magical power to complete it."

Tanya nodded along. Already, this idea to pay off Dust's debts was bearing fruit.

Tanya soon asked what Lynn could do with magic. Names of spells had drifted through her head, most of which, like the rest of this place, seemed straight out of a video game.

But nothing even resembled her Flight spells, not even in name. As the girl talked, Tanya also looked at her adventure card, noting that none of the spells the girl had described had appeared.

Well, it was as the Blacksmith had said about his skill. She'd need to witness some of the spells in action before she could learn them, apparently.

Another half an hour of idle chit chat passed, and then they were there.

This forest didn't seem much different than any other one Tanya had been in. Trees moved with the wind, low plants and grasses covered the ground, and an animal or two could be spotted occasionally.

Nothing felt particularly intimidating.

And nothing should have. This forest had had most of the monsters in it exterminated. It was, however, the third farthest forest from Axel.

The first one had been cleared several decades ago, and the next farthest one had been cleared two decades prior to today.

This one had been mostly cleared too, but its distance from Axel meant that no one had reason to encounter the monsters in it, since few people lived this far out.

The peace was shattered after nearly another half an hour of waiting to find something when the five of them were nearly trampled to death.

Not by anything as logical as a Brutal Alligator, either. A wave of small woodland creatures had fled past them, fleeing from the general direction of the area the five of them were supposed to be heading to.

The others had decided that the best way to figure out how many Brutal Alligators there were and to take a few out.

They needed to get them out of the pond in order to figure any of that out, which required bait.

Cue her unexpected volunteering.

They had all looked at her, confusion painting their faces. Keith was their Ranger, and he was the fastest of them there. She had promised she could move faster.

Which was technically true. While he could probably beat her in a leg race, she could fly faster than any human would dare try and run.

Not openly, of course. Flight was starting to seem like a very rare ability, if anyone had thought of it at all. Instead, she would hover a centimeter of the ground and pretend she was moving her legs as if she were running.

She sighed as she strolled into the small clearing. She would have preferred to be out of danger, but she'd signed up for this job. She would prove that she wasn't useless, and they would spread knowledge of her ability at the same time.

Actually…

"Hey guys," she called back to the rest of the party, who had been conversing off to the side of the overgrown path. "Does anyone use this thing for fishing?"

None of them seemed to think so. Tanya grinned. This would be much easier, then.

She started up an Observation spell, but then, she whispered "Observation." Like the Blacksmith had claimed, she had to give up much less mana to use the spell if she vocalized her intent to use it.

She shook her head. How ridiculous.

Regardless of the bizarre rules of this world, she watched as a small screen bloomed to life in front of her.

The spell, in addition to testing if the Blacksmith was right, also tracked the active usage of magic in her last life, and if she was lucky…

Nope. Nothing in there. Tanya tutted, but nodded all the same. It seemed that these beasts weren't magical, at least.

Wondering, Tanya searched the ground for something to throw in the water. A small stone at her feet caught her eye, and she grinned.

Perfect.

"Enchant pebble: Artillery Shot."

A bit excessive, to use an artillery spell on a small pond? Sure. But this would certainly draw them out.

Tanya grimaced as the mana drained from within her, but watched as the pebble in her hand began to glow. This would be stronger than any Explosive Vaporization Tanya could muster, and it cost only twice as much as if she had used a Computation Jewel.

Considering an Artillery Shot should have been impossible without one, she was very content to be able to use it without one at twice the cost.

"Reinforcement spell: Strength," she chanted. With that done, she wound up her arm, and threw the pebble into the water.

Nothing happened, for a moment, and Tanya worried that giving names to her magic had broken it somehow.

The large plume of water that erupted told her how wrong that idea was. Turning to her comrades, Tanya grinned. "Are you guys ready?"

All four of them looked shocked, for a moment. Then terror overtook their features, and they turned to run.

With the sound of angry reptiles behind her, Tanya sped off. She wasn't going to do something stupid like turn around and get distracted. She knew exactly what was coming.

She was quickly gaining on her fellow adventurers and making doubly sure that it looked like she was running. It felt a bit odd to work her legs like this, but appearances had to be kept up until she confirmed if people were supposed to be able to fly here.

She soon gained on her fellow adventurers, and passed them. "What are you guys doing? Fight them!" she yelled, panicked.

She wasn't scared because of the alligators, or anything. She was flying, and she could get out of their range easily.

She was more scared that they would die, and since low-level adventurers amounted to pest control, she didn't really want to have any deaths associated with her.

That could be embarrassing.

As soon as the command left her mouth, they turned, as if a switch had been flipped. Lynn leveled her hand at the group of alligators, muttering under her breath, while Keith stood in front of her, unleashing arrow after arrow.

Taylor and Dust, meanwhile, were running around, now acting as bait for them. Tanya sighed in relief.

It seemed they wouldn't be dying after all.

Soon enough, Lynn shouted, "Lightning!"

As implied by the name, a jet of electricity flew from her glowing palm towards a group of the alligators. Two at the front fell, knocking down others in the back. Still, a few of them were upright.

"Should we retreat?" asked Keith, who grasped at the empty quiver by his side. Taylor, who had stopped acting as the bait, seemed indecisive.

Tanya shook her head. They needed orders, and it seemed Taylor was conflicted and unable to give orders. While caution was a good trait to have, when half a dozen Brutal Alligators were chasing you, not having orders could mean death.

"Let's retreat. We'll still get paid if we bring back information, right?"

The others turned to Tanya, looked back to Taylor, who nodded.

"Dust, let's go!" he called.

Dust, who had been running in front of the hole where a pond had been, ran over to them, looking rather winded. The others made to run, while Tanya lingered.

The alligators didn't look particularly fast, but she wouldn't risk it. She soon ran after the others, shouting "Explosive Vaporization!" over her shoulder.

Mana rushed passed her ears, and another explosion, smaller than the one before, sounded behind her.

The party ahead of her flinched, but continued running. Tanya glanced over her shoulder, and grinned. A large cloud of dust now obscured the path they were taking through the forest. Hopefully, the alligators would go back to what was left of their pond and let them go.

After another minute of sprinting, and another five of hurried jogging, they reached the exit, and soon stood in on an open plain.

They all collapsed. Tanya included.

She hadn't been running, but using those two spells and moving her legs like she running and pouring mana into her Flight spells meant she was almost completely dry.

The others didn't seem to be faring much better, either. Dust and Keith had collapsed, sitting against each other's backs. Lynn was lying down, while Taylor was leaning against a tree.

A minute passed, during which they panted and waited to hear the growling of the Brutal Alligators. The growling never resumed, and a collective sigh of relief was released.

Lynn looked to Tanya. "Why didn't you say you could use Detonation and Blast? Those are like… some of the most advanced magics possible!" Lynn asked, panting between every word.

Tanya, now recovered, tried to find an excuse. "Well… you all never asked. You assumed that I was weak because I chose the Adventurer job, even though I could arm wrestle everyone in the guild."

Slowly nodding, the rest of the party seemed to accept this. Tanya, for her part, was satisfied.

She'd shown that she was a valid teammate, and they'd probably tell everyone at the guild about her skills.

Or Dust would anyway. He was drunk nearly every time she saw him, and he wasn't likely to keep anything in his mind secret.

Digging in the bag at her side, she brought out her Adventurer's Card. She'd also learned –

One. One skill.

Right. In all the excitement, she hadn't actually seen anyone use their skills, besides Lynn's usage of Lightning.

She walked over to the recovering Dust, who had begun to rise from the ground. "So Dust. I wanted to learn some skills from you all. Lynn was the only one who demonstrated any," she said.

"You didn't pick a difficult quest where everyone would have to run and avoid fighting in order to ensure I didn't learn anything, right?"

Judging by the panicked look that flashed across his face, duping her had definitely been his intention.

He masked it quickly, though, putting his hands on his hips and staring down at her. "Why would I do that, Tanya? We made a deal, after all."

Tanya smiled. "I don't know. Maybe you want me to keep paying your debts? I don't actually care," she explained, tone light. The fearful look that had engulfed his face disappeared just as fast as it had appeared, replaced by a curious one.

"You don't?"

Tanya chuckled darkly. "Of course not. I'll just start fighting you, and when you show some skills to avoid death, you'll be free." She explained, cracking her knuckles.

His cheeks puckered, he began to walk back towards Axel facing Tanya, fear screaming in his eyes.

"Until then," she continued, grinning savagely, "I hope you like eating Detonations for lunch!"

With that, she began to chase him, waiting for him to give up.

He never did, running for a good fifteen. She decided, as her barely recovered mana screamed at her, that she'd given him enough time to imagine what she would do to him. She rushed forward, and grabbed him by the back of the collar. Sputtering, he was dragged back to his disapproving party.

-OxOxO-

Biting into a piece of lizard steak, Tanya contemplated her long day. The trip with Taylor's party might not have gone perfectly, but at least she had some supplementary skills.

Apparently, she'd killed a Brutal Alligator with her initial spell that had disturbed the water, so their reward had been larger.

Killing a total of four alligators – Lynn got two, while she and Keith had each gotten one – as well as confirming that they had infested the forest had netted their party a total of sixty thousand Eris, after deducting the cost of transporting the dead alligators. Not terrible, but not all that good, either.

She had profited the most, by far. She had earned a level from killing one of the alligators and had learned One-handed Swordsmanship from Dust, burning through two Skill Points to make sure the skill was better than just a basic understanding.

She could even learn Lightning, if she ever had the Skill Points for it. Lynn had also unknowingly informed her of what magic she could use in front of others without arousing suspicion, and she had told her where in the markets she could go to find scepters.

She thought she'd need it, since scepters helped reduce the amount of mana used in a skill, or could help boost their power, according to Lynn.

Lynn claimed not to need one, since she didn't have any advanced magic, but she had espoused their apparent helpfulness on the way back.

Upon receiving her cut, Tanya had looked through the ones at a few of the rinky-dink markets near the guild, and hadn't found any she liked. Mostly because they were expensive and she had very little money.

Long days shouting 'Smith' were undoubtedly ahead of her.

Dust had been the next best off. She'd paid his debts, and all he'd needed to do was suffer scathing glares from his friends. That wasn't too bad, in all honesty.

The others had only got their share of the sixty thousand total, which amounted to twelve thousand each. Not terrible, but not great, either.

Tanya adjusted her new hat as she ate. It was an outwardly faithful recreation of the officer's cap she'd worn whenever she wasn't in the air. For all intents and purposes, it looked like the standard issue caps that nearly every officer of rank wore in the Empire.

She'd gotten the red and green cloth from Lavandula easily. The woman wondered what she was doing with it, and Tanya had easily explained that she wanted to try and make something using 'Smith.'

Lavandula had laughed, and handed her ten times the amount of cloth she asked for. Tanya had been bewildered, but she had explained, "Smith works poorly on cloth. You'll need it, unless you want to learn something from me?"

Tanya had declined and made a hasty retreat at the enterprising look in her eyes.

The leather was also nearly free, since she'd gone to the Blacksmith to work for a few hours. She'd simply taken a number of strips of leather that he usually saved for the grips of his swords.

It was a bit different than her old one. Synthetic materials that she did not have access to were easily replaced by bits of leather or metal wire to hold its integrity, but no one could really knew the difference. The largest difference was what it would do.

Instead of declaring her rank – no one here would recognize military clothing from a world they'd never been to – it hid her circlet.

Hidden in the lining of the cap that was perched on her head, she could just press down on the top of the hat. The circlet would sink down with it, and it would be around her head instead of resting above it within the hat's lining.

Thankfully, unlike the first time she'd been given an officer's cap, this one wouldn't sink down her small head and over her eyes. She had grown up a bit.

It only slid past her eyebrows now.

She sighed happily, despite her hat still not fitting her completely. Having ready, easy access to the other relic was reassuring, even if there were drawbacks to using its full power. Finishing her meal, she stood up to leave.

Only to be stopped. A field of blue obscured her vision, so she tried to back up and glance upwards.

Soon, she found the face of the man who'd talked to Keith. He seemed to be looking at her, confusion marking his narrowed eyes.

"Can I help you?" she asked. Despite her neutral expression, she was jumping for joy inside. If she could integrate herself with someone so obviously wealthy, she could advance faster. Hopefully.

"Yes. Why are you adventuring, little one?"

The hair on the top of her head danced in annoyance under her hat, but Tanya quickly wiped the expression of anger from her face. He hadn't called her a loli, at least.

"I need to. Why does anyone?"

He nodded, the genial smile that had tried to mask the confusion in his eyes matching his furrowed eyebrows. "And I had thought…"

He bowed at the waist. "I apologize for interrupting your afternoon."

He turned to walk away. Well, she might as well. Getting to know strong, rich, and/or advanced people like him would be instrumental in her defeat of the Demon King.

She grasped at straws in an attempt to draw him back. "What's your name, anyway? It seems a bit rude to just ask me questions."

He paused, and turned back around, a somewhat amused smile marking his lips. "I am Kyouya Mitsurugi. And you?"

"Tanya von Degurechaff," she answered, her mind already racing beyond the conversation.

Was this a… Reincarnate? The other people here she met – Lynn and Keith and Taylor and Luna – had very western-sounding names. At the least, she'd never met a Japanese person named any of those things.

If he had this type of name…

He began to walk away, and Tanya's eyes narrowed.

"_An odd name, Mitsurugi Kyouya. Wherever did you get it?" _she said, testing the words of her first language for the first time in years.

He turned around in a moment, eyes wide. Speaking her first language had apparently gotten his attention.

"_You're a Reincarnate as well_?" he asked slowly, in Japanese as well. Tanya grinned.

A possible ally had been found. Both were getting odd looks from the adventurers around them, but Tanya paid them no mind.

"Yes," she replied. Both stood there, not knowing how to proceed. Then Mitsurugi spoke again, apparently decided on something.

"Nice. Would you care to continue our conversation?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. She nodded, and sat back down at the table she'd just vacated. A moment later, he also sat down.

They sat there again, waiting. Then Mitsurugi chuckled a bit. "This is pretty crazy, right? Being reincarnated by a Goddess into a fantasy world straight out of a video game to fight a Demon King, and everything else that comes with it."

Tanya winced at the mention of 'goddess', but nodded along. If he wanted to get duped, that was his problem. She wouldn't declare every being of power a god at the drop of a hat.

She'd fought too long to do that, to give up.

"Pretty crazy. You have any advice for a rookie like me?" she asked, strategically rubbing the back of her head to look unsure. Any advice would be good, and building an amicable relationship was her first goal.

Appearing to be wouldn't hurt either.

He chuckled a bit. "Well, I wouldn't suggest spending all of your money, but treating everyone in the guild to a drink is expected if you receive a windfall. Just get the cheapest stuff."

Tanya nodded. She would have never done something like that, since she needed every bit of money she could get. Being ostracized could be worse, though.

A ruined reputation would not do her wonders.

He seemed to think for a moment more, before snapping his fingers. "Right. You'll need a party, soon enough. They can really cover for any deficiencies in whatever job you've chosen."

Tanya nodded again. They talked for a bit longer, and then he stood, stretching. "You'll probably want to choose a class that takes advantage of your relic. I have the Cursed Sword Gram, so I became a Swordmaster."

Tanya chuckled nervously. "I chose the Adventurer job."

A silence stretched on, before he burst out laughing. "Right. Well, you'll want to change that as soon as you can. You need boosts that an actual class can provide," he lectured.

Tanya smiled, but discarded that advice. "Why do you assume my skill doesn't work best with the Adventurer job?"

He blinked, for a moment, before shrugging. "Your funeral."

He didn't know that she had tons of skills and magic from her last life. She wasn't giving any of it up. "Thank you very much, Mitsurugi."

He nodded as well and stood. "If you need any more advice, talk to Luna. She gives out information, and won't blink at any 'weird questions.' She'd met enough foreigners that nothing really fazes her," he said as he walked away.

He spun around again. "Unless… are you set on being an Adventurer? If you change to a Mage or Archmage or Priest, I'd have no problem accepting you into my party. I was passing through here looking for one, but none have really suited the party. I took a trip to a village supposedly full of them, but none of them really matched my team. If you would like…" he trailed off, leaving the promise of an easy way to become part of a party dangling in the air.

However, she knew what she needed to do, and no amount of temptation would get her to give up what she'd learned in her last life.

Tanya gave him a small smile. "No thanks. I need to be an Adventurer." He shook his head bemusedly, and shouted goodbye as he left. Tanya breathed a sigh of relief. Networking was always a chore, but she would benefit from the relationship.

He'd provided good advice, after all. Who knew what else she could get from him?

Suddenly, two girls sat down at the table he'd vacated, glaring daggers into Tanya's face. Tanya just raised an eyebrow. More people?

"What do you think you're doing, talking to Kyouya like that?" Tanya just tilted her head in confusion. Like what?

The other one slammed a hand onto the table like a hammer. "That's right. Are you trying to seduce _my_ Kyouya?"

Tanya colored rapidly. "Wha- Why would-?"

The one on the left snarled savagely, like a cat, and leveled a glance at her compatriot. "You can't trick us! Anyone would love to be the lover of _my_ Kyouya!"

…Perhaps, instead of calling either of the cat-like, a better description would be bitches in heat.

Both seemed to glare at each other for a moment, but neither let up in the unfriendly gazes sent Tanya's way. Tanya shook her head violently. "I would never try to do something like that, you crazy girls. Leave me be."

With that, Tanya left the Guild, heading for the exit and readjusting her hat. Really, the nerve of some people…

Both seemed to be bickering with each other, ignoring Tanya. She felt relieved. She'd profited greatly that day, and hopefully, nothing would ruin that while she tried to assemble a team and make her weapon.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** And there we have it! Tanya's first quest has occurred, and she's begun to find a way to make her gun. Reinventing gunpowder might actually be the hard part, but if you've read the Konosuba light novels, you can probably guess what's going to happen.

Dust is an interesting character, and while his role in the story is going to fade over time, he'll be around for a nice, long time.

Anyway, my question, this time, is: what's your favorite ship? I ship Tanya x Viktoriya – VikTanya? Tasha? – and I _will _ship them until the burning desire I feel for them getting together fades enough that death can finally claim me, but what about you?

My second favorite is, of course, Loria and a wood chipper.

I would like nothing more than to _personally_ facilitate their meeting.

Anyway, read on.


	6. Frustrations with Authority

Tanya sighed, wiping the glistening sweat from her forehead.

The Blacksmith had been surprised at her desire to come in to his shop and forge, day in and day out, only taking breaks to replenish her mana and eat, for the past week.

She was fine with the extra work, and her contract with heaven hadn't acted up. She did need her own weapons if she wanted to take out the Demon King, and working at making her Smith skill better would do that. It seemed to be have reached the same conclusion.

The initial surge of information the skill had given her, that week ago, had shown her that she would need to level up the skill if she ever wanted to get a gun.

Despite her desire to just pour all of her Skill Points into the Smith skill, she'd held off. Skill Points were, apparently, hard to get by just leveling up.

There were potions – and potion-making was more similar to cooking or chemistry than shouting arcane words and hoping the mixture would turn into a different color – but those potions cost more money than she thought she would ever get here.

So, she needed to work to get her skill to grow to the level where she was confident in being able to make herself a gun. Until then…

Making swords, spears, and daggers was all she could do. More complicated metal weaponry, like maces or axes, took much longer, and the Blacksmith didn't sell weapons like bows that were simple to make. Comparatively.

Holding it up to the light, her latest attempt at a cog shone. It was still imperfect, but it was closer.

The Type 95 hadn't had any maintenance in the seventeen days that she'd been here, besides a bit of cleaning. She wasn't going to bet that it would hold up forever, so she'd asked for a bit of paper from the Blacksmith.

One trip to the general store – the Blacksmith didn't have paper, besides to keep track of purchases and what little he gave to adventurers so they could name their weapons – had seen her meeting the balding old man that ran the place. He'd been overjoyed to have a customer, and she had thanked him in turn by buying more than she needed.

Sketches of the pieces of each of the components, from the outer casing to the smallest gear she could find, were done.

Recreating them with the technology available to her wouldn't be easy, and creating imperfect replicas would ensure that the thing would be inoperable in a few years. Preserving how they looked now was paramount.

Done with that, her day, now half gone from using Smith and drawing her Type 95's components as well as she could, she'd decided to take up another quest. The loan the guild had given her needed to be paid back, after all.

With a part-time job, she was no longer completely poor. She had signed a contract with the guild, however, and completing it was really the only short-term goal she could complete.

She could technically pay for the loan from her own pocket instead of completing it with money from quests, but she was saving up for a scepter.

A scepter was her next goal, and until she could afford the materials and had the experience to make a gun and bullets, a scepter would have to suffice. A simple stick would burn up in a matter of hours after usage, so something professionally made would be required.

Constantly spending her meager pay from the Blacksmith to pay for that loan would be troublesome, so she'd continued to do the occasional quest. Nothing much – just killing the occasional Giant Toad and watching over fields, mostly.

Today, however, there was a problem: All of the easy quests were gone, leaving only the ones that were above her level, according to the Guild's rules.

She was confident in her ability to kill 'One-Hit-Kill Bears', but Luna had forbid her from taking the quest until she was level fifteen and had a party of similarly strong accomplices.

Seeing as she had no friends that were willing to fight one – Taylor's party had blanched – and she was not level fifteen – she'd only risen another level in the past week, giving her a total of eight levels and nine Skill Points to use – Tanya was sure Luna wouldn't let her take on the quest.

"Can I please take this quest?" Tanya asked, handing the piece of paper to Luna.

She looked annoyed – whether it was for being interrupted or for having that question asked again, Tanya couldn't tell – and she raised an eyebrow as she spoke. "For the last time, Tanya, _no_. All of the easy quests have already been taken by the rush of new adventurers that always arrive in the spring. If you'd just get here earlier…"

Tanya sighed, annoyed. The reason she didn't come earlier was that she needed a large portion of her mana in order to actually be able to effectively use Smith and ensure that whatever she made was durable.

There was nothing for it, then. Tanya opened her purse, and laid a handful of Eris on the table. "To substitute for my required quest."

Luna obediently scooped up the money, stashing it away. Tanya turned, intending to leave, when a thought occurred to her.

"Hey Luna. I can put a request for teammates on the bulletin, right?" Luna nodded, and Tanya smiled.

She could at least take care of that problem. Luna provided a piece of paper, and Tanya wrote instructions, requirements, and information on it. One problem would be solved. She still wouldn't be able to take on many quests, but with more people, even Luna wouldn't limit her selection too much.

Tanya made her way out of the guild. She'd hang out at the Blacksmith's – maybe she would clean those hideously dirty windows or something – and man the counter.

Whenever she spoke with that disgustingly cute voice that had aided her throughout the war, she could get better deals than he did. He'd given her another job to do, whenever she had the time.

Tomorrow, she'd be sure to go out on a quest with whoever showed up.

-OxOxO-

Resting her head on her arms, figure slouched over the table closest to the bulletin board, Tanya glowered at the piece of paper she'd pinned there yesterday. She'd cut off her time at the Blacksmith's early and shown up for potential interviews, but no one had come.

People occasionally glanced at it, and some of them even seemed to go up to Luna to ask about it, but no one went any farther than that. Some just looked at it and moved on, while smiles broke out on the faces of others.

She'd laid everything out perfectly. She said what her job was, said she'd be leading, and said she was searching for anyone who could be of use. Luna had laid out that new adventurers were coming to the town regularly, with the end of spring upon them.

So _why _was nobody interested?

One more person glanced at it, before having the gall to actually double over laughing.

That was the last straw. Tanya marched up to the counter, and began to speak with Luna in low tones. "Hey. Why is everyone blowing off my request?"

As per usual, a small smile flashed across her face before her answer. "I took a look at it. While there isn't anything wrong in your attempts at recruiting a party member, you aren't going to get many members."

Tanya merely raised an eyebrow, and Luna elaborated. "Well," she said, clasping her hands together, "you're an _Adventurer_. Even if people were willing to party up with someone with that job, the fact that you want to lead puts people off as well. They assume you're low level, and that you haven't changed your class yet. Having someone weak lead them is only going to appeal to people who are desperate."

Just as Tanya was about to march over to the request, Luna piped up again. "Plus, the few that have asked about it become totally uninterested once I start to describe you physically." While Tanya was wondering what _that_ had to do with it, Luna just shook her head at the girl.

Luna was wondering when the noble would just give up and go back to their mansion. While Dust was proof that not all blonde haired people were nobles – he didn't have any particular skills to speak of, besides wasting money – this girl had plenty of power that would be better fit to the upper echelons of the world she had clearly left.

Unaware of the receptionist's thoughts, Tanya narrowed her eyes at the woman and turned, walking over and taking down the request.

Tanya sighed. It was obvious that no one wanted to quest with a twelve-year-old. She would have to try a different tactic, then.

Muttering under her breath, Tanya scribbled furiously.

-OxOxO-

The sun rose and cast a streak of light onto Tanya's face. As she did every morning, she shook the hay off of herself and prepared for the day by getting dressed.

Unlike other mornings, however, she didn't start her day by sitting down in the Guild to eat.

Instead, she quickly glanced at the bulletin board, grabbed the first easy quest she could find, and then sat down.

She'd have a full breakfast, instead of the grab n' go stuff she'd been having for the past week in an attempt to get more time at the Blacksmith's. She would go on this quest today, even if it meant she didn't have a party.

She glanced around, and noticed a distinct lack of people. The waitress she usually ordered from wasn't there, and even Luna, ever enslaved to her work, had come in later than Tanya.

To Tanya's growing horror, there were very few people in the guild. Dust was there, but Tanya had started to see him as a fixture of the guild that occasionally moved, whenever it didn't have the money to buy drinks.

A few others were there too, but most of them weren't newbie adventurers Tanya was hoping to form a party with. They were all old hands, getting drunk early in the morning or hitting on the waitresses that were so sparse today.

Besides them and the ever-present debt collectors that always had their eyes glued to Dust, no one was there.

No one was looking at the bulletin board and the request she'd made.

She'd omitted her job, said she could use the 'Detonation' spell Lynn had mentioned, and even stated that she would be happy in any team willing to accept a new member. She didn't even have to lead it.

And yet, no one was there. The entire guild seemed barren.

Tanya slowly walked to the counter, staring holes into Luna's head. For her part, she only flinched a little. It seemed she was used to dealing with irate adventures.

"I made the request more reasonable, as per your suggestion, and yet no one is here. I would like to know if you all decided to play a prank on me, or if there's some sort of holiday today."

Luna, after composing herself a bit, supplied an answer. "The explanation is simple: today is Sunday."

_Twitch._

Right. Tanya inhaled deeply as she realized what that meant. Medieval society went hand in hand with religion.

Tanya exhaled. "Fine. Is there some sort of ban on hunting monsters on this day, or something stupid like that?"

Luna scoffed. "Of course not. The Eris Cult is vehemently against the undead and Demons, so they endorse monster hunting, for the most part. The Eris Cult is the nationally endorsed religion, so many people go and listen to sermons and pray on this day, to… ensure… success…?" Luna trailed off, looking at the increasingly twitchy eyelids and hair of Tanya.

_Cult?_

_Eris _Cult?

_Nationally endorsed_ Eris Cult?

Tanya gave Luna a wide grin, vainly attempting to hide the anger she radiated. Luna backed up a step, retreating into the area only the receptionists could be in.

The money she'd been using and hounding after was named after a supposed god. The reason her notice wasn't getting attention was due to a religion.

"I had thought you more sensible, but are you part of the infamous Axis Cult that possess a burning hatred of the Eris Cult?" Luna muttered.

A rather nasty scowl overtook her face. The Type 95 began to shine through her clothing, and Tanya attempted to reign in her mana, if not her anger.

At least they called themselves a cult, instead of trying to hide it behind pretty words. There were two of them, and if they were called _cults_, there were likely more. Damnable. _Religions_.

Smoothing over her features, Tanya tried to cut off the interaction so she could find somewhere to curse Being X.

"Thank you for your help, Luna, I'd like to take this quest, please! And don't _ever _suggest I'd belong to something like that!" she said, slamming down the piece of paper onto the countertop. A dent was left, and Tanya was thankful that cracks hadn't developed in the marble counter.

Hesitantly, Luna took the quest, before gulping. Tanya tried to calm down, but if she told her that she couldn't go on the quest…

Luna chuckled nervously. "Well, I don't think I can let you go on this quest, but I do have an idea."

Tanya said nothing, waiting. If she really did have a better idea, she would listen.

Seeing that she didn't have to call for help, Luna continued. "While I can't let you take on something dangerous like Lizard Runners or One-Hit-Kill Bears, I do have something suited to your rumored talents."

Anger receding, Tanya responded. "I'm listening."

-OxOxO-

Damn it, Damn it, Damn it!

Luna had told her this would be easy, if she knew Detonation magic. Tanya did, in a sense – her Artillery Shot spell was probably similar to this Detonation they kept talking about, and maybe her Explosive Vaporization was like the 'Blast' spell Lynn had mentioned during their quest? – and had readily signed up to help the quarry with some controlled explosives.

Unfortunately, a Fire Drake had been nesting on one of the rocks. She'd thought they'd be easy to beat, and that they were just overgrown lizards.

How'd they be able to resist an explosion?

'Very easily' was the answer to that question.

One Explosive Vaporization later, and Tanya was staring the angry beast in the face after its sky-high flight. Her attack might have done damage, but the spell had failed to kill it.

Tanya had been forced to throw herself into the quarry as it tried to bite down on her. She didn't have the room to pretend to run around and use her Flight spells, so sliding down a hill was her best option.

That had lead to a chase around the place. She'd tossed the occasional spell at it, but it seemed to shrug off almost every one. It had to be tiring by now, right?

She hoped so. Something had been hurt on her way down the hill. It wasn't fatal, but it was a pain to stand.

She peered around the corner she'd hidden behind, only to come face to face with a large, reptilian snout. A shouted "Active Barrier" saved her from immolation.

Sweat burst into being everywhere on her body. Her shield, while saving her, was now acting as a very fancy pressure cooker. The flames must have been magical as well, because they were eating through her shield fast. If she didn't act soon, she'd be cooked alive.

Seeing no other option, she drew the _Seitengewehr_ and began to walk forward, increasing the mana in her Active Barrier and weighing the pros and cons of using the Type 95.

The Fire Drake cut off its flame, and if Tanya had been asked to classify what it looked like, she would have sworn that it looked mildly surprised she wasn't burnt to a crisp.

Without the force of its flames to hold her back, Tanya flew forward, nearly tripping. She dropped her shield and plunged her blade into the thing's scaly neck.

Mana-enhanced steel slipped in between scales, and Tanya leapt away, ready for more.

The lizard, it seemed, was not, and it sank to the ground as blood gushed from its neck.

Sighing in relief, Tanya looked up the hill she'd slid down. "Anything else?" she asked, panting.

A rather hurried conversation had followed, where the manager had apologized for not realizing the thing was there. Fully grown Fire Drakes, naturally resistant against anything that involved heat and fire, could withstand a Detonation or two, apparently, and it should have been attacked by a full team. Tanya thanked the man, and continued blasting rock with the little wisps of mana she had left.

His explanation revealed one thing: she needed to get a party. She'd never be allowed to fight things stronger than this is she didn't have a full team, and if she ever were allowed to fight things like that, she'd wind up dead.

She could also use the Type 95, but that would probably lead to her…

She frowned. She wouldn't be declared a religious lunatic, no, but she might start a cult of her own if she was left under the control of the Type 95 for too long.

-OxOxO-

Tanya slowly made her way back to the Guild.

She'd finished her job of using 'Detonation' to help with the quarry. She'd used the spell a few more times before the foreman had cleared her to go. The aching pain in her abdomen had grown during that time.

She had definitely cracked a rib falling down that hill. Maybe even broken it.

But that didn't matter. She didn't have the income to wait in bed for a few months for it to heal, and she had never learned any spells that helped with healing from the expensive and constantly in-demand Medical Mages that made the Empire their home.

She'd have to try and bandage the wound, and she would have to hope it didn't become infected or that it had punctured a lung.

Arriving at the guild at last, Tanya staggered in. She trudged over to the counter, and placed her card on the counter. "Luna. I finished the quest."

Luna cast a quick glance at Tanya, before doing a double take. Tanya grimaced. Did she really look that bad?

Luna took the card and inserted it into the card reader, glancing worriedly at Tanya all the while. For her part, she just tried to suppress the pain.

Soon enough, the machine made a ding, and Luna handed the card back, along with a bag of coins. "Are you okay? You took down a Fire Drake all on your own."

Tanya flashed her a quick smile. "Yeah, I just think I broke a rib. I'll try to set it, but this'll be a hassle," she lamented.

"Do you want to be healed?"

Tanya's eyes widened. They had healing magic?

She voiced her question, and Luna, shaking her head at Tanya's apparent lack of knowledge, said, "Well… _yes,_ of course. I'll call for some aid, so please, just rest in the tavern."

Tanya nodded, and made her way to the eatery. Soon enough, a waitress approached and Tanya placed her order. Fried frog was pretty good, and having something good in her would probably make the healing process bearable.

Other than the frog, her meal consisted of as much food as she could afford to buy. Mages expended a lot of energy using magic, and Tanya wasn't an exception, especially after that fight.

She might have wanted to save money on food, but dying because she didn't eat properly would be unimaginably humiliating.

Actually, wait. Dying to those Horned Rabbits would be _truly _humiliating.

"How'd that happen?" asked someone. Tanya glanced their way. She didn't remember his name - did it start with a J? – but he had treated her to a meal once and explained why harvesting food was even a job.

She began to explain quickly. The one who'd told her that food often tried to defend itself gasped, and began to shout to the entire guild. "You beat a Fire Drake on your own?"

Adventurers began to congregate around her. There weren't many, seeing as it was, according to Luna, Sunday, but ten of them seemed to have decided that listening to this was better than waiting for their meals.

Aware that she wasn't getting away, she began to tell them about the adventure. The specifics of what magic she'd used was left out, but they were impressed nonetheless. Talking and eating might upset her rib, but increasing her repute among the adventures would go a long way to getting her teammates.

"Clear the way!" came a shout over the din of conversation. The adventurers moved, and Luna approached, followed by…

A priest. Or, rather, a Priest. Someone who dedicated their lives to some ethereal creature they couldn't see.

Tanya's eye twitched.

It made sense, no doubt. Priests were associated with their gods, and what better way to scam people than to heal them and then ask for some exorbitant fee?

The table and Tanya groaned as she pushed against it, but she was standing all the same. The priest held up her hands in front of her body, motioning for her to stop. "You don't need to stand, miss! Please, sit back down, and I'll have that on the way to recovery in no time."

Tanya glared at her, and the woman backed away. "I think I feel better now," she said stiffly, attempting to stand up straight.

Neither of them, nor the adventurers around her, looked particularly convinced. "Now, now. There's no need to be shy. Just sit back down, please."

Tanya remained standing, for a moment, before she sat back down. "How much will this cost? I won't have it done if it's too much."

Luna and the Priest looked at each other, before the latter began to speak nervously. "Well, we usually ask for around thirty thousand from the adventurer if the injury isn't life threatening…" she trailed off, backing away with the rest of the crowd at Tanya's glare.

It was cheaper than she expected and also more than she would have liked. And that caveat of 'from the adventurer' meant she was also taking money from the guild. Still, this was bypassing weeks and months of recovery, so she didn't have much choice. Tanya passed the bag of money she'd just earned to the woman.

"Take exactly thirty thousand, and not an Eris more," she said stiffly. Luna nodded, and the priest began to chant.

Tanya grit her teeth and let out a hiss of breath between clenched teeth. The magic didn't feel like anything that Being X, the two relics she had, or Aqua had done to her. It was revitalizing in the way a long night of sleep was.

Still, she didn't like it.

Soon enough, the pain faded, and Tanya breathed deeply. Broken ribs were always annoying.

Tanya supplied the woman a stiff "Thank you," and then began to make her way out of the Guild. She needed to get to the Blacksmith's and do some work. She'd been planning to spend that money on a new scepter.

She'd just have to work harder, then.

-OxOxO-

Tanya breathed a sigh of relief as she stared at her Adventurer's Card.

Her Strength stat had risen, and she hadn't gained a level.

Of course, the Fire Drake had given her a boost. She was close to leveling up.

That her Strength stat had increased, solely through working, using the Smith skill, and fighting meant that she wasn't limited to leveling up to increase her stats. Exercising could also increase her stats, even if it was just by a few points.

She glanced at her Skill Points. She had nine of them.

Shrugging her shoulders, Tanya studied her older skills as she walked back to the stables that served as her home. She had nine points, and nothing to spend them on.

Of course, she could just pour all of them into Smith or One-Handed Swordsmanship, if she really wanted to upgrade something. She needed more skill in both, if she was going to survive until she could make a gun.

Scrolling through her skills, dozens passed her eyes. Her various Flight spells could have their maximum height increased. Not important in a world where flight seemed to be a fantasy to most people, instead of just restricted to those who knew how to in her last one.

Her Artillery Shot spell could have its maximum power increased. She didn't think she'd run into anything that could withstand that spell very well, but she'd keep it in mind.

The Fire Drake had withstood an Explosive Vaporization, after all. Something might be able to take an Artillery Shot, like the Bloody Valkyrie had been able to.

Her Active Barrier spell could have its defense increased. She could enchant blades to be even stronger, or to have a fantastic effect. She could make her Napalm spells even more destructive or longer lasting. All were intriguing, but none seemed right.

Then one seized her interest. Her Reinforcement spells…

There were _more _of them.

The one's she had now increased their target's pain tolerance, Strength, and Dexterity. An increase in all three was needed in order to withstand the forces that mages underwent every time they fought.

The 203rd and some of the enemies she had fought against could _react_ to bullets, with their help. Not guess that they were coming, but react to the signals that they received from Observation spells or even their own senses, if enough mana was used.

But it said on her card that, in addition to being able to increase their efficiency, other stats could be boosted by giving up mana.

She could increase any of her stats, besides Magic-Power. She could increase her Agility, Intelligence, or even Luck.

Tanya grinned.

She looked at the one that increased her Agility. It cost…

Eight Skill Points.

She looked back up at the Skill Points she had. She'd be down to one if she got it, but she'd be able to increase her speed directly, instead of just pouring mana into her Flight spells.

She sighed, and poked the skill, and then touched the profile of her head. She felt her knowledge of the Reinforcement spells changing.

She blinked. Of course, it had been so simple. How hadn't anyone else in the Empire yet realized this?

It was quite odd to realize how to better utilize something she had believed she had once mastered, but she didn't dislike the feeling. In a way, she imagined this was what Schugel must have been like before he'd been infected by Being X's simpering tones.

She took a deep breath, and she began to pour the mana she'd recovered since leaving the Blacksmith's shop into the spell. "Reinforcement spell: Agility."

She began to walk. In ten seconds, she crossed the entire stretch from the store she'd just passed to the Guild. She turned, and ran in the other direction, reaching that same store in only two seconds.

She cut off the mana, and chuckled. By using her Flight spells, she had been able to outpace planes in her last life, and with this, she'd be able to outrun the cars from her last life too.

With how many Skill Points had been in her Flight spells when she got here, she could fly faster than she could run. Doing this cost much less mana, which made it well worth it in a world where she would be battling most enemies on the ground, until she got a proper Computation Jewel and just flew above all of her problems.

Pleased with herself, she turned back to the guild, only to trip on a flagstone and smash into the road.

…Yeah, she'd run out of mana.

She waited for someone to help her, or for her mana to return. It seemed as though she still had a lot of growing to do, and the one skill point she had left wouldn't help much.

More than ever, she really needed a team.

-OxOxO-

Aqua whimpered.

In Heaven, it had been a few days since her mistake. Reincarnation and the general processing of souls had been halted since then, as the windbag and the other bigwigs decided how to react to The Atheist getting another relic and chance at life.

But that didn't matter that much to her.

Gods and Goddesses, both weak and strong, had come in spades. They'd gloated, taunted, raged, cried, and nearly everything in between, asking why she'd done that when it wasn't even her fault.

It wasn't her fault entirely, anyway.

That overblown windbag shouldn't have locked up The Atheist's files. The system shouldn't have gone through while there were two relics in possession of the Reincarnate. She had a dozen other excuses, but all of them boiled down to 'Why are you blaming poor Aqua when there are plenty of other things to blame?'

Even _angels _had shown up to mock her and declare that they should be elevated to her position. Only one of them had even been remotely polite about the whole affair.

Now all of them were here, every single God and Goddess and Deity, in the largest expanse in Heaven, to discuss the Resurrection Project. Now that a major incident had occurred, they needed to make sure that everything would be fine for the foreseeable future by pooling their power.

The windbag said he'd keep their ideas in mind, but truthfully, no one really expected him to listen to them.

He'd simply nodded his head at each of their proposals. The project should be shut down because of the possibility for mistakes caused by cocky teens and resistive braggarts. The contracts should be more complete. They should rescind the wish portion from the contract all together, and just tell whoever they reincarnated that they should be happy to have a second life.

Eventually, after nodding his head absently at each of the millions of proposals, he stood. His outer demeanor was calm, but the roiling clouds from which this part of Heaven was composed told a different story.

"Everyone. I have heard your proposals, and I think there is one topic missing from what has been suggested: What to do about The Atheist."

Whether it was a witty pun to hide it, or full blown, entire body shaking, discomfort was shown at the introduction of this particular topic. No one said a thing, however.

In their entire history, almost no one had simply thought they _weren't _Gods. They'd been called false Gods, true Gods, pretenders, or visions of the Devil.

No matter what they were called, nearly everyone they contacted directly thought that they were, in some form, Gods or divine beings of some sort.

From the small pool of people who still doubted them after their revelations, none lived long enough to regret their choices.

All but one.

They were all wary of someone who could survive everything they could throw at them, apart from actual combat with a Deity.

Still, no one suggested that they had a good idea about The Atheist. Doing so could imply that they thought they knew how to best her, and suggesting that you could do something even the head honcho hadn't yet done was a very fast way to get you punished. Severely.

"Luckily," the being at the head of the table said, "I have a solution."

He pulled out a copy of the contract that bound most of the souls of the Reincarnates, and pointed a page. "The contract now states that The Atheist, in addition to the Demon King, is a target. We've provided a full description of her, and the added incentive of her relics to aid them on their quest to destroy the Demon King," he declared.

Everyone clapped.

That meant they wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of keeping track of the relics after their owner died and that the Demon King would be defeated all the sooner, since someone having multiple relics obviously made them more powerful.

Aqua shivered, looking up and down the table at those who looked rather indifferent to the whole affair.

While The Atheist might have been creepy or disconcerting in her ability to resist their power, the Demon King was a threat. He had convinced a number of _them_, the Gods and Goddesses, to abstain from his fight against Heaven, or to even rebel and support him.

Wolbach, having left and been sealed long ago, was the most conspicuous absence. Others were missing. Gods that weren't widely worshiped, or who disagreed with the head honcho's newest policies that had been sparked by The Atheist.

With that last declaration, the meeting was dismissed, and everyone either disappeared or walked to the transportation circles place throughout the room.

Aqua sighed as she was moved. She'd do better, this time. She knew it.

She soon arrived in the waiting room. Eris quickly walked over to her, waving a piece of paper in her face. "Er, Aqua, He changed the rules on what constitutes as 'young' in order to drive up the number of people reincarnated, and he's shifted your scope outside of Japan," she said, trying to hand the paper to her.

Aqua growled as she talked. Perfect Eris. She'd never done anything to annoy anyone, and she didn't even try to interact with anyone beyond work. She just did her job, getting endless praise from everyone for being lucky.

Except for her. Aqua hadn't once thought the girl was more than what she was: an overblown, breast-padding brown-nosing workaholic.

"Oh please. If that's all he changed, then it doesn't mean all that much. I'll get some different types of humans is all. Just open up the gates already," she commanded.

Eris began to rise up to the ceiling, muttering about the windbag needing her. Aqua just shook her head as she walked forward to greet someone new. Someone who wasn't The Atheist.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Well, that is that. Tanya is coming to realize that getting a team that she wants isn't going to be as easy as she hoped and simply having one she can live with is more important than she thought. Meanwhile, we see that Aqua's getting bullied and that Being X has cooked up another scheme.

Sending teenagers to fight against a war veteran is a good idea, right? There's no way that things won't turn out for the worst, right?

Anyway, my question to you all for this chapter is: do you think Aqua is more trouble than she is worth?

She's been called useless, obviously, but she _has _helped Kazuma's party in various different situations. Of course, she also causes just as many problems as she solves. What do you all think? Make sure to comment your answer, or even if you just enjoyed the chapter.


	7. Meetings Good and Bad

Tanya stretched as she rose. Another day.

Hopefully, she'd actually get a team today. She'd left Taylor's after gaining experience with the whole concept, and after killing a Fire Drake yesterday, a few adventurers that didn't have parties would join her for sure.

Luna had told her she could just switch to being an Archmage if she really wanted teammates, and Tanya had, once again, spurned her advice. She _needed _the skills she had.

Blearily, she looked around her room. Everything looked like it had yesterday. Clothing left hanging on a clothesline, relics stashed under the patch of hay she was laying on. Everything looked normal.

But something felt…off.

She stood, and looked into the main area. Two adventurers were standing conversing. That seemed normal too.

She looked out her window, into the pastures just outside of the walls of Axel. Nothing.

She dressed hastily. She had once thought that feelings of foreboding were irrational, and while she still believed that…

They had also helped her in a surprising number of situations. She wouldn't ignore them.

She paced into the main area, and began to head out of the wide doors, rushing to find somewhere she could utilize her abilities if she was attacked. As she walked past the pair of adventurers, their mouths and hands, moving animatedly, stopped.

The hair on their head froze. Their happy expressions on their faces became fixed.

They had _stopped_.

The feeling of anxiety passed and a grin broke out on Tanya's face. Finally!

She'd been wondering how long it would take him to get in gear.

"Well, well, well. Finally found the time to speak to me, Being X?" she gloated.

The faces of the two adventurers, rookies like her by the look of their gear, changed from happy to grimaces full of loathing.

"My lost lamb, so far from her home. Still faithless, despite the new world you've come to inhabit. You need only pray in order to-"

Tanya cut him off with a ringing, frantic burst of laughter.

Shaking her head, Tanya began to speak. "Oh, Being X. You've tried so hard to 'redeem' me, to turn me to your side, it's honestly pathetic. In order for reform to take place, a problem needs to be recognized, and I have done _nothing _wrong. You on the other hand…"

She spat her last question at him, and she was shocked to see that both of the people he was controlling were looking down, as if… sad.

She shook her head, ignoring the ploy, and Tanya wiped the shock off of her face and grinned arrogantly. "Now, if you're here, I was wondering… should I simply wish you out of existence, or replace you?"

The pair of eyes trained on her narrowed, but Tanya simply raised an eyebrow, daring him to think that she was lying.

The eyes trained on her both widened. "Oh, don't think I forgot about that. Aqua was quite nice, telling me all about how I'd get one rule free wish. I thought about simply wishing to go back to either of my other worlds, but…"

Tanya trailed off, and she frowned. "The 203rd was almost completely dead by the time we settled in to drink at that pub, and I don't think the ones that did survive the initial bombings would wait around to keep getting bombed. Without them, there's really no point in going back to a place where I'll be in even more danger. My original life is an option, but for destroying my friends, I think I'll take some petty revenge. So should I depose you, or…"

Tanya giggled a bit. "Maybe I'll make you live out _my _lives? That would be interesting. Of course, if I wanted you to really experience pain, I'd just wish for you to be born as a slave. That'd teach you, right? You'll learn not to give people who _despise_ you the means to kill you, at least. Or…"

She smirked. "Maybe I'll wish that you no longer believe in _yourself_? What would happen, I wonder, if you were to stop believing in your own infallibility?"

Both of the bodies he was inhabiting seemed quiet and contemplative. Tanya took a breath. She'd managed to shut the idiot up.

"It seems I am running out of time to use Eris's followers to speak to you," he muttered, giving Tanya yet more information. "Know this, _Tanya_. You are nothing more than an annoying fly."

Tanya just rolled her eyes. She'd been called every lowly creature under the sun, from 'worm' to, on the day she had been officially promoted to Major-General, 'amoeba.'

He seemed to not care that she wasn't exactly paying close attention to his long-winded speech, which was a change of pace. "Yes. An annoying fly. Luckily, I found the flyswatter."

With that, time resumed its normal pace, and the two adventurers shook their heads, before continuing their conversation. Tanya stared at the spot they had been frozen in, before turning back to the entrance and walking into the sweltering summer heat of the Kingdom of Belzerg.

He claimed to have a solution to her. That didn't bode well…

-OxOxO-

Gripping the rod she'd just purchased, Tanya walked into the guild.

Yes, she'd caved and finally decided to spend her hard-earned cash on a scepter. The possibility of Being X trying something meant she couldn't afford to take the extra effort casting magic through her fingers would incur.

So she'd bought something simple. It wasn't a gnarled stick, which was its only saving grace.

She smiled to herself as people around her took notice of the scepter. She was an Imperial Mage, after all.

She wouldn't be using something like _that _to channel mana through.

A long rod of polished, dark wood half of her height, the… scepter was topped by a pair of metal claws grasping a red orb. The shop owner had assured her the type of crystal – or gem, she could care less – enhanced the effectiveness of fire or heat-based spells, which was helpful, if true.

Tanya didn't particularly care. She just wanted to ensure her fingers wouldn't explode from too much concentrated mana. Hopefully, she could make an attachment that, after paying the Blacksmith for the materials, allowed for her _Seitengewehr _to be attached to it.

Walking in, it didn't look like everyone there was out to kill her. That was good. Hopefully, Being X hadn't decided to plant suggestions in their heads that she was untrustworthy.

She walked up to Luna, who seemed to be talking to some of the other adventurers. She spotted her, and made to finish with them. They gave her a cordial goodbye, and then began to converse with Tanya. "You finally decided to switch, then? I can't tell you how long I've been hoping you wouldn't get yourself killed while playing at-"

"Actually," Tanya interrupted, preparing herself for another lecture, "I didn't. I'm still an Adventurer."

The genuine smile that had lit up Luna's face quickly decayed, becoming stiff. "Well. As you know, the Guild recommends that you change your job, since you have the stats for it. If you couldn't, I wouldn't badger you so much, but since you continue to act so willfully…"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Right. Well, I just wanted to say hi. Has anyone checked out my request?" she asked, looking towards her request for a team.

It seemed to have been buried under yet another layer of requests for monster clearing and help with harvesting vegetables. She'd have to rescue it, and maybe put it in the more sparsely furnished corners. It might only be buried under scorn instead of having a heaping pile of paper on it as well.

"No. No one is desperate enough to party up with an Adventurer."

Tanya sent a glare at the woman, before marching up to the board. She perused them, for a moment, before her eyes hovered over one.

…it had to be a joke, right?

Who would pay _that_ much to have squirrels exterminated?

She picked it up, and walked over to the counter. "Hey Luna. This one is a joke, right?"

Luna glanced at it, glanced at Tanya's face, and then shook her head. "Foreigner, right. They might not be a big deal where _you _come from, but Squirrels are dangerous. Their barbs can rip through cloth, so you need armor, and they attack in large packs, so if they swarm you, you could be turned into mincemeat."

Tanya tried very hard not to let her lower jaw hang too close to the floor. Barbs?

Tanya sighed, and then checked the paper again. It said you could take the quest regardless of level.

Tanya informed Luna of that fact, and she gave Tanya a slightly more hostile smile than normal in return. "While that is true, I wouldn't recommend it."

Tanya merely raised her eyebrows, and Luna sighed, letting the permanent smile droop ever-so-slightly. "Fine. You've surpassed everyone's expectations so far. Just pray that you'll survive in one piece."

Tanya clenched her jaw and continued to smile. Just for that, she'd make sure she came back without a scratch. They were squirrels, after all. How hard could they be?

Tapping her foot impatiently, Tanya hurried passed the next person in line with her quest in hand. She bumped into the next person in line accidentally, and she spat out a quick apology as she hurried out the doors. She had a job to do.

-OxOxO-

Tanya scowled as she thought back to her fight, taking a moment to rest in between the hills that lined the path back to Axel. They were tougher than she had thought, for sure.

They were as fast as Squirrels from her last two lives, which was slightly intimidating when there were twenty of them and were all the size of bulldogs. Still, she'd assumed they couldn't touch her in the air.

Like with the Giant Toads, they proved to be more resourceful than she gave them credit for. They'd tried jumping at her, and, when that failed, the chestnut trees they ransacked became springboards.

She had, of course, evaded them. Mostly. One had managed to land a scratch on her Active Barrier spell, and had cut through half of the mana she'd supplied it.

Not as impressive as what she could do, but it was scary that these things could pack as much punch as some guns.

Armed with her scepter, she'd quickly rained a pair of Explosive Vaporization spells down on them. Most of them had perished, and the few that hadn't had been quickly taken care of by her _Seitengewehr._

Tanya adjusted her officer's cap as she walked back to Axel through the heat. The hat had originally been made with the intention of never leaving the battlefields of Europe which was, on the whole, much less warm than it was here. Her usage of less synthetic materials didn't exactly help ventilate it all that much.

The whistle of the air was the only warning she had. Instinct took over, and an Active Barrier was silently thrown up and shattered in an instant.

Still, whoever attacked her had paused. That was all Tanya needed.

Her blade rang as it exited its sheath as fast as Tanya's pain-dulled, mana-reinforced body would let her swing it. And as hard as she had hit, the attack was blocked by a sword longer than her own arm.

Thankfully, physics helped her, and her own attack, bolstered by magic, carried through. The opponent's blade was sent flying, along with its owner, down the trail.

"Reinforcement spell: Agility!"

Tanya smirked, ran forward, and slammed her assailant with the butt of her staff. A muffled grunt left their body as they hit the ground.

Tanya snarled, and pulled back her blade. Her attempt to skewer the fool were parried, but she didn't let up.

A slash, a slash, a stab, and a swing of her blade were all repulsed, and Tanya let go of her agility buff as she prepared another strike. Expecting the attack before it came, her attacker overextended their own blade.

Tanya grinned.

Swinging both her weapons, the top of her scepter hit them in the knee while her blade pierced his arm.

No scream rang out, and the opponent took advantage of her shock at their lack of reaction, swinging their sword in a wide circle. Tanya dodged back easily, chuckling internally.

They'd had the opportunity to attack her, and they'd gone for a flashy and useless move to create space?

At least her opponent was hardy, if they could still fight with a hole in their arm. She'd take the time to study them when they weren't a threat.

"They were right, you are strong. But I will prevail. I figured out what you were doing, and I laid in wait. As th-"

Tanya cut off the monologuing fool with an Explosive Vaporization. As much as she would have liked to take to the air and wait for the blood in his body drain from his arm, her fight against the squirrels had drained her. This needed to end fast.

He tried to dodge, but the ball of fiery light followed him, hitting his blade. It seemed to shrug off the hit, and Tanya grimaced.

"Hey! I was talking there. You shouldn't interrupt me; it isn't honorable."

He let his sword tip drop past his slacks to the ground, entering a clearly non-threatening stance, and Tanya shot him a confused look. Honor?

Tanya shook her head. What a fool. However…

"I am sorry. Could you please carry on?" she asked sweetly. He smirked, and then began to speak again, brandishing his sword to and fro.

Tanya chuckled. She had no problem utilizing the idiocy of honor bound fools to her own advantage.

"As I was saying… as one of the Goddess Aqua's chosen, I'll defeat you, the hated Atheist, claim your relics for my own, and go on to defeat the Demon King! It was a mistake for you to brush passed me this morning; I might not have recognized you otherwise."

Tanya merely smiled sweetly at him, eyeing his wounded arm and cursing herself internally. Blood was beginning to pool around his right foot, staining his leather shoes. His unhealthy pallor was becoming even whiter. She just had to keep the idiot talking.

"What does your weapon do, oh noble hero?"

Seemingly oblivious to the blood running down his arm, he gestured to his weapon proudly. "It increases all of my stats, gives me an unparalleled ability in swordsmanship, and make me immune to pain! It is clearly the best weapon for one working to defeat an evil entity in a game-like world!"

His shouting became strained, and his breathing, labored from his fight, was now labored for a different reason. Raising his blade again, he said, "Now, prepare to-"

"Flight!" she cried.

Tanya cut him off, flying higher than she had when fighting the squirrels, scepter in hand. She raised it above her head, and her opponent raised his sword to block it. The sword would have deflected her hit, and, after she had launched herself into the air using her Flight spells, she'd be too fatigued to fight him off.

Of course, she wasn't planning on swinging her scepter. A quick adjustment of her Flight spells shot her to the ground, faster than gravity ever could, and she kicked him in the stomach, underneath his blade.

He cried out in pain, and collapsed to the ground. Tanya landed, and kicked his sword away from him. As soon as his fingers left the grip, he began to scream. Tanya ignored it, grabbed his sword, and tossed it.

With her strength, that meant it cleared the hill, landing on the other side. He'd never get it.

"What… did you _do _to me?" he cried, grasping his arm. Tanya didn't respond. She looked at him, for a moment, and then let her scepter fall to the dirt as she grasped the handle of her blade in both hands.

Her shadow obstructed the sun, just starting to dip down in the sky, throwing the person's face into clarity. Tanya winced slightly, but continued her motions.

"Wait… please…" he gasped.

Tanya shook her head slowly, and plunged her sword into the kid's neck.

Because that was what he was. His uniform, the now paper-white flesh on his face, and the glasses he was wearing all pointed to that fact. He was a kid, in over his head and high on the idea of a real-life video game.

Grimacing, she gazed at his body for a few moments. "Really? You'd stoop to sending _children _after a soldier?" she said, speaking to the wind. Being X could monitor her, and she hoped he was.

She looked towards the sky. "I thought you couldn't sink any lower. It is hypocritical of me, I know, for killing them when I so deplore the waste, but why would you _do _this? It's wasteful, and just a little bit sickening that you'd force people who haven't even graduated from high school to fight a soldier twice their age, mentally speaking."

She glared at the sky for a moment longer. Then she set to work.

A quick search of his pockets found a few items: a wallet, a few pieces of gum, and, most importantly, his contract.

Like her own, it was titled 'Contract of Reincarnation and Opposition to the Demon King' in bold lettering. Unlike her own, a smaller line underneath the title said, "and The Atheist."

The Atheist. Tanya raised an eyebrow. _That _was the best name Being X had for her? He could have at least followed her naming sense and called her 'Heretic X,' or something.

She skimmed the table of contents and flipped to the pages dealing with her. Both of Tanya's eyebrows rose.

A picture of her, eyes glowing gold, glared at her from the pages. A short description of likeness, personality, and abilities followed.

For all the detail they had captured her likeness with, the way they described her personality was warped. They didn't even say _why _she'd decided to oppose them, just that she had and that she was dangerous.

The description of her abilities was equally lackluster. It went over what she could do, but didn't give any specifics.

She raised an eyebrow at the last line. Among the other strategies they suggested – most of which boiled down to 'get out of Axel and fight her once you've leveled up' – they told them to use mental warfare by mentioning the one she… loved.

Tanya fought down the faint blush she could feel radiating off of her cheeks. Viktoriya was not her 'love.' She was… no, she had been a close confidant, and nothing more.

And… even if Tanya did harbor some feelings, Viktoriya would never return them. There was no way someone raised in 20th century Europe would be like that, and if Tanya tried to delude herself, she'd just set herself up for failure-

She blinked. Why was she still thinking about it?

She shook her head, staring down at the piece of paper. She had gotten very… distracted by that. And she had only just read a single, throwaway line of text in a mountain of legal documents.

She scowled. She'd just have to watch herself. Getting tripped up by unrequited feelings was dangerous, and it wasn't like they even mattered.

She sighed sadly. Viktoriya had probably perished, like Tanya, in whatever fire bombing run the Cordiale had been doing to Dresdun. There wasn't a chance that she would see her again, especially now that she was… _here_.

As she continued to look through, Tanya just wondered why they hadn't done this with the Demon King. There weren't any pictures of him, a description of his abilities, or anything in _her_ contract.

Shaking her head, she flipped through, wishing this path had been lined with trees for shade. This thing also promised that anyone who killed her would get her relics.

Tanya blinked, and then scanned the document again. Yep. It was official.

Being X, for all his power, was the stupidest thing she'd ever met. The contract said they had to fight her, a war veteran with more knowledge on how to kill her enemies than anyone they could choose to Reincarnate.

Tanya growled. This _person_ had obviously not taken the time to try and get prepared, but if someone who was more practical – perhaps a weasel might have more forethought – got reincarnated…

She could get beaten. Theoretically. She would need to prepare for the possibility of a fight on the scale of the one with the younger Sioux, at least.

Speaking of reincarnation, however…

Tanya gazed down at the person's body. How was she going to explain this?

-OxOxO-

It hadn't taken any explaining, actually. Not yet, anyway.

She'd laboriously dragged his body over the hill, and let it roll down. It had soon rested against his former sword, and Tanya had needed to rest for an hour.

Relatively refreshed by her quick rest, she had blown a hole in the side of the hill and buried both there, Hopefully, neither would be noticed until she could figure out what to do with them. Axel had a pauper's cemetery, apparently.

She might have to make an anonymous… donation.

She'd gotten back to the guild in record time, after that, and received her reward for the quest.

Luna had mocked her for looking so beat up after her earlier confidence, and Tanya had agreed with her. Let her think Squirrels had done so much damage to her.

The reward had been less than expected, after the costs of transporting their bodies and the trees she'd destroyed with her Explosive Vaporization had caused. She hadn't complained, though.

Sighing, Tanya made to head out, when she glanced at the board. Requests filled it, taking up every inch of space.

"Hey Luna," Tanya said, calling to the receptionist. "Why are there so many quests?"

Eternal smile ever-present, Luna launched into an explanation. "The Eris Thanksgiving Festival is coming up soon, so the number of quests to make sure it goes well have skyrocketed recently."

Tanya sighed. She'd have to take one. None of them had a party limit, since large groups of Adventurers were going, so they'd be good experience for as long as she didn't have a party.

Working to help glorify some lying existence irked her, but money was money, and since the Blacksmith was likely to be enjoying the festival, it was unlikely she could just work there for however long it took.

Grumbling, Tanya left the Guild. She had a body to take care of.

-OxOxO-

A quick stop at the general store, where she'd purchased a nondescript burlap sack and a shovel – how she had forgotten to get that useful tool, she'd never figure out – and Tanya had taken to the hills, stripping the body of its modern clothes and placing it in the bag.

Reinforcement spells had been used liberally, to ensure she could carry the thing. He may not have looked like it, but the kid was heavy.

A few hours of dragging the body around the city of Axel and deciding to take the long route to ensure she wasn't interrupted had passed, and Tanya was there, wishing she had a flashlight to explore the place she'd found.

It was the pauper's cemetery, where everyone who wasn't rich or who hadn't saved up enough was buried. People could come back as many types of undead, depending on how powerful they were in life and if they had any lasting grudges, so they usually had rights performed for them so that didn't happen.

If you were poor, however, you got put on a list, which meant your body could become an undead while the Priests performed the rights for those who paid and the long list of everyone else.

This meant that no one would notice a single unmarked grave, and Tanya would have been fine just digging a shallow grave, dumping the bag inside, and calling it a day.

That had been her plan.

Tanya snarled as she looked at the figure in the graveyard. Why didn't any of her plans ever go well?

She couldn't see them clearly, but she could make out their silhouette just fine. They were tall and were wearing some sort of long garment, which could have been anything from a dress to a trench coat.

She should have done more research. No one was supposed to be here, so why was _this _person?

Suddenly, the entire cemetery began to glow. Tanya, laying on the ground and peering over a particularly large mound of dirt, saw that they were at the edge of some sort of magic circle. Several silhouettes stood around them, standing guard.

They were speaking. Not loud enough for Tanya to make out the words, but just loud enough to be able to distinguish it from the relative absence of noise in the rest of the graveyard.

Tanya tilted her head. Were they sending off souls to their next life, praying all the while?

Tanya grinned. An opportunity, then. She'd just bury the body underneath someone else's grave, and they wouldn't notice them at all. Any lingering pieces of their soul would be sent onwards, and Tanya wouldn't have to worry about the body rising again and causing trouble.

She looked around for a grave that looked freshly dug. She found one, soon enough. No one here could even afford a gravestone, but she could tell well enough from the upturned Earth. Perfect.

Digging as fast as she could and still not fast enough, Tanya wished that she'd had more practice digging trenches with the rest of the infantrymen. It would have helped.

Soon, she'd displaced the old body, dug down another couple feet, and threw in the bag with the body in it. Tanya couldn't hear much of that person's speaking anymore, which meant she was probably finishing.

Just as the crunch of feet over dead leaves and gravel reached her ears, Tanya finished, ducking behind the largest mound of dirt within leaping distance. Sweat, accumulated from her work, continued to build on her forehead, but no sounds of alarm were raised.

Tanya breathed a sigh of relief, dropping her shovel. Then, something grabbed her shoulder and threw her over the tombstone.

A yelp of surprise escaped her throat, but that was all. Tanya pushed her attacker away and grabbed her shovel, brandishing it steadily.

The attacker's rotting face greeted her. Tanya ducked its swing, and made to slash it.

Hair ruffled by the passing spell, Tanya could only watch warily as the undead was torn to pieces. She whirled around, towards the spells source.

The bewildered face of a beautiful woman meet Tanya's eyes. Tanya took a moment to take her in, never lowering her shovel and slowly moving her hand to her blade's sheath.

Tanya licked her lips as she gazed at her. A cloak squeezed the figure of the woman, her gorgeous body almost hidden by the thing. Brown hair drifted down passed her shoulders, and the woman's pale skin glowed, even with the limited light provided by the half-full moon and stars.

"Are you alright?" the woman asked, Tanya nodded hesitantly. This must have been the person who'd been muttering by the graves.

Her guards were nowhere to be seen, however. Tanya lowered her shovel, but didn't dare drop it. Things could get messy if they wanted to quiet her, for whatever reason.

"Yeah. Thanks, by the way," Tanya replied. The woman lowered her hands towards her sides, likely in an attempt to put her at ease.

"Were you helping their souls?" Tanya asked.

The woman nodded hesitantly. "Y- Yes. The people here didn't have the money for a proper burial, so they can't move on. Eris cultists don't often come here, since they focus on people who pay them. So I-"

Tanya waved her hand. "It's no problem."

A silence stretched on, and Tanya shrugged, finally. "Well, I think I'll be heading back. It seems like you've got everything covered here," Tanya said as she turned away, hoping the woman wouldn't inquire as to her reason for being there.

"Wait a second. Why _are _you here?" the woman asked, and Tanya's shoulders lurched.

She spun back around. "Well…" Tanya trailed off, trying to think of an excuse.

It was best to weave in a kernel of truth, right? "I don't have a party, so I thought I'd patrol the graveyard for undead and try to level up that way," she supplied.

The woman nodded, and began to talk, nervously casting her gaze about. "Um… it really isn't recommended that you do that. Undead can start to swarm if they think they'll have a chance at killing, and panic and fear can wake them."

"Plus, Priests can easily level up using undead, since even healing magic is effective against the undead, who have gone against the Gods' will. The guild used to ask that adventurers leave them for new Priests…" she trailed off, tapping the tips of her fingers together and looking at Tanya apologetically.

"Oh…" Tanya said, attempting to sound sorry for having made a mistake while filing away the important information. She felt an odd kinship with beings who had defied the so-called gods, even if they had to die before they could do it effectively.

Feeling it would be prudent to introduce herself – the woman, if she could help the undead and use the magic Tanya had seen, was at least magically powerful – Tanya held out her hand. "Tanya von Degurechaff. Adventurer."

Wiz tilted her head, muttering something that included the word 'noble,' until she shook her head and holding out her own hand and smiling. "I'm Wiz. I run a magic items shop."

Tanya perked up. "Can you give me directions?"

The woman, seemingly overjoyed, forgot how suspicious the circumstances were and the odd fact that she was carrying a shovel and gave her the directions. Tanya made to leave. Hopefully, no one would discover that body for a nice, long while.

She sighed as she left the graveyard. That had been close. She wouldn't be able to use this place as a hiding spot for long, either.

Wiz could get suspicious. Maybe there was a lake she could just throw bodies and equipment into…

-OxOxO-

Tanya sat at one of the tables in the Guild, enjoying her breakfast of porridge. She'd visit the Blacksmith today, and get that attachment to her scepter made, at least.

Using her _Seitengewehr_ as a sword wasn't horrible, but she'd been trained to use blades as an extension of her gun. Clipping it onto a scepter would be similar, right?

As she ate, the sound of the room washed over her. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine she was eating in the mess hall of her days-in-training, where she'd learned to be the ideal soldier.

Dust sat in a corner, drunk as usual. Others, from newbies who'd just started to veterans who _really _should have moved on, ate, conversed, and enjoyed themselves.

And Tanya sat close to the counter, wishing she could go on better quests and hoping for a teammate.

"I happened to see your recruitment poster. Are you still recruiting party members?"

Tanya nearly spat the food in her mouth out from surprise, but she recovered. She hurriedly chewed her food and turned sharply to the voice behind her.

What met her was… a beauty.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Finally, Tanya's getting a party member! Who could it be? Well, why don't you try and guess before the chapter in the comments?

I won't give any large hints – that would be telling – but I will say that while Aqua and Kazuma aren't out of the story, it isn't them. Specifically, they will both arrive exactly 100 days after Tanya does.

Obviously, we aren't there yet – we're only on day 21 – but that does rule out those two being the people to come and greet her.

That was obvious, though. No one has ever described Kazuma as a beauty, and Tanya would try and find some flaw with Aqua's looks on principle alone. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and continue onward!


	8. A Crusader and her Festival

**A/N 1:** I do recommend looking up 'The Benny Hill Show Song' and listening to it during their quest.

-OxOxO-

Yes. A beauty.

In fact, there were two beauties. One on the left. One on the right. They sat on the chest on the person who had tried to talk to Tanya.

Over the course of her life as a girl, Tanya had tried to suppress her hormones as much as she could by thinking about anything but sex and her situation.

It was actually pretty easy, back then. There were very few women in the Empire's army, and the only ones she interacted with on a regular, friendly basis with were a few members of the 203rd.

Her puberty was also not doing too much for her. That was helpful in a few ways – less distraction, she didn't have boobs – but also annoying in others – she looked like a twelve-year-old and had the height to match.

She still stole glances at other women occasionally – again, mostly with the 203rd – and if she ever got caught, she'd just glance down unhappily at her own body in an attempt to use its lackluster appearance as an excuse.

They'd given her all _sorts _of tips, and, along with the time she had spent in the hot springs of Bidin-Budin with Viktoriya, they created wonderful fantasies that Tanya wished she could _properly_ 'take care' of.

These days, it was getting a bit worse. She now had a healthy diet that didn't contain leather or sawdust or tree bark, and the town of Axel was full of women who didn't mind showing off an inch – or twenty – of skin.

In this case, however, the mounds of plentiful flesh were just too much to ignore. They were huge. And not just 'I-have-chronic-back-pain' huge. This pair of breasts needed to have the armor that contained them shaped to fit them.

Armor wasn't supposed to work like that. That sort of thing was stupid, expensive, and doing so probably decreased the armor's overall defense. They were ridiculous, and underneath all that armor…

…They probably did the name 'breastplate' proud.

Of course, the person they were attached to wasn't bad. Beautiful, long golden hair that Tanya imagined her own hair could resemble if she ever let it grow out was pulled back into a ponytail, for the most part, and sharp, aristocratic features were the norm on her face.

Tanya shook her head, wiping the corner of her mouth with a nearby napkin. She set it down and cleared her throat. "Could you repeat that?" she asked, hoping her voice wouldn't waver or crack.

"Are you still searching for party members?"

Tanya nodded, and the woman closed her eyes and clasped her hands. "Thank goodness. I have been awaiting the arrival of someone such as yourself," the woman said, exhaling heavily at the end.

Tanya's eyebrows furrowed. Was she nervous or something?

The woman stood up straight, and made to introduce herself in halting sentences. "My name is Darkness. My calling is that of a Crusader. May I p-p-please join your party?"

Tanya surveyed the rest of her appearance. Heavy armor adorned her body, with most of it being centered on her chest and hips. The rest of her body was clothed in some sort of yellow cloth, and, if Tanya had to guess, she probably had chain mail underneath it all.

She was truly what came to mind when she thought of the word 'Crusader'.

Yes, she must have been nervous to be stuttering that much. Tanya also stood up. "My name is Tanya von Degurechaff. I am an Adventurer, and I am looking for a party to lead."

"Is it true that you take on quests several times over your level?" she blurted out, leaning against the table Tanya had been using.

Tanya shook her head in amusement. It was always fun to see newbies. She'd seen her fair share of new recruits whenever the General Staff had decided to move some of her group to other units, leaving gaps to be filled.

Tanya nodded in response to her question. "Yes. I've been trying to level up, but Luna wouldn't let me take on anything stronger than Squirrels."

The woman began to pant, and gripped Tanya's arm. She tried to pull away, but the woman's strength matched her beauty. "It's worse than I thought! For someone with such a low class to take on such monsters…"

She grinned. "As a knight, I cannot overlook such difficulty befalling someone of such a tender age!"

_Twitch._

Tanya glared at her. "I am sixteen."

Her mouth was wide open, and the only sound that escaped it, instead of her continued ranting, was a strangled exhale of confusion.

For a moment, she just stared at Tanya, her face frozen in the decidedly odd expression the woman had worn while she was practically assaulting Tanya. Then, mutely, the woman slowly loosened her grip, stepping back and shuffling her feet.

"…I apologize."

They stood there, being glanced at occasionally by the patrons that surrounded them. Tanya smirked. Well, the woman would definitely would feel at least obliged to go with her on one quest, at least.

"Well, I am recruiting, so tell me a bit about your strengths."

The woman flicked the bow that sat at the base of her neck nervously. "Well, the truth is… while I am confident in my Strength and stamina, I am clumsy…"

"Which means?"

"None of my attacks ever hit their mark."

Tanya blinked slowly. She looked at the woman for a moment, before pinching the bridge of her nose, before shaking her head, trying to disperse any bad feelings she was getting. "That's fine. You're just starting out, right? You can learn eventua-"

"Oh no. I wouldn't ever want to kill something when I could just be acting as a shield."

Tanya blinked again, her forehead creased. Did she hear that right? She didn't want to kill?

"…Let me get this straight. You _want_ to be attacked?" Tanya questioned, dread rising in her gut.

It wasn't possible. This place was still in Medieval times. The Eris Cult had to frown on such things. It didn't make sense, and Tanya hadn't even contemplated the _possibility _of such a thing occurring, but…

The woman made a lurid moan that convinced Tanya that yes, the woman very much would _love_ to be attacked. She pinched the bridge of her nose again, leaving the woman to her fantasies.

Yes, the woman was a masochist.

_And?_

Tanya didn't have options. She wasn't willing to compromise on the leadership aspect anymore, which meant that no one would want to party up with her. But…

Tanya cast another look at the Crusader. She noticed, and proceeded to violate Tanya's personal space. "Please, do whatever you must with me! As a Crusader, my job demands that I work to lessen the suffering of the weak!"

Tanya pushed to woman away from herself steadily, straightened herself, and took a deep breath. She had no choice.

Sighing, Tanya said, "Alright. Since there are a ton of quests due to the Eris Thanksgiving Festival, we'll join one of those." She stood up to go to the counter.

The woman perked up. "As a Crusader who is a part of the Eris Cult, I would be happy to!"

Tanya paused mid-step. Right. Crusaders had something to do with religious wars.

Walking dejectedly to the counter, Tanya was already regretting her decision.

-OxOxO-

They'd decided to help protect the farmlands. Now, more than ever, they needed to ensure that the farmers were protected while they harvested all of the food that would be eaten during the festival.

Darkness had wanted to go to the forest, but Tanya had convinced her that they'd get in everyone's way, since she was only level three and Tanya was level eight.

They might be able to fight any insect monsters one-on-one, but neither of them could withstand a swarm. Darkness didn't seem to care about the danger, as she only grew more excited, and Tanya had needed to backtrack and claim the monsters on the farms would be better.

Tanya didn't know that, of course, but she didn't want to fight a swarm of insects. Her offensive magic couldn't really deal with targets surrounding her.

Her gun could, of course, but not her magic alone. Not without giving them more than enough time to kill her.

After deciding on when to depart, they'd parted ways. Tanya had gone to the blacksmith's and fitted her staff with her _Seitengewehr_. She could use it more effectively now.

She glared at the other adventurers that were eyeing the two of them warily. It seemed that both of them had a reputation. Tanya knew where her own came from – she'd taken on quest after quest, when most adventurers often didn't take more than three per week, and she'd taken on all of them alone.

Tanya could guess where Darkness had gotten her reputation.

Soon enough, they arrived at the farms they'd been assigned to protect. "Darkness. Be sure to show what you have. I'll need to know for whenever we're coming up with strategies."

The woman, suddenly serious, nodded. They'd passed a group of adventurers on their way back from defending, and it didn't seem like they'd have it any easier.

Snails as tall as Tanya were already beginning to encroach on the farm, and the rustling in the tree line told Tanya that more monsters were likely to begin to attack. The food was also beginning to emerge from the ground, ready to defend itself.

Shooting a glance at the others in their group, Tanya realized she was the only one who could use magic, if the armor and weapons of all the others were anything to go by.

"Alright. You all defend me while I defeat the Adaman Snails," she ordered. The others who had signed up for this quest looked at Tanya, mirth and ridicule shining in their eyes. Darkness just nodded her head, and began to charge at them.

Tanya watched her run and shook her head. If she was supposed to protect her, how would Darkness do that if she wasn't even near her?

Tanya gestured with her staff. "Explosive Vaporization!"

A ball of light sped off, nailing one of the snails on the shell. Those around her gasped in shock. "How'd you cast it so fast?"

Tanya just shrugged. Intermediate magic and Advanced magic was supposed to have some sort of chanting that preceded it. It seemed her magic hadn't gained that requirement upon coming here.

The others began to spread out, challenging the snails. Tanya nodded. It seemed they had thought twice about her order.

The one she'd fired at had a hole blown in its shell, but it seemed to still be moving. It, along with most of the other snails, seemed to be heading for Darkness.

For her part, she seemed to be trying to attack one of the snails. It was going… poorly.

Every time she swung her sword, she managed to miss. It hit the ground, or it swiped through the air, or the snail moved an extra inch to the left. No matter what she did, she couldn't hit a _Snail_. They might have been big, but they were slow, and not in any way threatening.

If she had had a phone, Tanya would have been tempted to play that Benny Hill song.

"Go! While they're focused on me, destroy them!" the woman cried out as she tried, again and again, to hit the slow, sedate snail.

Tanya sighed. She was distracting the snails, at least. One by one, Tanya sent an Explosive Vaporization towards each snail. They all hit, damaging their shells.

The other adventurers would swarm whichever ones she hit, stabbing through the cracks in their shells while avoiding their front.

Darkness, meanwhile, was now surrounded by snails, and she was _still _missing them.

"Unhand me, filthy Snails!" Darkness cried out as the snail behind her bumped into her knees. The woman collapsed to the ground, and the snails began to smother her.

Scared for her teammate, Tanya activated a small Reinforcement spell and hurried over to Darkness. The others seemed to be distracted with harvesting the snails to notice her sudden increase in speed.

When she got there, Tanya blanched. Darkness, pressed into the ground by the weight of a snail, was panting. Heavily.

Tanya lost the willpower to help her out, and began to take care of the ones surrounding Darkness, one by one. It seemed she was doing something to keep them focused on her, since they didn't react to her.

Her blade soaked in snail guts, Tanya finished soon enough. Darkness laid on the ground, blushing and panting.

"They're dead, you know."

Darkness turned her head to Tanya, and then looked at the snail lying on top of her in confusion. Indeed, Tanya had already gutted it.

Darkness pushed the body off of her easily, retrieved her sword from where it had fallen, and thanked Tanya, still blushing. Tanya nodded, much too occupied by the fact that it looked like Darkness could have pushed the snail off of her at any second.

Most of the snails seemed to be dead now, and the other adventurers met with them at the cart they'd brought, which was full of provisions to last them the next few hours.

"I can't believe someone with the Adventurer job can use such destructive magic," commented one. The others made various sounds of agreement, and Tanya accepted their thanks graciously.

"And you! You charged in and attracted so many of them with your Decoy skill. You're truly a model knight!"

Darkness blushed, and Tanya stared at the ground listlessly, her earlier praise forgotten. Model knight?

What kind of shield runs off and gets smothered in a Snail's slime _willingly_?

A moment's reprieve was all they got, however. The vegetables were growing bolder, which meant they needed to be harvested.

The farmers they had protected fought with them, and a few adventurers ran over to help them. In the meantime, large animals were beginning to charge out of the forest.

"Wild Boars!" exclaimed Darkness. Without hesitation, she ran to meet them head on. Tanya watched, fascinated. How did she think running directly at something with sharp, pointed tusks and moving faster than a regular human could run would go?

Arms wide, Darkness met the full force of the boar head on, grasping it by its tusks.

"You filthy pig! Are you going to subdue me and use your weight to hold me down while your friend violates me?"

Mouth agape, Tanya watched as Darkness threw it to the side. Another was charging at her, and both they and Darkness seemed to be anticipating the fight, if for different reasons.

Tanya just sighed. Even if Darkness could withstand their attacks, the Crusader couldn't deal damage with her sword.

She ran over, scepter in hand. Both boars, circling Darkness, didn't notice her.

She struck fast, ducking to the side of the one with its back turned to her and slipping the blade of her scepter between its ribs.

It squealed, turning around. Tanya plunged her blade into its side furiously. The other one charged Darkness, who cried out in glee.

Tanya backed up, eyeing the boar. It eyed her too, and began to run at her. Tanya ducked to its side, avoiding its charge easily and scoring a hit on its back leg.

It squealed again, and Tanya grinned, watching happily as its back leg trembled. It seemed she'd hit something important, and it was trying to stumble away.

She cast a quick look over her shoulder at Darkness. Darkness seemed to be relishing in the furious blows the boar was raining down on her. It seemed to have stopped trying to charge Darkness, and was now slashing at her with its tusks. Tanya shook her head and took off after the other Wild Boar.

Tanya caught up to her stumbling prey, and quickly sliced its back leg. It well to the ground, and Tanya finished its life quickly. Looking around the wet, battle-ridden field, it seemed most of the other adventurers had been able to fight off the rest of them. That just left the food and Darkness.

Tanya marched over, stabbed the thing in the throat, and glared at Darkness. "You… you can't hit anything! I thought, when you said you were clumsy, that meant you just hadn't taken a few skills, or that you just weren't steady on your feet," Tanya began, gesturing to the woman's feet with her scepter.

"Instead, it turns out you're just pathetic! I…should…" Tanya trailed off. Darkness's face had that same beet-red look it had had when she'd been 'trapped' under the snail.

"So brutal…" she muttered. Tanya spun around, resting her scepter on her shoulder.

Not worth it. How was she supposed to discipline her troops when they _wanted_ to be punished?

She sighed. Well, she'd trained the 203rd. She could find some way to properly motivate Darkness, even if she didn't have artillery or pain or the backing of an entire nation to do so.

Looking at the other groups of adventurers conversing and congratulating each other, Tanya almost wished she'd chosen an actual job.

Tanya tossed one last glance over her shoulder. Darkness seemed to be enjoying herself, at least.

With a huff, Tanya began to trek over to the other group of adventurers. The crops needed to be finished, and as long as she wasn't covering for Darkness, she might as well help.

-OxOxO-

They crowded around the desk, making a racket, waiting for Luna to emerge from the counter.

She, along with everyone else there, were waiting for their reward. They'd done some hard work, and they wanted their hard-earned cash.

With how much the scepter had cost, she needed the money. She'd finally figured out how to best make most of the gears, which meant she could rest easy knowing she wouldn't have to spend any more money buying materials from the blacksmith.

She would also be able to finish off her loan.

The door to the guild burst open, and Tanya, like the rest of the crowd, turned. More adventurers streamed in. Some went to the eatery, but most of them joined Tanya in line, waiting for their payment. Tanya looked around for her teammate.

Tanya couldn't see her and frowned. Where was she?

Just then, a voice pierced the din of grumbling adventurers. "Everyone, payment is now available! Please form an orderly line, and-"

Before she could finish, people began to swarm the counter, ignoring the second part of her announcement and trying to vie for their money. Tanya was no better.

Utilizing her smaller size, Tanya slipped through the crowd, delivering a sharp kick to the shins of those who wouldn't move.

Being small had its perks, occasionally.

She arrived at the front. "Luna, the reward for me and another blonde-haired, blue-eyed adventurer named Darkness, please!" she hollered over the noise. The other receptionists seemed to be overwhelmed by the roiling crowds, but Luna was above it all.

Tanya passed the woman her Registration Card, and she quickly confirmed her kills. The system of confirming what adventurers had done with the farmers who hired them seemed to break down around this time.

Luna passed her two bags, and Tanya thrust one back. "Pay off my debts, please!"

Luna nodded, and Tanya fought her way back through the crowd, ignoring the grumbling, moody adventurers by her sides.

Soon enough, she found herself in the eatery. She scanned it, and found Darkness.

She practically threw herself and the bag down, startling Darkness. "Your money," she panted.

Darkness tilted her head. "What about yours?"

Tanya took a sip of the liquid Darkness had ordered and sighed happily. A bit of alcohol wouldn't hurt, right?

"I finished off a loan I took in my first week," she replied. This seemed to confuse the woman more.

"But I thought you were…" she said, the rest of her statement dying on her lips. Tanya glared at her for a moment, before sipping on Darkness's beer. The skeptical expression told Tanya she needed to get her own.

Soon enough, a waitress graced their table and Tanya ordered a meal and a drink. Darkness seemed to be thinking, and Tanya let her. She needed to do a bit of that as well.

The Crusader was… interesting. She – maybe literally – couldn't hit the walls of any room she stood with her sword. While a detriment, that wasn't even her biggest problem.

The woman across from her grunted in pleasure, and Tanya went back over her words. Had she said that aloud?

Taking more care to keep her thoughts private, Tanya went over that problem.

She was a complete and total masochist. The _definition _of the latter half of S&M. That was quite uncomfortable to be around, and it could be dangerous if Tanya ever got in trouble.

The last problem was, of course, religion. As a Crusader, she no doubt had very biased thoughts about her god, as well as non-believers like Tanya.

She would probably oppose Tanya if she ever found out about what she wanted to do with that wish.

However, she did have a disgusting amount of Strength and stamina. She could probably have beaten Tanya at arm-wrestling that first day she was there, and that she could easily move around Wild Boars and Adaman Slimes as if they were pillows was impressive.

Tanya gazed at said impressive woman again. Her armor had been slightly damaged by both the slime of the Adaman Snails and the blows of the Wild Boars she'd fought. The rest of her body, however – the portions where black cloth had been – were much more exposed, hinting at the muscle and flesh that lay beneath the armor.

Yes. She was very… attractive in a number of ways.

Tanya scoffed at her own thought as her food arrived. Attractive didn't cover it. Hot, gorgeous, voluptuous, and _bouncy_ sure did, though.

She was also a local. Tanya didn't really have much knowledge of the world. Consulting with the Blacksmith and Luna could help, but Tanya didn't even know what questions to ask. Sticking with someone who did know had its benefits.

A question floated passed Tanya's lips. "Why didn't you get your money yourself?"

Darkness shook her own head. "Well, I had to go take a quick bath."

Tanya made sure to keep her face as blank as she could, even utilizing a few tricks that Viktoriya had taught her.

Well. That settled it.

Tanya didn't have to guess at what was beneath the armor; she would see it. A grin – carefully curated so that it wasn't lecherous – split Tanya's face, and Darkness shuffled.

"Well Darkness, I hope we can continue to do good work together, at least until the festival is done," she said. Darkness looked up from her food, her blushing face becoming serious. "You mean…"

Tanya nodded, rubbing the back of her head. "I don't exactly have many options, so how about we stick together?"

With that, the woman leapt up. "You won't regret it!"

Tanya nodded, and rose. She needed to get back to stable and crash for a while. The mana drain of using so many Explosive Vaporization spells was beginning to make itself known.

Tanya heard the muttered, "I know I won't," that came from Darkness's direction and sighed dejectedly. Any help would be good help, of course, but…

Why was she saddled with such depravity?

-OxOxO-

Tanya scowled at the board. Nothing good.

She'd been adventuring with Darkness for a week. She'd leveled a bit, and poured a few points into the Smith skill. She was confident that she could at least begin to experiment and figure out how to make a gun.

That, however, was the easy part. Yes, upgrading Smith took time, but she knew she could do it eventually. Her main problem was what went _in _the guns.

Cartridges – a bullet, some propellant, a cap, and casing – were needed. The bullet and casing were, like the gun itself, difficult to accomplish with the technology she had, but entirely possible.

However, she had never taken the time to learn exactly what went into the propellant. She knew that it wasn't black powder – the replacement of actual black powder didn't create smoke and allowed for more visibility on the battlefield, a fact which had come up during her time at the Military College – but she would have liked to have that much.

If she didn't get something explosive, her gun would become a fancy-looking stick, just like the scepter she was using.

She hadn't yet found anything, and she was beginning to think she'd need to invent chemistry itself in order to get something that worked. Gunpowder had sulfur in it, right?

Tanya shook her head, turning her thoughts back to the board. The festival was a week away, and no new quests had come up.

Darkness wanted to take on some of the harder ones. Tanya had promptly shot her down.

She might have been confident in her abilities, but even she didn't think that taking on hordes of Insect monsters alone was a good idea. She could only destroy so many at once, after all, and Darkness could not distract all of them, even if she did have that oil on her.

She'd made herself content with taking on small fry in the morning and working at the Blacksmith's in the afternoon. It didn't seem like there was much to do.

She walked over to Luna. "Hey Luna," she greeted. The woman smiled.

"What do you want Tanya?" she asked, and Tanya uneasily smiled. Luna knew her well.

"Have any Hero Candidates come in?" she asked. She didn't know when Being X would send in another person, but she had no doubt that he would after a week. He didn't give up easily.

She shook her head. "No, not yet. We can't even really tell, to be honest, unless they show the traits of one."

Tanya nodded, thankful that she had that going for her. She looked like anything but a Japanese person, and she had been saved from scrutiny due to that fact and that she hadn't exactly shown off her 'Divine' relics.

Tanya sighed. "Hey, can I- "

"No."

Tanya scowled. "I got a teammate, right? Why won't you let us take on stronger stuff? Or at least check my card?"

The whole reason she wanted a teammate was to move on to stronger enemies, and Luna still wouldn't let her. She told her as much every time she came to ask.

"If you need to ask, then you definitely shouldn't be taking it on," Luna said. Tanya pouted, but made her way back to the board. She'd level up soon enough.

Pulling a quest down, Tanya held it out to Luna. "Fine then. We'll take this, then."

Luna looked at it. "Just Giant Toads?" she asked, a genuine smile playing across her lips.

"Ha ha," Tanya replied sarcastically. "In all actuality, I want to try and get Darkness to learn to hit something."

Luna handed the quest back to her. "Good luck with that. I told her that for the first few times she came here over the past few months, when parties kept politely dumping her. I gave it up as a lost cause after that."

Tanya nodded absentmindedly, before whirling around, glaring at Luna. "You haven't told me to change out of the Adventurer Job in a while," she noted.

Luna just smiled.

A scowl now firmly in place, Tanya readjusted her hat as she sat down to eat. As soon as Darkness got there, they'd be gone.

-OxOxO-

Finally, Darkness had shown up. When she'd told her what they were doing, Tanya had written off her odd happiness. Darkness hadn't actually gotten to level up much, since she couldn't hit anything. She had apparently gotten to her current level from eating lots of food that was high in experience.

Giant Toads would be easy to hit. She couldn't _possibly _miss such a close target.

"Alright Darkness," Tanya said as one of them began to approach, roused from chasing after some livestock by their approach, "I want you to fight it on your own. You need to level up, too."

Tanya looked away from the bulbous blue frog that was looming closer, towards a… frantically undressing Darkness.

She promptly swore. She was not having another 'my clothing is too tight these days, let me bare my chest to you, another female' episode like with Viktoriya.

She could peep all she wanted in the bath houses, after all, and other people might see her out here. "What are you doing?"

Darkness had stripped off her heavy armor, and was just wearing the black bodysuit that was usually hidden beneath other layers. Tanya might have taken the time to ogle, but right now, danger was approaching.

Instead of responding, the woman ran towards the amphibian. Tanya groaned into her hands as she picked up what Darkness had dropped.

"What _are _you doing!" she repeated, shouting at the girl's back.

"If a Giant Toad sees any metal, it won't swallow you. They can't digest it!" she shouted back. That might have made sense if she wanted to convince it to close in on her so she could hit it up close, but Darkness had also thrown away her sword, making it rather obvious that she had no intention of fighting against the frog.

Tanya grit her teeth and picked up one of the pieces of armor that rested against the girls hips, holding it as if it were a shield. It worked well enough. She ran, trying to catch up with the woman.

She outpaced her, but Tanya activated a burst of her Reinforcement magic and caught up with her in time. "Darkness, if you want to level up, you'll need to actually kill it, right?"

Finally, they came to a stop before the thing. It seemed to be shying away from Tanya, thanks to the piece of armor she had picked up. Its bulbous eyes were glued to Darkness.

The long, sticky tongue shot out, and Tanya jumped in front of Darkness. Instead of her, however, the tongue got caught on Darkness's armor.

The tongue recoiled, as did the frog. Tanya grinned, and pushed Darkness's sword into her hands. "Now, try and hit it, at least."

Darkness seemed rather put out, but she grasped her sword anyway. The frog seemed much more reluctant, but as Tanya backed away, it seemed captivated by Darkness once more.

Tanya nodded, and cast her gaze about. It wouldn't do for the both of them to be surrounded while they were focused on this one. Nothing seemed to be approaching yet, and Tanya breathed a sigh of relief.

She looked back at Darkness, and-

Even as she groaned at Darkness's obsession, she tried to look on the bright side of things.

At least Darkness was enjoying herself?

She had, in the few moments Tanya had looked away, been swallowed by the frog. Her head was sticking out, and judging by the expression on her face, she was thoroughly enjoying the experience.

"To be eaten by a Giant Toad…" she said. Her tone told Tanya she was ashamed, but her face told her she was getting off to the experience.

She shook her head, took her scepter from her back, and slashed at the thing's gut. Tanya was showered with gore, and Darkness was flung out of its mouth as it died.

Tanya stared at her dispassionately. Darkness seemed to be in pure bliss, writhing on the ground and covered in the frog's digestive fluids. She glanced at Tanya, and she only seemed to fidget more.

Tanya shook her head and walked back to her partner's armor.

Only four more to go. Tanya picked up the woman's belongings, and trudged over to her. After a week of this, Tanya was beginning to lose hope that the woman would try to improve herself by her own initiative.

And Tanya really didn't want to break out military instruction. It might be effective in training people who had signed up for the army, but Tanya didn't think Darkness would stick around if Tanya was too harsh.

As Tanya dropped the woman's armor on her, she remembered that Darkness would probably _enjoy _anything Tanya could put her through.

She sighed again, and began to scout the surroundings for more frogs. They needed to get four more if they wanted to get it done that day, and she didn't want to be roaming the streets when the festival began tomorrow.

-OxOxO-

Tanya looked down the hollow tube and frowned. It still wasn't straight, and the grooves weren't defined enough. She threw it into a pile of similar looking tubes that were to be melted down later.

Tanya had gotten around to selling the sword of the Reincarnate she'd killed for a tidy sum. It seemed to just be a regular sword without its owner, and Tanya had sold it to the general store under the pretense that she had made it. After collecting that tidy sum, she'd decided to start trying to make her gun.

It was grueling work. She didn't think that any of these tools were used in her time, substituted for more modern, specialized ones. Still, she did the best she could.

That didn't amount to much, unfortunately, but she'd keep trying. She had to.

As it was, the festival was beginning today. Darkness had wanted Tanya to come with her, but Tanya had told her she wouldn't be participating. She had work to do, and this 'Thanksgiving' gave her the perfect excuse to do so.

The front door opened, and Tanya scowled. The Blacksmith had increased her pay and told her that she would man the shop while he was out celebrating. Apparently, there was some sort of open market going on, and he wanted to participate.

She'd just accepted his orders with the expectation that no one would be coming in due to said festival, but it seemed someone wanted something.

She came out of the back and sighed. Darkness, armor in hand, was studying the swords. "Hey. You here to get your armor repaired?" she asked her.

Darkness looked up. "Tanya? What are you doing here?"

She rolled her eyes and turned away. "My job. Come into the back, would you?"

This seemed to surprise the woman, but she followed obediently. "You have a job besides adventuring?"

"Of course," she said as she picked out another piece of steel, "you don't?"

Darkness, a single eyebrow raised, said, "Of course not."

Tanya glanced at the Crusader, but shook her head. There was probably some kind of cultural disconnect. "Anyway. What did you want? Does your armor need to be repaired?" she asked, gesturing to the armor she was carrying.

She nodded. "It's a bit specialized. It's made of very tough metals and-"

Tanya snatched it away before she finished. She didn't need to know.

The Smith skill was… quite baffling. You didn't need extra materials in order to fix it up completely, as long as your were a high enough level. The Blacksmith had even claimed that fixing it after it was broken could make it stronger, if you were as highly leveled as he was.

She sat down and got to work, gently tapping the armor and watching it reform.

It might have taken a blacksmith from either of her previous worlds hours to get this much done, but here, a few taps of a mallet fixed any holes, while a few brushes of sandpaper smoothed out what could take even more time.

It was amazing, and this speed was what had allowed her to get as close as she had to recreating the gun in only a week.

A few minutes later, and everything looked brand new. "Here you go, free of charge."

Darkness looked surprised at that. "No, I couldn't just take away your time like that," she said as she grabbed the bag by her waist.

"Don't bother," Tanya said as she began to heat the sheet of metal, "You're a friend, so it would be foolish to charge you for it."

The woman went quiet. Tanya worked, grunting in exertion. Eventually, covered in sweat and wishing she had more mana to fuel her Reinforcement spells with, she finished shaping the metal. She looked down the tube, and grinned. It seemed great.

She set it against the wall, and looked at Darkness. She tilted her head, eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?"

Darkness seemed to be looking down, oddly serious. "Are you going to the festival at all?"

Tanya sighed. "No, Darkness. I already told you, I'm not going to the festival."

"But what about your family? Wouldn't they want to look at the shops with you?"

Tanya smiled gently. "I'm a foreigner, Darkness. My family isn't here, and even if I was in my homeland…" she trailed off.

"I'm also an orphan."

Darkness seemed floored. "But… you have…"

Tanya looked at her, leaning in towards the Crusader and waiting for more. But no more sound came from the woman, and with a shouted farewell, she left the shop.

How odd. She seemed to think she was from around here.

Shrugging, Tanya looked at her drawings of her gun. It wasn't good, by any means; she wasn't an engineer, and she hadn't ever been to art school. It was, however, enough to remind her of the look and feel of every part of her gun.

Trying to ignore the choir that was passing outside, Tanya continued working, unaware of the forces moving around her.

-OxOxO-

The second day of the festival had arrived, and Tanya was regretting staying up so late last night. She'd finished most of the bulkier pieces of her weapon, which just left the pieces with moving parts and pins.

She'd figured out how to make a proper spring early in the morning, and finally retreated to the stables after locking the place up. Unfortunately…

The shop had been broken into.

The Blacksmith, of course, didn't blame her, and it didn't seem like anything had been taken. All of Tanya's work had been under the tarp in the backroom, right where she'd left it. None of the weapons had been stolen either.

He'd reported it to the police, and Tanya had told the police what she could. A mystery seemed afoot.

That, however, wasn't the most regrettable aspect of this whole affair. The Blacksmith had decided to close up the shop, telling Tanya to enjoy herself. She had gone to the guild instead, searching for work. All of it, however, was gone.

"Well, we've killed off as many of the monsters we can without detrimentally affecting the monster population, so all quests involving monster extermination have been postponed," Luna explained. Tanya sighed, and went back to the board. Other quests weren't worth the effort.

An adventurer, regardless of job, wanted to gain experience. Doing menial labor like helping at construction sites or carrying luggage meant she wouldn't even get the satisfaction of experience for the pitiful pay she earned.

However, the Blacksmith was gone, which meant Tanya had nothing to do.

The doors of the Guild burst in, and Tanya spotted Darkness walk in. She smiled fondly at her disheveled appearance. She had probably run over to the Blacksmith's looking for her.

Tanya sat down and ordered a meal. As long as she had nothing to do, she might as well eat. That increased her experience, at least.

Darkness, after conversing with Luna, sat down across from Tanya. "I can't believe that someone would break into a store like that."

Tanya shot her a confused look, and Darkness looked just as confused. "I mean, why would anyone try and rob someone with so much work to do? Becoming an adventurer is much better than becoming a bandit or criminal."

Tanya made a noise of agreement. She hadn't thought about it, but that did make sense. With people so easily able to become powerful, it was a wonder why they'd want to do something like that.

"Well," Tanya said, pulling out her bag, "I don't have anything to do. I suppose I'll just sit around here."

From her bag, she pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. She'd been trying to figure out how to make gunpowder. She knew it had to do with sulfur – the smell of the spent cartridges told her that much – and maybe coal.

It had been called 'black powder,' once. Maybe that color came from something that burned?

Darkness leaned on the table. Tanya looked up, and saw a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"We could…"

Tanya groaned. "Why? Why should I go out and participate in something so inane when I have so much work to do?"

"Well, there are lots of exotic products in the stalls, and everything is priced better since it's a time of thanks to Eris."

Tanya looked up sharply. Exotic products and good prices sounded wonderful. Maybe she'd even find a bit of gunpowder-

Wait. "Darkness, the festival ends with fireworks in two days, right?" she asked hurriedly, leaning into the table. Fireworks meant gunpowder.

Darkness, taken aback, responded easily. "Well, yeah."

Tanya grinned, stuffed her paper back into her bag, and shot up from the table. That settled it. "Then I'll go."

Tanya ran out of the guild, followed by a trailing Darkness. Unfortunately, they ran right into Dust.

"Hey, watch where you're...," the adventurer trailed off, staring openly at Darkness's assets. He shook his head and, with renewed vigor and no small amount of lust, continued. "Yeah, watch where you're going! Can't you see that I'm trying to get into the guild? I guess you two will need to apologize to me, right?"

Darkness, face blushing, opened her mouth. Tanya cut her off; they had a mission. "No. We're trying to get to the festival. I suggest you move."

He opened his mouth, but Tanya grabbed the scepter on her back and raised an eyebrow. "…alright, I'll just go in," he said.

"You aren't coming?" Darkness asked.

He let out a single "Heh," and then he turned to Darkness. "Even if I had the money to spend on that, I'd much rather get drunk in here; getting thrown in the police station is only good if I'm going to go to sleep."

As he stared at Darkness, something caught his eye. "Hey, what's the big idea?" he said, pointing above Tanya's head.

"My scepter?"

"Yeah, why have you got a sword strapped to it, as if it were a spear? And why let that mantle get in the way?" he asked.

"I have a bit of training in that area, thank you. Now, if you'll excuse us…"

With that, they left a contemplative Dust behind and set out for the festival.

-OxOxO-

Tanya peered around her curiously. People seemed to be giving her and Darkness a wide berth, for some reason. The shops they'd picked up food at – apples topped with some sort of sweet fluid for Darkness and something that resembled a kebab for herself – had seemed oddly deferential.

It seemed odd, but Darkness didn't seem to think anything of it, so she let it slide.

Tanya had looked around for the fireworks, but hadn't found anything yet. Maybe they weren't brought out until tomorrow?

Nevertheless, she continued to look. They wound through crowds, passing by stalls, to no avail.

Soon enough, they arrived at a wider street with fewer stalls. "Tanya, get to the side of the road!"

Tanya felt her arm get yanked by the Crusader. She was being dragged down a hall made of stone and red and flags and soldiers and a horrible _thing_ and no no no no-

And she shook her head, opening her eyes and finding herself standing close to one of the buildings and not in the Russy Federation at all. People walked down the middle of the road, looking like something out of a parade in her first world.

People, dressed mostly in purples, yellow, whites, and always with some sort of winged motif, walked down the street. People began to call out.

"Oh, beloved Eris!"

"Thank you, Eris!"

"I pray for good luck, Goddess Eris!"

Mingled horror and confusion overtook Tanya's mind as she glared at those around her. Turning to Darkness, she bit out, "What _is _this?"

Not letting her eyes stray from the procession, she told Tanya, "It's the traditional Eris Thanksgiving Festival parade, duh. Every year, people dress up like Eris so that she may descend and walk among them."

Tanya scowled at them all, wishing that she could be anywhere other than watching a group of cosplayers. Why did someone have to rob the blacksmith? Why did she have to be here?

Tanya blinked away her anger. Right, she wanted to find the fireworks. As the crowd began to mingle with the parade, Tanya continued to walk on the sides of the road. She needed to figure out where the fireworks were.

Wait, maybe Darkness knew? She'd known that there would be fireworks, right?

"Hey Darkness. Do you know where the fireworks are going to take place?"

Darkness seemed thoughtful. "Around the bonfires, of course. Where else would the bugs be going to?"

The mention of bonfires had brought Tanya up short – why would you keep gunpowder around large, open fires? – but the mention of bugs derailed her thoughts entirely.

"Bugs?"

"Of course, why else" Darkness said, fluffing the stupid wing-thing on her shoulder, "would we shoot Blast and Detonation magic into the sky?"

Oh.

Once tensed shoulders now lax, Tanya began to trudge down the street, hoping to end this embarrassment. They didn't have fireworks; they just had some stupid Mages send magic into the air.

Now thoroughly discouraged, Tanya let Darkness lead them around. Games – throw something at something else to win a prize – were beaten handily, while nearly every stall they visited having nothing of interest on sale.

Darkness was unwilling to buy herself a shield, since she _technically_ had a two-handed sword. That she didn't use it for anything didn't seem to matter to her. A weak glare was all Tanya could manage.

Various stones – that apparently had 'mystical properties' – seemed unappealing for their price, except for the Manatite. It was on sale, and her Observation spells screamed that they were basically mana in physical form, so Tanya had bought a bit.

With this, she'd be able to go for longer without having to take a break when using Smith.

Soon enough, Darkness had brought them to one of the open areas of the city. The city's park was near this one, and a large ring of stone was being constructed while people, most clad in robes and cloaks, loitered.

Darkness suddenly stopped and turned around. "You seemed pretty interested in the fireworks, so I thought we'd look at where one of the bonfires is."

Tanya nodded thankfully, and then began to talk to others there. Most of them were going to either be using Detonation or Blast to combat to bugs, or they were helping to create the large bonfire that would attract them.

Upon inquiring as to whether she could help, she was pointed towards the apparent foreman.

He seemed to have a stout build, and very little care for formality, judging by his bare chest. "Hey," she said as she walked towards him.

He looked down at her curiously and bent over a bit. "Hello there, little girl. What do you want?"

Tanya grit her teeth and didn't let her anger show. Their opinions about her stature didn't matter. She'd become used to others thinking she was a kid. "I want to help with the fireworks."

The man straightened up, laughing heartily. "Now, now, little miss. We can't have you doing that." He cast his eyes about, before they landed on Darkness, who seemed to be eyeing the stones surrounding the growing pile of wood speculatively.

"Why don't you and your sister leave this stuff to adventurers?" he said as he patted her on the head.

Dispassionately, she motioned to the scepter strapped to her back. "I am an adventurer. I can use Detonation. Please let me participate in the fireworks."

For the first time, he saw the scepter – clawed jewel, _Seitengewehr_, and all – and seemed panicked. "S- Sorry about that. We have more than enough people participating in the official fireworks, so I'm afraid that you'll have to join the rest of the non-hired adventurers in the defense of the city," he said, a hint of fear in his voice.

Tanya scowled. She wanted to earn something, if she was going to have to participate in this stupid festival. She looked at the numerous adventurers in the area, and then looked back at the foreman, idea forming.

"Why not make a competition out of it? The people who kill the most bugs, or who have the biggest Detonations, get paid, while those that can't keep up don't get anything," she suggested, smiling.

He glanced at her speculatively, not as if she were a little girl or a simple adventurer, but as a potential source of money. He bent over, eyes level to hers. "Keep talking."

Tanya grinned. "Additionally, you could force people who want to use Detonation to pay a fee for being able to use it over the city. You are, after all, giving them front row seats to some of the best experience they'll ever get."

The man grinned greedily, and Tanya smiled warmly, cackling internally. It seemed like she'd be able to participate after all.

He was still smiling, gray mustache quivering with excitement. "And if people don't participate because they don't want to pay, that means we'll have to pay fewer people, right?"

Tanya smiled benevolently as if she'd come up with the idea, and the man began to chuckle creepily. "I think I'll give you a cut of the profits for this one, if the idea goes through. Come back here in a few hours, and I'll tell you the results."

With that, the man rushed off. Tanya grinned. Another source of income was always good, and she was sure she'd be able to use more explosive spells than anyone here.

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed as she sat on the bench. Darkness had wandered off somewhere else, saying something about helping with the preparations or buying something. Tanya had waved her off.

The problem of her gun was beginning to seem impossible. It had been decades since her last modern chemistry class, and she'd never touched the subject during her time in the Empire.

She took out her Registration Card. As always, several notices underneath her current job announced that she could easily change to another – Blacksmith, Archmage, Mage, Monk, Priest, Ranger, and Creator. Tanya sighed.

It was beginning to look like she might have to. Archmage would be best, if she wanted to continue on her quest to get that free wish. It would boost her magical abilities, and she wouldn't exactly need to have those Crafting skills if she wasn't going to be imbuing bullets with mana.

She shook her head. Until she could say that it would be unfeasible to make the stuff, she'd keep trying.

"Hey, Tanya. Fancy meeting you here," came a voice from behind her. Tanya shook her head at the drunkenness.

"What are you doing here, Dust? I thought you told us that you were just going to get drunk in the guild?" she asked, still staring up at the sky, trying to think of a way to make gunpowder.

"Yeah, well…" he trailed off. Tanya turned around.

She promptly shouted as the bench she was sitting on was pierced and jolted backwards, along with her guts.

Dust was not standing behind her. Rather, two people, one wielding the lance stuck in her guts, the other apparently normal, were smirking at her.

Neither looked especially impressive, except for that both had black hair. The one who hadn't tried to stick a large piece of sharpened metal into her guts had golden eyes, while the other had dark eyes.

They both must have been Reincarnates, then.

The one with the golden eyes opened his mouth, and the voice of Dust came tumbling out. "Thank you, Atheist. Your relics will be very helpful in our take down of the Demon King."

The lance was withdrawn from her gut, and Tanya gasped. A rather large hole now penetrated her organs, spilling precious fluids into the cold, cruel world.

The one with the lance high-fived each other. "Man, the pamphlet said she'd be difficult. That was easy!"

Tanya grit her teeth, letting their words wash over her. She needed to get away and get help. Killing the fools would come later.

"Now, we'll do as agreed. I couldn't have snuck up on her without your distraction, and you couldn't have beaten her with just your Shapeshifting," the one with the lance said to the other.

They began to discuss her relics, and what they were going to do. As if she were already dead.

Slumped onto the bench, a wide smile split her face. They were _fools_.

A mote of mana was born. Laboriously, it traveled through her soul, attempting to reach her head. Soon, it was there. Tanya lifted an arm.

Neither of them noticed. Tanya would have laughed maniacally, if she wasn't scared a lung had been punctured.

She pressed down on her head, and the mote flew towards the circlet resting on her head.

Tanya's grin only grew wider as she began to feel revitalized. She knew it was just the Pain-Reducing Reinforcement spell she'd doped herself with, but it was **_ffffffffiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnneeeeeee_**.

The Active Barrier she'd placed in her guts to stop the internal bleeding and the Flight spell, whose force was usually applied to her entire body, pressed down on her wound, staunching the flow of blood.

Both seemed to be making noise.

"Is that a halo?"

Sounds of surprise.

"I thought she didn't have that circlet?"

Bubbly, girlish laughter escaped her throat as she began to rise from the ground, propelled by yet more Flight spells. Who cared about the content of their words? They'd almost **killed** her.

Getting healed would come after a bit of revenge!

The scepter on her back floated into her hands elegantly, and a wall of blue sprung into life, thrumming with mana. She opened her mouth, tempted to gloat. Her eyes narrowed as they began to draw their weapons.

She didn't have time for that. She didn't have the physical capability to contend with them and keep herself together.

Barely grasping her staff – even holding onto something took effort – she leveled the worst glare she could at them. Reds and yellows poured from the top of her scepter, hurling towards them and exploding on contact with whatever they hit.

Both managed to dodge. She glared madly at her staff. She needed her gun. Bullets traveled faster than they could react. They'd be dead if she had that.

It seemed, from their attire, that both of them had been here much longer than the other one who'd tried to kill her.

It made little difference.

Eight years of fighting in a modern war outpaced _any _experience they could have had during the life of a student and their weeks playing at being a hero.

Both managed to dodge a few more spells, and Tanya growled. She didn't have the time for this. Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, a plan sprung to mind.

She needed to kill the weak link.

Her gaze shifted to the weaker of the two. The one with golden eyes. The one who'd taken the Shapeshifting ability.

An angered scream tore out of her throat, giving both of them pause. The anguished expression on her face shifted rapidly into one of gloating pride, and an Artillery Shot flew from her staff.

Furious eyes boring into her own, he managed to dodge, but that was fine. It hadn't been him she was aiming for.

The bench behind him exploded, sending pieces of metal and wood in all directions. Including into his body.

He was silenced. She turned to her other opponents, only to see he was screaming the name of the one who'd died. She laughed a bit.

A furious glare was sent her way. "How dare you laugh!? I am Hideyo Yamamoto, and armed with the Bulwark Breaker, I'll avenge my friend!"

Tanya laughed harder. He was _monologuing _in the middle of a battle. What an idiot!

She giggled. Not that their efforts would make a difference. She would kill them anyway.

He began to run at her, screaming, and she let it happen. He couldn't do anything, not with the mana she was fueling into her practically opaque active barrier.

The tip of the ornamental thing touched her shield, and Tanya screamed, falling to the ground and writhing in pain. Her mana left her shield, flooded through her body into the spell, only to be consumed in the dissolving shield.

Faster and faster, mana left her body. In the few glimpses she caught of the man's face, in between the wracking pain, he seemed rather stoic. He wasn't even pushing the ridiculous thing into her shield; it was just _unravelling _it.

She cut off the mana flow out of her body. The shields, the pressure on her wound, the mana in her circlet. All of it stopped. The pain wasn't back yet, but she didn't think that would last long.

She gasped. She… she had to pray, to give in to Being X. It was her only option-

He leaned down and snatched her visible Type 95, breaking the metal cord tying it around her neck. He tossed it behind him and continued to glare.

She began to take in deep, gulping breaths. If she gave in, acknowledge him as her god, **then she could win, even without the-**

NO! Never, she'd never, never give in! Being X was lying! He'd never help her, even if she did give in! He…

He'd already proved that! He…

She calmed down as she realized that…

This was it. She had almost no mana left, and with its departure, she had no strength. She was done. It was even getting hard to think.

Heaping gulps of air entered her diminutive body, Tanya took a look at the person standing over her. A scowl marked his face.

"Well?" she asked. Logic dictated he should kill her. She knew humans didn't always work on pure logic, but it was _obvious _what he should do.

She wondered if she'd get to see Viktoriya before she was cast into whatever punishment Being X had planned for her.

"I was sent here to take out you and the Demon King. I will do that. I just want to know. Why did you do it?" he said.

Tanya didn't have to fight to keep the smile from her face. She was too tired to smile.

He was letting her talk? She took another few gulps of air.

"Do what?" she gasped.

She could guess what he meant. She just wanted time. Every second was another speck of mana she might get.

"'Do What?' What do you think! Why did you oppose the Gods! How could you possibly think they're not holy, after everything you've seen?" he shouted.

Another few gulps. What could she do? She was out of options, without any mana…

Wait. She'd bought that piece of Manatite, right? It was in her bag.

"Look at my biography, if you're so interested," she spat. She needed to play into his expectations of a defeated villain on the verge of death. She inched her hand towards the bag at her waist.

"How did you…" he trailed off. He shook his head. "I've read that a few dozen times already, thanks. I want to know from the source."

Tanya kept breathing. It was beginning to grow steadier. Tanya just hoped that it wasn't a sign of her dying. The effects of the Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spell could last a long while, so she wasn't exactly sure how much pain she should be feeling.

"At first, it was just the principal of the thing. Why would some grand deity descend and stop time on the part of one atheist? But…" she trailed off, and he leaned towards her, resting his weight on his lance.

"Then, it became a bit more personal. Their meddling caused nations to go to war; caused millions of people to hurl themselves towards their 'enemies.' Oh, I don't doubt that the countries of my last life would have gone to war eventually on their own; but too many things pointed to 'divine' interference."

Taking long gasps of breath between each sentence, it seemed the fool was actually affected by her speech.

"The death of my comrades was just icing on the cake. They died with me, and this whole excursion has been a sort of last 'hurrah' for me. I…"

She sniffled pathetically, and his gaze softened. Tanya almost grinned.

Then it hardened again. "Then I'm sure you can understand how I feel about how you murdered my friend."

Tanya let out a gasping chuckle, moving her hands towards her abdomen, hoping he wouldn't notice her moving her hands towards her bag. "You tried to murder me. That I lasted this long was amazing. Besides…"

She grinned viciously at him. "How do you think you'll explain this to the authorities? I've been here longer, and I have friends. You two probably broke into the shop last night, too. Murder, breaking and entering; I will have my revenge. Hopefully, you'll end up behind bars for a nice, long while, if you aren't executed."

He glanced around worriedly, panic overcoming his face, and Tanya slipped a hand into her bag. Frantically, she searched for the thing. Where was it?

He turned back to her, and she relaxed her posture. Even the slightest suspicion that she might be able to win might send a lance through her head.

He sighed, and leaned on his lance again. "Honestly, I don't even want your stupid relics anymore. You killed my friend, and they'll be tainted."

Tanya shrugged. Her hand had been moving around silently, searching for the Manatite. It still hadn't made its way into her hand.

"Stop right there, criminal scum! How dare you attack an upstanding adventurer! You'll have to face me and torture me in order for me to stay silent."

Darkness burst into the area from behind a tree in the direction of one of the entrances of the park, her breathing labored and her face red.

He turned around, still resting on his lance, staring at the beauty incredulously. Tanya took that as her cue.

With what remained of her strength, she lunged towards her scepter and swung in a wide arc. It slammed into the man's lance.

He crashed to the ground cursing, unprepared to have his weight swept from under him.

Tanya couldn't support herself. Lying on her back, she shakily pointed the front of her scepter at him and shot the weakest Explosive Vaporization she could at him. It didn't even wound him.

Much.

A chunk of his arm had been blown off, and the man began to scream, but Tanya ignored it. Tanya just grunted. Through it all, Darkness had watched, sword in hand, unprepared.

"What are you waiting for? He tried to kill me!" she shouted, dumbfounded.

Darkness shook her head and raised her sword towards the screaming man.

She hesitated.

Tanya snarled, pressed the mana she had accumulated into her circlet, and shot another three Explosive Vaporization spells at him.

The rest of his body was blown apart, and his blood and guts were scattered all over the area.

Totally spent, Tanya collapsed. She'd used too much, too fast.

Covered in his remains, Darkness rushed over. "Tanya? Tanya, are you okay?"

Tanya gave her a shaky smile, and she managed to register Darkness's shout for help as she passed out.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 2:** And there we have it! Tanya is pushed closer to utilizing the Type 95, and the Circlet is showing some side effects as well. She'll be alright, in the long run.

Probably.

I'm not promising anything in the short run.

Oh well. Anyway, would you guys like some OCs? I'm including them anyway, but would you _prefer _them?

Anyway, read on!


	9. Explosions and Reparations

Groggy, foggy thoughts circled through Tanya's head. Well, she wasn't dead, then.

The last two times that _that_ had happened, she'd been fairly cognizant of her surroundings. She was surprised, honestly.

The only people who knew serious healing magic were people with the Priest job. If Being X had just stopped them from healing her…

Well, she sure as hell wouldn't be feeling this bad, that was for sure. She'd be dead.

She opened her eyes, and looked around the room she was in. It was better than her stable, if the bed underneath her was anything to go by. No windows, very little in the way of physical possessions, besides…

Tanya glared. In an alcove on the wall, some sort of statue sat. It was definitely religious, if the wings on the back were anything to go by. Just under that alcove, Tanya's clothes, looking brand new, were neatly folded. Her hat rested on top of the pile, and the Type 95 sat next to it.

Sighing, Tanya began to run through what she liked to call her diagnostic check. The name was a bit of a misnomer – she wasn't a machine – but it reminded her of the technology of her first life, and it was much less disheartening than calling it a 'post-crisis checkup on her health and sanity.'

She tried to move her limbs. Each of those was working, even if they ached every time she even thought about moving them. Sitting up slightly, a peek underneath her sheets confirmed that she…

She frowned. She was naked, and her abdomen looked untouched, which would be bad ordinarily, but she was only confused due to the lack of even bandages.

She supposed in a world so replete with easy access to fast and efficient ways to fix people up, such things were unnecessary, but they did help to stop bleeding, at least until she got to the Priests.

She blinked. What if _she_ made bandages?

She was making a gun, after all. There had to be a ton of things she could make to reap in a ton of cash.

Tanya filed the idea away for later and laid back down on the bed, glaring up at the wooden beams that held up the ceiling. At the very least, it was a good thing that this world wasn't practicing superstitious methods of bloodletting.

She laid there for an hour, thinking about trying to get up, regardless of the inevitable pain, when the door opened a crack. Tanya sent an inquiring look towards the door while simultaneously raising the sheet to cover her up to her shoulders, and a Priest peeked through.

"Hey, Degurechaff. I'm just here to cast a bit of healing magic," she said. Tanya raised an eyebrow at her.

She certainly didn't seem to be the type to be a nurse of some kind, with how… lacking her bedside manner was.

Tanya shook her head and refocused. She nodded hesitantly, her mind already conjuring the cost of repairing near-fatal wounds if a single broken rib had cost her 20,000 Eris. She would be paying this off for the next few months, at least.

The woman stepped in, and Tanya's brow creased. "You're the one who healed me a few weeks ago, right? What's your name?"

The woman nodded. "Ashley," she provided as she brandished her hand. Her hand glowed.

Tanya inhaled sharply at the squeamish feeling she felt as her insides… _shifted_. While decidedly uncomfortable, the fact that she didn't feel any pain meant she was probably close to being done recovering.

The woman got up to leave, when Tanya cleared her throat. The woman turned around, and Tanya asked the question that had been buzzing inside of her mind.

"Can you teach me a bit of Healing magic?"

Ashley seemed a bit surprised. "You're a Priest?"

Tanya shook her head. "An Adventurer, actually. If I'm going to get this injured, I should probably be able to heal myself, right?"

The woman looked thoughtful. She had every right to. There were very few people who could ask to be taught the magic instead of just being able to select the skill from a list.

She sighed. "Alright. As long as you can pay, I'm fine with whatever."

Tanya glowered at the woman, who raised her hands defensively. "Don't look at me that way. Organizing the Eris Thanksgiving Festival takes a lot of money in order to pay the guild to put out so many requests."

Tanya rolled her eyes and nodded anyway. It wasn't like she didn't expect it; she just did not have the money to be spending even more.

The woman smiled radiantly, and knelt at the side of Tanya's bed. Looking around, she picked up Tanya's scepter. "Hey, what are you-"

The woman poked the side of her own left arm with the tip, and a pinprick of blood formed on where it had touched her. "Now, what you're going to want to do is to focus on the mana in my body and guide it towards the wound."

Tanya, Adventurer Card in hand, stopped the motion she was making to learn the skill. "Wait. Does that mean you've been using my mana to heal me?"

She nodded. "You can only Heal others with your own mana if you have quite a lot of it."

Tanya nodded unhappily – she'd be bedridden for even longer – and chose the skill. She growled internally as the last two Skill Points she had disappeared.

Tanya held out a hand towards the woman, poking it above the covers. "Heal," she said as an odd feeling came over her. She knew where the mana of this woman was, and directed it towards the pinprick of blood.

Soon, the blood disappeared as it retreated into the body. The skin looked good as new, and Ashley clapped her hands.

"Wonderful! That you can control it to that degree already… would want to change jobs?" she asked, a hopeful expression playing across her face.

Tanya swallowed the acidic response she'd been about to spit out. The woman had taken the time to use Heal on her and teach her a useful skill, even if she was being paid. Tanya shook her head politely, and the woman sighed dejectedly.

She stood, making her way across the tiny room. As the woman left, she pointed to the dresser next to her bed. "By the way, the expenses for your treatment are there." She swiftly slammed the door shut.

Curiously, she picked it up. Her jaw dropped.

She saw red.

Any and all sympathy she'd had for Ashley evaporated. The injury she'd had last time, the cracked rib, had taken 20,000 Eris and a handful of minutes to heal.

The hole in her abdomen, by contrast, had been as large around as two baseballs and had almost went through her entire body, had taken over twenty four hours to heal, and cost her twenty times more.

She owed _400,000_ Eris to the stupid church. She'd be paying that off for months. Maybe even a few years.

Ignoring the screaming pain in her legs, she shot from the bed, paper clutched in hand. "Ashley, get back here. How much did that skill cost? Ashley!"

Throwing her clothes on and ensuring both relics were secured in place, Tanya began hobbling along the short hallway of the church. She soon found herself in a large room dominated by pews with occupants sitting in them.

She scowled at them all, but shut her mouth. They wanted to worship some being in the sky they didn't even know existed? That was _their _problem.

She'd have no part of it though.

Hobbling faster, she walked down the aisles, searching for that Priest. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the entrance doors slowly gliding shut.

Grimacing at the pain, she hobbled faster, soon breaking into the bright light of-

Night.

It was night time. The streets were lit by magical means, providing the whole area with a more modern feel than she had expected. Of course, the huge bonfires and groups of adventurers could have something to do with the light.

Tanya didn't have enough mana. She'd miss out on the fireworks.

Tanya shook her head, searching for that priest. Ashley was nowhere to be found. She cursed under her breath. She must have slipped away while Tanya was dressing.

Dejectedly, she sat on the ground, back resting against a building. The crowds passed her by, heading towards the bonfires that had been lit. Tanya watched them pass, colors and sounds drifting passed her as she tried to think of a way she could get so much money.

"Tanya?"

She shook her head and looked up, only to see the legs of her teammate. "Oh, Darkness. Nice to see you." Tanya looked back down at the ground again. She really needed to figure out how to get that money. Maybe she could make something from her old world, like bandages, and sell it?

The sword in the Crusader's hands dropped to the ground, and Tanya looked up. "I knew you were a clumsy mess, Darkness, but really. We aren't even fig-"

She stopped short. While the Crusader might usually have enjoyed her scathing remarks, it didn't appear she'd even heard them. Her face, instead of blushing, seemed rather upset.

It seemed she'd been crying, as well. "Darkness?"

The Crusader knelt down and embraced Tanya. The next question she had died on her lips.

Well.

That was interesting. She had certainly felt a little touch-starved after a few weeks of interacting with her new assets and acquaintances in a professional and distant manner. This was…

This was nice.

Tanya shook her head. No, she had things to do, and waiting for Darkness to stop hugging her would probably take a while. Tanya continued to sit in her embrace for a little longer than was practical, but Tanya couldn't bring herself to care about practicality. Just for a moment.

Then she sighed. It was time to end this. "Hey, this is a bit sudden. We haven't even been adventuring together for a month and you're already making moves on me?" Tanya said. Darkness stiffened, and immediately stood, still holding Tanya.

"He- Hey Darkness. Why'd you pick me up? I'm not complaining, of course; everything still hurts. A little warning would have been-"

With that last remark, Darkness dropped Tanya like a sack of flour. Tanya swore as she hit the ground on her scepter. That would sting in the morning, along with all of her other injuries.

Picking her sword off the ground, Darkness readjusted her hair and said, "Honestly. We're having a moment, and you decide to say something like that and ruin everything."

Tanya stood shakily, ready to retort – everyone in the 203rd had made jokes that were _much_ more crass – but then something caught Tanya's eye. A shock of the clothes of the Priests of this world. Tanya began to hobble after what she saw, and eventually tapped the person on their back.

"Hmm?" the person said as they turned around, dread leaching into her features as she realized who it was. "Ah… Degurechaff. We can't refund you, so please, leave-"

Tanya shook her head. "I'm not going to hurt you. Regrettably, it was you people who saved my life. I just want to know how much the skill cost."

Relief flooded the features of the priest, as did greed. "Another fifty thousand Eris, please."

Dread immediately resurface on the face of the priest as she saw the face Tanya made. The anger dissipated, replaced by a small frown. She still couldn't feel all that mad at the brown-haired Priest. She would have finally kicked the bucket otherwise. "Fine. How long do I have to pay?"

She told Tanya, who groaned. Darkness stood by, watching the interaction.

"Fine. I'll pay it off by then," Tanya said. She grabbed her bag from her waist, rifled through, and gave the woman all the money she had on her. It was everything she had saved, but it paid for three-quarters of the price.

With that, Tanya stalked away. Darkness, realizing that Tanya was leaving, shook her head and began to follow the diminutive girl.

Tanya was still focused on her bag. Where was the stupid-

"Aha!" she exclaimed, holding the red piece of Manatite she'd purchased at the Festival. "Why couldn't you show yourself back then? I'd have won handily if you'd just have shown up."

Darkness caught up to Tanya. "Tanya, I'm going to go home now."

Tanya turned on her. "Why? The bugs are going to be coming to town, right? There's a lot of experience to be had."

Darkness gestured around them, to the darkened streets located away from the main areas of the festival. "Well, you clearly aren't, and I can't hit anything anyway."

"Stupid knight," Tanya muttered under her breath. Said knight looked embarrassed and aroused, but Tanya ignored her. The stupid thing would have been a perfect chance to-

Wait. Tanya looked at the crystal in her hand and grinned. She _could _participate.

"What are you talking about, stupid knight? With this Manatite, I can throw one Explosive Vaporization out, at the very least," she declared as she drained the mana out of the thing. It felt much like how using Heal had, except she was directing the mana into her own body.

Revitalized, she set off towards the bonfire, Darkness following close behind. "To be surrounded and devoured by unfeeling insect monsters. Just the thought of it-"

Tanya turned around again, another idea forming in her head. "Hey Darkness. How'd you like to try something?" she asked, a malevolent smile tugging at her lips.

Darkness looked oddly apprehensive, but Tanya was sure she'd like it.

Probably.

-OxOxO-

The foreman looked surprised. "You're here?"

Tanya smirked. "Yeah. Sorry I wasn't able to get here yesterday. Something… came up."

The man nodded, and then gestured around himself. The adventurers who had been sedate yesterday were now all eyeing each other suspiciously. "As you can see, your suggestion has riled them all up. They'll compete with each other, driving up how many bugs we'll get and the price of admission as well."

Tanya's shoulders fell at that. She didn't have the money to participate anymore. Her own suggestion had come back to bite her.

"Say, what's wrong?"

Tanya told him she'd lost her money, and a troubled expression came over his face. "But aren't you…" he trailed off, glancing at her for some kind of confirmation.

Tanya still had no clue what he was talking about. "Probably not."

He seemed a bit troubled by this. He shook his head and said, "How about a bet?"

Tanya narrowed her eyes. She probably wasn't going to like this.

"I have the money I said I'd give you right here," he said, gesturing to a cloth sack at his waist. "You could take it now and be on your merry way. But," he said, twiddling his mustache, "if you kill the most bugs here, then I'll give you the profit and the largest prize. If you don't however…" he trailed off.

"You won't get any money."

Tanya's shoulders fell. Well, it was about what she was expecting. Tanya sighed.

First thing was first. "How much is in the bag?" she asked. If she could pay off her debts, then she'd take it.

"100,000 Eris."

Tanya opened her mouth, wanting to take it. If she gave most of it to the greedy church, then she could get a loan from the guild, and – if Dust was anything to go by – get a larger-than-normal loan if she begged enough.

Just then, a voice rang out from behind Tanya. "Are you ready? They're going to start soon, you know."

Tanya turned around and stared at Darkness. Right, the woman had been enthusiastic about Tanya's plans to use her as bait and to let her be engulfed in a fireball of power.

She looked at Darkness. She'd saved her life by distracting that Reincarnate, and Tanya had been able to go on harder quests, with her there. Plus, she'd get even more money.

Tanya shook her head. She needed the money now, especially if she was going to… reward Darkness…

She tried to repress the shiver. And, if she was rewarding Darkness, she would need to pay the money back for whatever new debts she would acquire.

Tanya sighed heavily. "Fine. I'll agree to your wager. But you're going to help me."

An eyebrow raised, the man agreed. "Darkness," Tanya said as the man walked away, heading towards the group of people holding torches, poised to drop them into the bonfire pits.

"The plan has changed."

-OxOxO-

This was stupid. Unbelievably stupid, in fact, but she had little choice.

Darkness was standing on the largest rock that the two of them could find around the bonfire, while the foreman was standing behind Tanya. The fire had begun to spread, igniting each giant log of wood.

"So, how are you going to do this again?" the foreman asked, sounding very nervous and skeptical. Darkness looked just as nervous.

"You said you want a large explosion, right? Well, doing it on the ground would be hazardous. I'll power up here, and then I'm going to send that rock, and Darkness on top of it, into the sky. She'll use Decoy, attracting all the insects to her, and I'll throw the largest spell I can at the rock," she explained to the man.

"And just how are you going to 'power up'? Or send her into the sky, for that matter?" he asked logically.

"And how am I going to survive the fall?" shouted Darkness.

"You just will, alright? Don't doubt me," she shouted while doubting the plan.

She wanted that money, and she needed to pay off her debts, and she wanted to pay back Darkness a bit, so she'd do what she had to. Besides, what was the worst that could happen?

She sighed. A lot could go wrong, up to and including her starting a cult to worship Being X. However…

She did need to see what using the Type 95 here was like. It still had its curse – she could _feel_ that – but if it was less powerful, she needed to know now. Learning in a somewhat controlled environment was far better than suddenly figuring it out on the battlefield.

Still, this plan was stupid, and not, as her accomplices thought, because she was sending Darkness into the air; she was sure she could catch her before she hit the ground, as long as her stats were buffed.

Speaking of which…

"Hey Darkness. Do you want me to enhance you?" she shouted. Darkness, peering down from the one-story-building sized boulder, looked curious.

"You can…? Well, what can you do?" she asked.

"Strength, Dexterity, Agility, and Pain-Reduction," she replied. Darkness looked affronted.

"You would- would deprive me of the pain of a Detonation spell and hundreds of insects? How cruel!" the Crusader moaned. Tanya sighed.

"Reinforcement spell: Strength!" she shouted, pointing towards Darkness. With that done, Tanya pushed her hat down onto her head.

A great heat wave hit all three, and they turned to look at the bonfire. It was beginning, then. Tanya sighed, and turned towards the foreman. "Remember when I start chanting, I want you to brace my shoulders. Use all of your strength."

Without hearing his response, she fed a mote of mana into the Circlet, giggling as she felt her pitiful mana reserves swell. Twirling her staff – using magic; she had no strength to speak of – she planted the bottom of the thing into the flagstones, cracking them.

The faint sound of buzzing reached Tanya's ears, and she nodded. A quick adjustment of her scepter pointed it towards Darkness.

"He- Hey Tanya? I'm not sure about thi-" was all Darkness could say before she was sent hurtling into the air. The foreman muttered nervously behind her, but Tanya didn't have time to notice. She began chanting a prayer, activating the full power of the Type 95.

"**Oh Lord, please grant this weary traveler in a land far from home and full of nonbelievers a boon with which to rain destruction on the mindless beasts of this heretical land."**

With that, the intricate screen of an Observation spell bloomed to life in front of her, tracking the stone's every movement.

She began laughing.

She had _way_ too much mana. It actually hurt a bit, to have so much energy available.

That was fine, however; as long as she was using the blessed Type 95, nothing could stop her in this uncultured land.

"Uh… are you sure that you can hit something that high up?" the man asked, firm grip still attached to her back. The other adventurers had turned towards them.

Soon, the rock reached the peak of its arc through the air, coming to a stop, for a moment. As it did, swarms of insects – beetles, mantises, anything that could fly – swooped down from the clouds, attracted to the flying Crusader and her Decoy skill.

She grinned, pouring more and more mana into her staff. It was glowing brightly at this point, and bright flares of mana lashed out from the top of it.

She inhaled, and as the rock began to fall, shouted. "Artillery Shot!"

The flagstones the scepter was embedded in cracked, she and the foreman were sent flying backwards, a globe of pure light shot out of the scepter, and the crowd of adventurers gasped.

She readjusted herself, righting herself with Flight spells, and watched as the spell traveled.

In the lapse where she had been sent end over end, the spell had already traveled a hundred feet towards the stone. Every other adventurer, those who had been staring at them and those who hadn't, now watched it make its progress. By now, it seemed as if the sun had risen again.

She sighed appreciatively. It sure looked nice, but so much of her precious, holy mana wouldn't have been leaked if she had her gun already.

The spell pushed upwards, streaking towards the stone. A brilliant flash erupted as it detonated on impact.

Billowing heat erupted from the sphere, growing, growing, growing. Expanding until it encompassed the rock, the bugs, the clouds. All of it was blown away in the heat and light, delivered to her.

Then the smoke. What little had survived the explosion – the bugs on the other side of the rock she had detonated – was swallowed up in the fireball of smoke.

Then came the sound. An all-encompassing roar as air was displaced, followed by the shattering of anything made of glass.

She grinned. Now, it was on to kill the Demon King!

Tanya frowned. No, Tanya had to save Darkness and then deactivate the Type 95. That was the plan.

But that plan was so boring! It would be much better to **fight and kill and hurt and-**

She shook her head and took a deep breath. No, she wouldn't be controlled by this thing. She looked up again.

Tanya sighed as she watched the explosion fade. No one could top that. The man who'd braced her against the force of the spell gasped, horrified. "What did you just do!?"

Tanya turned to him. "I won our bet. I'll be taking my money now, thank you very much."

The man, terror and anger on his face, grabbed two sacks at his waist and thrust it into her hands. "Here. Two hundred thousand Eris. Now leave!"

Tanya tilted her head, curious. "It's not my fault you weren't prepared."

The man, face turning an interesting shade of red and purple, began to speak slowly. "I was prepared for a Detonation spell. I wasn't prepared for an _Explosion _spell! That was completely overkill, and it damaged the town! Who's going to pay for all that, huh?"

Tanya shrugged. "I don't know. I gotta go catch Darkness, so… see you around!" she shouted, whispering a Reinforcement spell under her breath. With that, she ran off. She wouldn't want to be seen flying after all.

Leaving behind a crowd of angry adventurers and townspeople, Tanya made her way into a darkened alleyway. A quick Observation spell told her she was alone.

Tanya activated an Optical Decoy spell, and then took off from the ground, searching for Darkness. She had probably been launched even higher up. Another Observation spell was activated, and Tanya stretched it to her limits.

_There._

Something registered, and Tanya flew towards it, soon arriving at the almost entirely de-clothed Darkness. Tanya giggled a bit as she applied a few Flight spells to the woman slowing her descent. She would have taken a moment to admire her, but she was cartwheeling towards the ground.

Assured they were falling at the same rate, Tanya grabbed Darkness in a typical bridal carry, and sped off towards the guild.

Darkness came to, and looked around. Tanya tried to ignore her inquiring gaze, focused on getting to the Guild.

"…Tanya?"

Tanya winced, but remained silent. She was running on fumes, and the Circlet could only boost what was already present. She blinked.

She hadn't deactivated that?! She was still being influenced!

She took a calming breath. If she ran out of mana, they'd both end up as pancakes. She would have to let it happen, and take whatever mana high this thing bestowed upon her as well.

A minute of howling wind filled the silence of their nonexistent conversation, and then they landed near the guild. Tanya set Darkness down, and sighed in relief.

She quickly undid her mantle and passed it to the girl, and she quickly covered what was left of her clothing in the thing. Tanya sighed.

"Well, it seems everything turned out alright. Darkness…" Tanya trailed off, looking at the woman's face.

Blushing, heated, and panting, Darkness asked, "Can we do that again?"

Tanya blinked slowly as the effects of the Circlet drained away. "No."

The woman groaned in pleasure, and Tanya shook her head. "Here, take these," she said, handing the bags of money to the Crusader.

She tilted her head. "What do you want me to do with these?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Pay off my debts, obviously. There should be two hundred thousand in those, so I want fifty back," she turned towards the entrance to the alley, when Darkness's voice rang out.

"Why- why won't you do it?"

Without turned around, Tanya said, "I'm too weak. And you can do it right? After all…"

Tanya turned her head to Darkness, smiling. "We're friends, right?"

She knew the line was cheesy, but Darkness didn't seem to get the concept of friendship yet.

She had saved her life without needed to. She was under no orders to protect her, like the 203rd, and she could easily have left her if she wanted to.

With one last smile, Tanya activated a burst of a Reinforcement spell and sped home. Weaving through street after street, stall after stall, knowing full well that she would be out for a nice, long while after all this magic.

Until she didn't.

She stopped in front of one. The sign above the small table had the words 'Magical Items' written across it.

Bottles, orbs, and other miscellaneous objects sat on the table. A woman with red hair and skin as pale as the moon was slouched over, head resting on her hand as she stared hopefully at passing adventurers. Each one took a look at her merchandise, and then made a hasty retreat. It was… what was her name?

Wiz, that was it!

"Hey Wiz!" Tanya greeted, walking towards the woman's stand. Said woman looked entirely too sad.

She perked up. "Tanya?"

Tanya nodded and walked forward. "Sorry I haven't been able to come over. I've had things to do," she said.

Which was the truth. The past few days had been hectic, and she didn't have the money to spend anyway.

Tanya looked at the various products. "So… you make magic products, right? Tell me about some." She had an extra fifty thousand, after all. She might be able to buy some.

"Of- Of course!" she said, rising from the sitting position. Bottles were displayed, with odd effects.

"This one, when drunk, will boost the power of the Paralyze spell, increasing its area of effect!" she said, holding a brightly colored yellow bottle under my nose.

She flinched away before I could back up, but hope was still alive in her eyes. "Er… sorry. I can't use that spell…" Tanya trailed off.

The woman nodded. Perhaps because Tanya hadn't fled immediately, she tried to get her to buy anything.

Potions that she couldn't utilize because she was an Adventurer, oils that enhanced the power of attacks at the cost of the users own health, even items that helped with daily conveniences. Nothing interested Tanya; she could already do most of that on herself, or she wasn't too fussed about convenience.

The woman fell to the table, dejected. Tanya patted the woman. "Sorry I don't need anything, Wiz."

The woman's form shuddered. "It's fine. I suppose I'm used to it by now, anyway…" she trailed off, resting her forehead against the table.

Tanya looked at the table, for anything that hadn't been shown to her. A rack of potions, all colored red caught her eye. "What about those?" she asked.

The woman looked up. "Oh, those? They just explode on impact with something."

Explode?

They exploded?

On impact?

Tanya's eyes grew wide, and a smile on her face began to grow wider. "How much are they?" she asked stiffly.

The woman looked up. "Sorry?"

Tanya bent over the table, gripping the woman's arms. "I said: how much for those? I'll pay anything."

The woman, surprised by her intensity, began to speak. "Well, since it is the Eris Thanksgiving Festival, I bought a lot of them, since there aren't usually many people who can use Detonation or Blast. But because someone killed almost all of the insect monsters, no one's come to buy them. I'm actually going to go over there, since they think someone cast Explosion, and they want and expert's opinion," she babbled.

Tanya tried to keep her face blank.

It seemed she'd deprived the woman of quite a bit of her money. Well, she was going to be helping out now, right?

"How much?" Tanya repeated.

"Each potion only costs ten thousand Eris…"

Tanya winced, but she nodded anyway. This was it. _This _was what could substitute for gunpowder. "I don't have the money with me, but I will buy five of them tomorrow."

The woman's eyes grew big. "Tha- Thank you. Could you please let go of me? Your grip is painful…"

Tanya immediately let go, apologizing profusely. Then she began to laugh. It was probably the exhaustion, but she didn't care. "Thanks to you, I'll finally be able to recreate gunpowder! Thank you, Wiz!"

With that, she turned around, and sped off towards the stables. She needed to get to sleep so she could get her money from Darkness.

Her… friend.

She sighed. Pretending that everyone always worked for their own personal self-benefit only worked in economics. Logic wasn't the only foundation of the world or of most people, even if it was _her _preferred one.

Tanya had opened herself to emotion, and emotion had driven her to get revenge on Being X for reincarnating her the first time and killing the Viktoriya and the 203rd. What was a bit of friendship, compared to that?

-OxOxO-

Darkness, left in the dust of Tanya, began to walk out of the alleyway automatically. Her friend?

"I guess I'll go give these to Ashley, then…" she mused to herself, mind clearly dwelling on the battle-hardened girl winding through the streets of Axel.

Her friend?

Darkness smiled. That had been the whole point of becoming an adventurer.

Well, one of the points. Avoiding her father's pleading that she get married and getting to experience the brutality of monsters were others. But…

She sighed. Her father had spoiled her, after her mother's death. He hadn't wanted her to be upset, and had kept away anyone that could be considered a friend, leaving only the greedy sons of other nobles – possible suitors – to play with her.

Darkness panted at that thought. Filthy, corrupt, wife-beating nobles…

She shook her head. She was thinking about Tanya.

The leader of their duo. Someone who, despite their insistence to the contrary and oddities, _must _have been a noble. It wasn't even just the physical characteristics.

It was the haughtiness she displayed when confronted with certain things, like unpaved roads or people acting like they were better than her. She clearly expected to be respected, despite her insistence that she wasn't what she thought she was.

And her name. Not only was it pretty long, it had three names, like her own. No commoner would ever think of doing something like that.

Darkness pouted as she remembered her efforts to figure out her past. There wasn't a single 'Degurechaff' in the registry of nobles, and her father, when she'd asked, had never heard of someone with such a name.

Still. Her powers meant she had to be noble; all of the nobles, after all, were at least distantly related to someone who had defeated a Demon King in the past. Besides the Crimson Demons and Hero Candidates, only nobles had the kind of power she did.

She must have been some sort of rare Priest-noble as well; she could cast support magic, and she had learned Heal from that Eris cult priest. Tanya had an aptitude for it, which meant she must have been the daughter of a high-ranking noble, bred to be a king's loyal representatives to their church.

Her musings were interrupted, in a moment, by her realization that she'd made it to the Church. She glided inside, and soon found Ashley, head bowed in prayer, along with everyone else.

Darkness tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up, and Darkness handed her both bags. "There is two hundred thousand Eris. Please take what you're owed."

The woman nodded and rose from her seat, walking towards the area where only the priests and those they healed could enter, and not looking at her lack of good clothing. The accusing glares of other worshipers pierced her, and their unhappiness that she was only wearing Tanya's mantle and what little was left of her armor was palpable.

Her face blushing madly, Darkness sat in the seat Ashley had vacated only moments earlier and bowed her head to hide her blushing and panting and-

Then, after a moment, she was finished. She didn't exactly have a lot to do right now…

Well, she was already there with her head bowed in prayer. She might as well pray and thank Eris for her good fortune.

-OxOxO-

She sat in her chair, filling out yet more paperwork.

That made a total of three.

Three people, innocent and young, had been sent after that madwoman, had been reincarnated, with explicit instructions to attempt to kill a war veteran armed with relics that could match anything the Gods could make.

Three more people were killed, in addition to the hundreds they'd tried to throw at the Demon King.

Eris sighed. She prayed that Aqua would actually do her own paperwork, instead of shifting it to her, but she did as she was ordered regardless. She filled out the forms that stated that another Reincarnate had been killed.

Pretty soon, they'd need to send someone down there to seal them again.

A feeling overcame Eris, and she sat in her chair, blissful. Right, the Eris Thanksgiving Festival was taking place. Smiling happily, she let the feelings of thankfulness wash over her.

They really made the job worthwhile.

Suddenly, she realized she'd received a prayer from one of her Crusaders. Smiling warmly, she let the voice reach her ears.

"Oh Goddess Eris. Thank you. I've prayed, day after day, for a friend. I became an adventurer, and I met one eventually. It must be thanks to you!"

Eris nodded sadly. It was Lalatina, then?

The woman who'd become an adventurer in the hope of finding friends that weren't nobles trying to get at her father's status. Her smile faded a bit.

Eris's eyebrows creased as she went over the words again. She didn't remember arranging for her to meet someone...

She'd been planning to meet the girl herself, actually, whenever Aqua was told to seal the relics. The work would, of course, be pushed onto her, and she'd need to go down.

She continued to listen to the prayer. "She is bossy, exacting, and powerful. She has plenty of secrets… but then, so do I. And she understands my desires. So I thank you, Eris, giving me the chance to meet this girl."

Eris nodded worriedly at that, hoping for a name. What was this person's name? How had they so thoroughly entranced her-

A gasped broke free from her throat as she heard the dreadful, _horrible _sentence that followed. She ran it through her head, over and over, like a record. She shot to her feet, paperwork forgotten. No, not forgotten.

It was just insignificant in the face of this crisis. She'd ask to be able to go down and seal the relics, and help her Crusader as well. Aqua could survive for a while without her, right?

She began to search all of Heaven for the one The Atheist called Being X, a sentence cycling through her head.

"I thank you for letting me meet Tanya von Degurechaff."

-OxOxO-

Tanya yawned as she rose from the pile of hay in her stable, stretching languidly. Then she remembered what had happened last night, and shot out of bed.

"The Explosion Potions!"

Grinning madly, she dressed in record time. Today, she'd get that potion. If she put a bit of it into each cartridge…

She'd finally be able to have her gun, as long as she had enough points in her Smith skill. Bullets would rain down on the monsters, and she'd be set to continue towards getting that wish.

Of course, she needed to start patrolling Axel. Leaving the other reincarnates to their own devices was a mistake, as the second day of the festival had shown. So she'd stay in Axel for a bit, raising her level.

It wasn't like that was odd. There were some adventurers who had been in Axel for ten years, despite the fact that it took, at most, five to get to the point where you were expected to leave.

That Tanya was advancing so fast was extraordinary to Luna, but Tanya thought it was pretty par for the course. She had already been isekai'd once, after all. She had experience with rising through the ranks of the unremarkable to stand out to her superiors.

Happily, Tanya began her walk to the guild. She needed to get her money from Darkness, after all.

Whistling merrily, Tanya made her way through the city quickly. Lingering might open herself up to attack. Who knew how many Reincarnates were gunning for her?

She arrived at the Guild, only to be brought up short. The windows, usually shining brightly in the early morning light, were gone. She winced.

She'd done that, right?

Slowly, she made her way in. She gasped.

Two stereotypical European knights – proper ones, with plate armor, chain mail, and helmets – were consulting with Luna. Five more were positioned throughout the guild, asking other adventurers or staff questions.

Tanya gulped, and slowly turned around, trying to leave the guild.

"Halt!" Tanya heard. She ignored them, attempting to act as though she hadn't heard them.

One of them grabbed her shoulder, and Tanya fought the urge to spin around and try to attack the person. Trying to convey confusion and a bit of fear, she turned around. "How can I help you, mister?"

She asked her question in the highest pitched voice she could without it cracking. Even after years, she could still make it sound as innocent as back in Dacia. That she hadn't developed physically meant that she could abuse people's preconceptions.

The blue-clothed old man who'd stopped her seemed slightly moved by her performance, but he pushed on regardless. "I'm Gerrard, the current Head of Police in Axel. We're investigating the usage of an Explosion spell to destroy the insect swarm from last night's Eris Thanksgiving Festival."

He certainly looked like a policeman. Blue clothing with yellow highlights, a small cap adorned the man's head. A thin mustache sat above his lip, and a sheaf of papers was clasped in the hand he wasn't using to stop her. Behind him, two of the seven knights present stood there, menacingly.

The fact that he existed was odd, considering the fact that the concept of a police officer wasn't very old, especially in her last world. What were they doing in medieval times? Had some Reincarnate introduced the concept to the ruling class?

Dismissing the question, Tanya tilted her head and tried to appear innocent. "But mister Head of Police sir, I'm not an adventurer."

"Then what about your clothing?"

Tanya's eyes widened a fraction, before she looked down at them, quickly attempting to retain her innocent ploy.

"Oh, these? I didn't know they were adventuring clothes. They were in the back of mama's closet, in a box marked 'for sexual play.' There were a bunch of ropes in there, too. Could you tell me what that means, mister? 'Sexual?'" Tanya asked.

The man looked incredibly uncomfortable, and Tanya sighed in relief internally. As soon as she got out of there, she'd go to the Blacksmith's and lay low. Or maybe Wiz's shop? Regardless, the man's stammered apology was coming out, and Tanya was going to be set free.

The lack of weapon was probably helping her. She'd left it embedded in the street, and she'd need to get it as soon as-

"Hello Tanya!"

Oh no.

Darkness, unaware of her predicament, trotted up to her from a nearby table. "That explosion last night was one of the best feelings ever. Are you sure you can't do it again?" she said, a pleading look on her face.

The Head of the Police's face, by contrast, seemed to be vaguely interested. Tanya's face was undoubtedly strained.

"Oh, here you go, by the way," she said, handing over a bag of money. "This is what's left. Are we going to go adventuring today? I know you don't have all that much money for some reason, so I don't mind."

Darkness continued to talk mindlessly. As the man's face became more smug – with a hint of empathetic regret present – Tanya's face became more and more strained as she attempted to bite through her own jaw.

Finally, the accursed woman stopped talking, and she began to look between the policeman, his two guards, and Tanya. Maybe it had finally dawned on her what was going on.

"'Something you found in your mother's closet', huh?" the man asked. The two knights at his side motioned to the others in the guild. They brought with them the stares of most of the guild.

Tanya laughed nervously. "Well, you know…"

She trailed off, eyes cast down at the floor. While she tried to look as regretful as possible, she was already planning her escape. As soon as there wasn't a roof above her, she'd leave.

A quick stop at the Blacksmith's and Wiz's, where she'd get everything she'd made, and then she'd leave. There had to be nations all around the Kingdom of Belzerg. One of them should be willing to harbor her, right?

Surrounded by seven knights, the police chief held up the papers in his hand, reading to Tanya. "You are suspected for several counts of destruction of private property, destruction of public property, and the murder of two adventurers. You will come with us, and you will be subject to interrogation."

Tanya nodded solemnly. A noise to her left showed her Darkness, looking rather conflicted. Right, Tanya needed to rescue her. She might be imprisoned in her place, and abandoning her friend didn't sit well with Tanya.

The man pointed towards the doors. Tanya turned around, wondering how'd she save Darkness as well.

The woman in question jumped in front of the group of nine. "Stop! I won't let you take Tanya alone!" She declared.

Tanya's eyes widened. Wow, she hadn't really expected that from-

"You'll have to take me too. And once you have me completely at your mercy, you'll abuse your power as the Head of the Police to ravish me, right? You'll be forced to use dirty tactics in order to get me to comply with your orders and as all of the knights hold me down, you'll take out your anger at me. Right?" she asked, lust shining in her pale blue eyes.

Tanya swiftly retracted her compliments.

The Head of the Police looked rather uncomfortable. "No. If you wish to accompany your friend, you are free to do so."

Two knights moved aside, and Darkness was in the circle with Tanya, blushing madly. Tanya let the pity she felt for the woman fade and grinned to herself. Now, she'd be able to make an escape, and they'd be able to survive.

"That was stupid," Tanya commented. Darkness moaned weakly, and Tanya sighed dejectedly.

"I know," the woman said. A flash of confusion twisted Tanya's face. She knew?

"But I have a plan."

"You do?" Tanya asked nervously. Not that Tanya doubted her own plan; she had knowledge of the future and a job that favored survival over power or efficiency. She was fairly sure that she could outwit a bunch of medieval bumpkins.

But if Darkness had an idea that didn't involve fleeing to another country, Tanya wasn't exactly against it.

Darkness nodded. "I have a bit of understanding of the laws, so I think I can save you without resorting to… that," she muttered.

Tanya whistled appreciatively. Access to those laws was probably restricted, so that she'd been able to get to them spoke of the woman's resourcefulness. Whatever 'that' was supposed to be, she didn't know, but this might actually not be as bad as she had thought.

Tanya knew she should stop doubting the woman. It was just that her kink was quite distracting from her good qualities.

"Alright. I'll go with your plan instead of mine."

Darkness nodded, and they began to walk along the streets of Axel. People were made to move out of their way, and they arrived in the more affluent portion of Axel.

City houses larger than the entire guild lined the road in this part of town. Tanya had never taken the time to visit, considering how busy she was.

The windows here weren't even broken. Tanya asked Darkness about that.

"Oh, the manors and their wealthy owners always get preference. Since the guild has already paid for the trouble you caused, new windows have been installed everywhere in this area of the city."

The furious scribbling of the police chief told Tanya to elbow Darkness in the stomach. She didn't even flinch. "Is that how weak you are without buffs?"

Tanya looked down at the ground, muttering. She knew it didn't help her situation, but if made her feel just a little bit better. "Stupid fantasy world. Stupid video game terms. Stupid, stupid, illogical world!"

Darkness, wisely, distanced herself from Tanya. Soon enough, after braving the harsh stares of passersby and others, they arrived at the police station. Just as they entered, Darkness uttered something that would have made Tanya stop in her tracks, if it weren't for the knights surrounding them.

"Don't worry, Tanya. As long as they use the magical item that can see through lies, we'll be fine. They'll soon realize this was all a big misunderstanding."

The knights behind her quickly ushered her into the two-story brick building, pushing her back. Tanya walked along, mind on Darkness's words.

A truth-detecting device? _That _didn't sound good…

Trying desperately not to panic, they were soon ushered into a small room. Two tables were present. One was occupied by a blond haired man, who, judging by the papers arrayed in front of him, was probably some sort of scribe. The other had no occupants.

Tanya walked in, but turned around when a shout echoed behind them. "Hey, wait! I'm trying to support-"

The Head of the Police continued to cross his arms as the knights grabbed Darkness. Her face was red, but she did seem actually upset. "No means no," the police chief said.

"We'll interrogate you later. Please wait in one of the cells," he said. Tanya's eyes widened.

There went her legal support.

The door slammed shut, and the Head of the Police sat down in a chair. Motioning towards the other one, Tanya took that as her cue to sit.

Well, she could still break out if anything went wrong. It would be harder, with the building around her, but an Explosive Vaporization or two would help negate that problem.

The man set something down on the table. "Do you know what this is?" he asked.

Tanya gave it a glance. It looked like some sort of bell, with two halves. The left was light and had a simplified bird's wing on it, while the other was dark purple and had a bat's wing on it.

Clearly some sort of evil vs. good motif. Tanya raised an eyebrow, and the man sighed. "I'll take that as a no, then. It's a magical device that ensure you're telling us the truth."

Tanya didn't answer. It would be very, very important that she did not lie and that she did not tell the truth. Well, as far as the number of people she'd killed.

Because she had killed a few hundred at least, and telling someone that was likely to get her imprisoned for a very long time, or for as long as they could hold her.

"For the record, we need to know a bit about you. Bureaucracy, right?" he said, attempting to tell a joke. Tanya stayed quiet. He was probably going to try some sort of good-cop bad-cop thing.

Why else would you be nice to someone who had shown the capability to shatter the glass of nearly every building in town?

The man sighed at her lack of laughter. "Alright then. Where are you from, and what did you do before you became an adventurer?"

Tanya licked her lips. Tough questions meant that she'd try to give vague answers.

"I am from the Empire. I worked for the military."

The mustached man in front of her blinked rapidly, then glanced at the bell on the table. It made no noise.

He squinted at it. "I am a woman," he declared.

The thing made a light chime, and he looked back at her. "To recruit a twelve-year-old…" he wondered.

"I am physically sixteen."

The scribbling of the scribe behind her stopped, and both men, again, looked at the bell. "I work for the Demon King," the police chief said. It chimed again.

Silence reigned, and then the chief cleared his throat. "Moving- Moving on. I haven't ever heard of a place called 'Empire' before…"

Tanya said nothing. She wasn't answering anything that might implicate her. Seemingly put off by her previous answer and her unwillingness to let her lips flap, he cleared his throat.

"So, what were you motives for becoming an adventurer?"

Tanya answered immediately. "I want to kill the Demon King."

_Ding._

The policeman stared at her, eyes wide, and Tanya smiled nervously. How to word it…

"I want to personally take revenge for a crime done to me, and combating the Demon King is part of that," she answered, smiled strained.

The bell failed to go off, and the scribe behind her continued to write.

The police chief looked suspicious, and Tanya didn't blame him. She had gotten caught in her lie.

"Alright, then. Now, to recap your crimes. The thousands of counts of destruction of private property, including the windows of every building in town as well as the counts of the destruction of public property, mostly in the park, were paid for by the guild, as per usual. You'll have to take up your debts and their payment with them."

Tanya nodded eagerly, internally grateful that she was only being prosecuted for one crime.

"…However, you did murder two fellow adventurers. The only reason you're not being executed for disturbing the peace is that various members of the guild swear that you are competent and powerful, and with the way the war is going, we need people like you," he explained.

Tanya swore she'd treat every person in that place to the best booze she could find, even if she got put into more debt.

The silence stretched on, and Tanya took the time to answer. If she worded things correctly, she might be able to avoid jail-time.

"It was self-defense," she offered. The bell didn't ring.

"Irrelevant. You still killed two people who could have been assets to the Kingdom by fighting monsters and the Demon King."

Tanya's mouth puckered. Then, the man's words sparked an idea.

"What if they became Adventurers under false pretenses? What if they never intended to kill the Demon King?" she asked him.

The man peered at her speculatively. "Go on," he said. Tanya began to talk.

"I know for a fact that the two of them were hired to kill me, and that they were planning on collecting the reward as soon as I was dead," she declared, standing from her seat.

She also knew they might try and kill the Demon King, but what she had said was the truth.

He glanced at the soundless bell and scowled. "If they were hired to kill you, then…"

He stood and bowed at the waist. "I apologize for assuming you would do something to harm the Kingdom. You will be released promptly."

Tanya smirked. It seemed she would get out of this without being implicated in scandal. "Well, it's only right. With this thing, you know I'm not lying."

The man nodded. "Just a few more questions."

"You haven't talked to any members of the Demon King's army, and you haven't committed any other crimes, right?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "How would I have? This is the town of beginning adventurers. And even if I have, it would be because they're a spy or something."

The police chief nodded absently. "And the other question?" he asked, seemingly regretting the whole thing.

"No, I haven't committed any other-"

_Ding_.

The police chief stared at her with renewed interest, while Tanya was trying to come up with what else she'd done.

Her first life?

No, nothing would be considered a crime from there. What about her second?

Oh right. She'd killed several hundred people. But she'd been a soldier! That had to mean it was a part of her job instead of a crime. Right?

Of course… there _were _the borderline war crimes. Like bombing the capital of a nation while giving them the impression that a kid was pranking them. Or the bombing of a bunch of civilians that were considered 'enemy soldiers' since they hadn't followed orders to evacuate. Or her attack on the enemy capital, where she had personally destroyed several of their most important cultural landmarks and sang her country's anthem above the destroyed city.

And there was always what had happened during the next few years of war against the Russy Federation…

The police chief was still staring at her. Tanya needed to come up with something.

Wait. What about this life?

Tanya breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Right. On my first day in Axel, a thief attempted to kidnap me. I _might_ have also killed him…"

The police chief nodded. "How long ago was that?"

"About a month."

He nodded, fears apparently abated. "Well, then. Since he tried to kidnap you, I suppose you're fine. You're free to go. Take your weird friend with you, please."

Tanya nodded, and rose quickly. She needed to leave before she got asked anymore uncomfortable questions.

As she left the small room, she heard another question. "Just how many people have you killed?"

Tanya froze, for a moment. The scribe's pen had stopped. Tanya began to sweat, but she kept her mouth firmly shut.

The man's chair made sound as it was moved, and Tanya assumed he was staring at the back of her head.

How many had she killed?

She wasn't even sure, but she knew it was in the hundreds. Maybe even over a thousand.

She hadn't had the bravery to look at that section of her Adventurer's Card yet. She didn't want to acknowledge how much damage she'd personally caused. It was a massive, utter waste, and she didn't want to know.

There was one thing she knew, thought. She had killed a great many people more than _three_.

Just then, the door burst open. Two knights rushed in and, brushing passed her easily, began to furiously whisper to the Head of the Police. The man's eyes grew to the size of saucers.

"You mean-!" he began to shout. One of the knights cut him off with a rapid shake of the head. The police chief turned to her, fear evident.

"We- We apologize for doubting the veracity of your words, Tanya von Degurechaff. Please excuse our insolence!" he shouted, bowing deeply at the waist. The other two knights followed suit.

Tanya, confused about the situation, replied uneasily. "Alright…"

They stayed there, bent at the waist. For a minute, everyone stood stock still. "Well!" Tanya said, louder than necessary, "I think I'll just find my way out then."

No one said anything, and Tanya walked out.

Creepy.

A thought struck her. The creepy Shapeshifting guy and his accomplice. What had been done about them?

Tanya turned around, and the three men stiffened. "Hey, what did you guys do about the two adventurers who tried to kill me?"

One of the knights spoke, still bent at the waist. "We sent the bodies to the pauper's cemetery. Their belongings are currently being kept as evidence, along with- with your weapon, ma'am."

Tanya felt weird. Only the members of the 203rd, during those first few months, and a few of the more brown-nosing foot soldiers had acted _this_ scared of her.

"Well… can you take me to them?"

The subtle shaking of the Head of the Police was hardly noticeable, but the clanking armor of the knights was much harder to miss. _What_ were they so scared of?

The police chief stood up straight. "I will-" he started to say, voice high pitched and cracking like a tween. He cleared his throat hastily. "I will escort you, Miss Degurechaff."

Tanya nodded hesitantly, and followed the man out of the room. The scribe cast an inquiring look at the knights, who began to explain.

Before she could see his expression, the Head of the Police was out the door. Tanya followed the man's fast pace, and they eventually arrived at a room. Behind the heavy iron door, a room full of equipment lied.

Tanya whistled appreciatively and began to walk towards a box. She found the lance of that Hideyo guy. It looked just as gaudy as last time. "Can I take this?" she asked speculatively.

"Of- of course, ma'am!" the man shouted from the entrance to the room. Tanya tried to ignore the man's nervousness, and soon found her own scepter.

Or what was left of it, at least. The top of it, claws and jewel, had been completely changed. The gem was gone, actually, while the claws were all twisted. Tanya uttered a tsk-tsk as she stared at it. That was why using guns and bullets was so much better.

It was very hard to warp something that was completely symmetrical and didn't have the ability to store lots of mana. That sort of thing tended to overheat, leading to the mangled mess before her.

Well, it seemed pretty useless, but she'd take it anyway. She needed to remove and fix the _Seitengewehr_ at least. She'd probably trash the rest, or something.

She thanked the man, and he led her to the entrance. Soon they arrived at the entrance. He still seemed terrified.

She hated it. Fear didn't really help in the long run, and if someone saw that the chief of police was scared of her, that would undoubtedly reflect badly on her.

"How about we reintroduce ourselves?"

The man blinked. "Huh…?"

He'd thought he'd done everything correctly. He hadn't spoken up, he hadn't looked her in the eyes. If she was even remotely connected to the Dustiness family, then she had a massive amount of power. Compared to him, she was miles above his station.

He wasn't even related to a noble family. His hair was graying, but wisps of hair on the top of his head were a plain, ignoble brown. His eyes were small and orange, nothing even close to the vivid blue that all nobility possessed.

He'd risen as high as was technically possible for a commoner, and it seemed that he was dealing with forces that could have him killed on a whim.

Tanya rolled her eyes. She sighed. "I said, let's reintroduce ourselves. You're obviously scared for some reason, so I want to assure you that I'm not upset about being arrested."

He nearly let out a cry of relief, but he managed to stifle it. He held out his right arm. "Gerrard. As you know, I'm the Head of Axel's police force."

Tanya smiled. "That's better. Tanya von Degurechaff. Adventurer with the weakest job and rising star. I'll see you later!"

She waved goodbye, and the man bowed his head again, thankful to not be headed for the chopping block.

Tanya shook her head as she walked away. What had been done to ensure she was set free and treated so respectfully? Had it been Darkness?

Sighing, Tanya made her way out. Soon enough, she found herself outside. Bathed in the bright light of midday, Tanya lamented for the lost time, and looked around for Darkness.

An hour passed, and Tanya couldn't find her. She'd searched the entire building, the small wooded area that surrounded the building, and even a few of the streets nearby.

Nothing.

Tanya had shaken her head. Well, she wasn't the woman's minder. She had things to do, Tanya was sure, so she made her way to her first stop: the general store.

-OxOxO-

Tanya smirked happily as she left the store. The old man in there could drive a hard bargain, but truthfully, Tanya didn't care. She'd gotten that lance thing as a bonus to staying alive.

Happily pocketing an additional hundred thousand Eris, Tanya sighed. She knew she wouldn't be keeping it for long. She did, after all, need to pay for all the damages to the city.

But she would still buy those potions while she could.

Focusing on her task, she began to walk back into the city, weaving between streets and alleys, searching for the store where Wiz had said it would be, that week ago.

Soon, she arrived. It looked pretty small, for the quality of products that were inside.

Of course, Tanya thought to herself, this was the city of beginning adventurers. They didn't have the money to spend on expensive products. The bell above the door rang as Tanya strode in.

The woman behind the counter perked up, before a wide, warm smile split her face. "Tanya! You're actually here!"

Tanya nodded. "I said I would be. Now, show me those potions!"

Happily, the owner showed off her a rack of potions. Wiz pointed to one. "This is the one that explodes on impact with something."

Tanya nodded. "And I can take it out of the bottle, right?" The woman nodded, and Tanya picked up the bottle gingerly. "How many more do you have?"

"I have the five you said you would buy."

Tanya smirked triumphantly. "Good. If you ever have any more of them, I'll try and buy them. I'm going to need a lot of this stuff."

Wiz handed a rack of five potions to Tanya, and Tanya held them with both hands, hoping they wouldn't combust because she took a wrong step.

"Hey Wiz. I have a list of other things I might need. Do you know where I might be able to get them?" she asked, setting the rack down gingerly and, after rifling through her bag, handed a list to the woman.

"…well, I'm not entirely sure what you need most of this for, but a lot of this stuff is pretty specific. Copper, zinc, lead…" she trailed off. Tanya sighed hopelessly. It seemed she might have to melt down any jewelry she could get her hands on.

Then an idea came to Tanya. Jewelry was made of gold or silver, which had monetary value. What else had monetary value?

Eris. Were there copper Eris?

"Hey Wiz. What are Eris made of?"

The woman brightened. "A single Eris is made of… copper!"

Tanya nodded and then moved on. "Would the general store manager know where to get this kind of stuff?"

The woman nodded. "If anyone did, it would probably be him. He's got tons of stuff in that store of his."

Tanya nodded and turned to leave. "Thank you very much, Wiz!"

With that, Tanya left the small store, heading back to the general store. If he didn't have what she needed, she'd ask the blacksmith.

-OxOxO-

"You again? Why do you always come to slack off here!" shouted the balding old man.

Dust simply sniffed indignantly. No one used the geezer's store, anyway. Why should he care about Dust being there?

Just as Dust was about to say that, the bell above the door rang. Both turned to it, and the man shouted in surprise.

"Back again so soon, Miss?" he greeted. Dust simply stared at the little girl with a rack of potions clutched between her two hands. What was she doing here?

"Hello again. I'm looking for a number of products, and I was wondering if you had access to any of them," she said, handing over a piece of paper.

He nodded hurriedly. "Well, I don't know about the lead, but we have plenty of copper and Brass jewelry, though I don't know why you'd want that when we have much better stuff…"

He trailed off, and the commanding girl just stared at him. Sighing, he walked into his back room.

Dust watched, interested. What did that blonde loli want with a bunch of half-rate jewelry?

The man walked out from his back room – which Dust knew was poorly organized from the time the man had been absent and he'd decided to take a look around, along with collecting a number of small items – and showcased a case of gleaming jewelry. Necklaces, earnings, and armbands were there, and the woman above them was smirking.

Tanya looked at them as the man walked back into the storeroom – likely looking for the Brass. "You are sure these are pure copper? If they aren't pure, I will find out."

"Yes, yes, they're all assured to be pure," he said, showcasing a much larger case full of brass jewelry. The girl's gaze intensified.

"And the other things?"

He shook his head. "I don't have any of this stuff. If it's a type of soil, then you could try and take to some of the farmers or the botany group, I suppose."

Tanya nodded, and then pointed to the case of jewelry and asked, "How much for them?"

"Well… since no one usually buys this stuff, I suppose I could give all of this to you for… seventy thousand Eris?" he suggested.

The woman's mouth dropped open, and she glared at the man. Grumbling, she took out her bag. "See if I ever sell my weapons to you again…"

An idea came to Dust. If helped out the girl, she'd feel pretty indebted to him. Maybe she could help him out of his debts?

Usually, he would have wanted to be able to harass any girl he saw, but she was much too flat for him.

Dust stood from the rickety table he was at, and marched up to the store owner. "Hey, I don't think it's very nice of you to try and scam the girl. Why don't you tell her how much it should actually cost?"

The man looked at the ground, and Dust smirked. "Dust, I have no idea what you're-" he began.

Dust cut him off. "Don't play coy with me. I know of _good _quality jewelry that costs less than that." The girl behind her glared at the owner.

"Hey, is that true? To think, I've been selling you good quality weapons, and you'd try and scam me?" she said, interrogating him. The man smiled weakly at her, and shot a murderous look at Dust.

"Really, miss, I don't know what you're talking about."

Tanya looked speculatively at Dust. "You said something about cheaper stuff, right Dust? Why don't you show me where?"

He nodded, and as they both turned their backs, the shop owner cried out. "Please! I'm sure I can lower the price a bit. How does fifty thousand sound?"

Tanya spun around again, smirking evilly. "For the weapons I've sold to you, I think you'll sell them for forty, right?"

The man nodded helplessly, and Tanya grabbed the case of jewelry, balancing her rack of potions on top of it. "Thank you!" she shouted as she left.

The man stared glumly at the bag of Eris the girl had left her with. Dust wisely took the time to leave – the man would definitely direct any lingering anger at him.

He soon found himself outside, looking for that flat-chested adventurer. He soon found her – she wasn't moving very far, considering that she was trying to balance what she had with her.

"Here, I'll help you," he said, pilfering the rack of potions from the top. The girl gave him a skeptical look, but accepted his help.

She then stuffed the case of jewelry under her arm, as if she were just carrying a pillow. "Uh…"

She scoffed. "Reinforcement spells. Come on," she said, walking quickly. Dust caught up to her.

"So what's in these potions?" he asked. The girl leveled a glare at him.

"What do you want, Dust?"

Dust gasped, as if shocked. "Tanya, I'm affronted that you would think I couldn't act peaceably. Just because I'm making idle conversation doesn't mean-"

"_Dust_," she said, cutting him off. He shut his mouth quickly. She must not have been in the mood, then…

The silence reigned for a moment, before Dust began to talk again. "Really, you didn't even thank me for the help I've provided…"

The woman pinched her nose. "Fine, I'll pay you five thousand for helping me out. Just don't drop those."

Dust shut his mouth, satisfied. Five thousand wasn't much, but he could definitely pay off a debt or two with that. He continued along, whistling happily to himself.

"Oh, and if you do drop those, I'm not paying for the hospital bills you'll rack up due to being exploded."

Dust stopped in his tracks, casting a wary glance down at the rack of potions. He hurried to catch up with the girl. "These explode?"

She nodded. Dust remained quiet. What in the name of Eris did that girl need explosives for? The Eris festival had finished yesterday, so using them during that was out.

Just as he was pondering the subject, the woman stopped in front of the Blacksmith's shop. Dust hastily caught himself, managing not to trip. "Alright, we're here."

She dropped the jewelry on the ground unceremoniously, before she picked out two bags from her waist. "There's your money."

With that, she yanked the potions out of his hands. He tilted his head, before shrugging. If she was having trouble, it wasn't his problem.

Just as he turned to go, he heard her speak up. "Hey Dust. You're in debt a lot. Have any advice?"

He peered at her. How had the noble-in-disguise gotten debt? Wouldn't her parents just pay for it?

"Well…" he started, scratching at his chin, "It's always best to get your debts with the guild and debt collectors cleared first. Borrow from friends and acquaintances first, and then from businesses you frequent. They're much less likely to charge you interest."

Tanya nodded, honestly surprised. "I didn't know you were so knowledgeable, Dust."

He grinned victoriously, strolling up to her. "Well, it's only expected. A few more tips. The police station is much better than being out on the streets, and I can say this with certainty," he boasted, planting a hand on her shoulder.

Dust froze.

A glimmer of killing intent rolled off the girl, and he wisely retracted his hand.

"You are quite pathetic to boast about such things," she spat out bluntly.

With that, she took her case of jewelry and retreated into the building. Dust was thinking furiously, and he made a decision to never get on her bad side.

To be able to not only level that intent at people, but to control it to such an extent….

What had the noble-in-disguise done to be able to do that?

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed pathetically. She knew it wasn't wise to put this off, but she had finally figured out everything she would need to make her gun. She would get everything she needed for that first.

A quick trip to the botanist – who helped to upkeep the town's parks, the small decorative plants that she'd seen in the guild, and anything agricultural that happened in the city – and she'd found exactly what she was looking for.

Something that retained liquid.

Sure, she could use some sort of cloth, but that wouldn't hold as much as she was sure this would. Tanya had bought a few bags of the soil then and there, and she went on her way.

Now, she had everything. Well, except for the lead, but the blacksmith said he had some. Now, she was almost there. Just a week or two.

Of course, Tanya mused as she looked at the Guild whose windows shone once more, that would come after her punishment.

She'd broken a large number of windows inside the city. The police had gotten thousands of damage reports. She had also, in the magically-induced high she'd been on from activating both relics at once, torn up a portion of the park. The botanist had actually thanked her for that, once she'd seen the scepter on Tanya's back.

Taking a deep breath, Tanya walked inside. No one noticed immediately, but Tanya didn't care if they did.

She'd be lambasted by Luna soon enough. She'd cost the Guild enormously, after all. Why wouldn't she be?

She walked over to the front desk. Luna did a double take as she took in her appearance and then realized who was standing in front of her. Her smile became fixed in place.

"Is there something the Guild can do to help you today?"

Tanya lowered her head a fraction of an inch, before shaking off the embarrassment. She face her punishment head on. "I'm here to inquire about the price of the damages I caused…"

Luna's fixed smile took on a hint of confusion as the corners dropped slightly. "You… You _want _to know?"

Tanya nodded. Luna, apparently shocked, shook her head. "No, it couldn't be…"

She cleared her throat and readjusted her hair. "For damaging every piece of property in Axel, the Guild has had to pay extensive fees for repairing the damage, as well as money to compensate the people who lost sleep."

Tanya groaned into her hands, but motioned for the woman to continue. "The Guild, as is usual with adventurers, paid for most of it. However, the difficulty in making so much glass at once means you'll need to help pay for the fees, as well as do community service time."

Tanya continued to nod dejectedly. This was going to be expensive. Luna looked at her, an eyebrow raised. Her smile suggested she expected something from her.

"Alright." Tanya threw the last of her money on the counter. "Here's fifty thousand Eris. How much more do I owe?"

Luna blinked, and Tanya grew confused. That was what she expected, right?

"You'll actually pay?" she said, half-shouting and half-jubilant. Tanya responded. "Well, duh. It isn't like I can't."

The woman began to stutter out a response. "Act- Actually, adventurers skip their community service time often, since they just argue that they're needed to defend the town. None of the staff are really fighters, so the most we can do is restrict their quests."

Tanya scoffed. "That's stupid. We're like a business, right? If there's constantly rivalry between the different parts because we can't work together, you'd just replace us with people who can do the work better."

Luna shook her head. "There isn't anyone else, actually. The Demon King's invasion means that anyone that could be vaguely considered a mercenary was hired to help fight in the first years of the war. They're all gone."

Tanya shrugged. She wanted to be sure her reputation continued to grow, and if this guild told other guilds that she wouldn't pay her dues, she was sure to get worse treatment.

Besides, that wasn't _all_ of her money. She'd kept five thousand Eris, most of it copper, in order to melt it down to use in her weapon.

Luna took the bag of money hesitantly, as if she couldn't believe it was actually there. "Well, since you helped pay that much… if you take on three months of community service, we'll only make you pay four hundred thousand Eris."

She groaned. She knew that that idea had been a bad one, that using them both at once would be a horrible, no good idea, but had she listened to her rationality?

NO! She'd decided to pay back Darkness. Well, she had news for her whenever she got back, as long as she didn't ditch Tanya for being a pauper.

Tanya sighed and focused back on her situation. She was trying not to think about that number, and even then, she was nervous. What did 'community service' entail? She was sure it would be worse than simply cleaning the parks of litter.

Luna ducked behind the counter, and brought up a piece of paper. "This is a list of things you can do. In addition, you have to complete three quests a week, for free." Tanya didn't respond. The list was absolutely massive.

It seemed community service amounted to 'slavery', since she had to work for free for anyone at any time they needed help.

On the other hand, as soon as she completed her gun, she'd be able to clear many, many quests.

Tanya nodded solemnly. "Alright. Three months of community service and four hundred thousand Eris. But," she exclaimed, staring into Luna's eyes, "if this list has anything weird on it, I'm not doing it, and I'm maiming whoever dared to ask. Alright?"

Luna nodded happily. It seemed she really appreciated getting that money. With that done, Tanya thought she'd ask about Darkness.

"Oh, the Crusader?" Luna said. "Yes, she and a Thief went on a quest earlier today. They still aren't back, so I suppose they're still gone."

Tanya nodded, and began to search the guild. She needed to learn a bit of magic for the next step of making her gun.

If Darkness had made another friend, all the better.

Tanya was going to be dead weight for a long while, and she wasn't really feeling all that interested in looking at her.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Well, here we are! Tanya's been saddled with Dust-levels of debt. What will she be forced to do to get out of it?

Well, she's a smart person, so she'll figure out pretty quickly how to avoid the worst of it.

On that note, I think I'll leave you with another question: is Kazuma best paired with Megumin or Darkness? I prefer Kazumin, personally, but how about all of you?


	10. A Weapon and Deals

Darkness gleefully skipped. Yes, she skipped.

She hadn't skipped in a long time, but she hadn't had reason to. Her father's insistence on her getting a husband that was the antithesis of everything she wanted in a man had dampened her happiness for a long time.

But now…

She had actually killed something!

She hadn't just sat there and been Tanya's shield, absorbing insults about her lack of ability and attacks in equal measure. She'd actually killed something.

"Chris, can you believe it? I actually killed monsters. It's my duty as a Crusader of the Eris Cult, and I was actually able to do it!" she exclaimed, beaming at the Thief.

Said silver-haired thief was smiling along with her. She didn't say anything about how she had needed to immobilize them in order for her to do it. She was just complimentary of her ability to do what she did.

It was a bit different from Tanya, sure – Chris had made sure Darkness hadn't gotten hurt, and had refused to insult or look down on her for her choices – but it wasn't horrible.

It wasn't nearly as pleasurable in that regard, but earning experience on her own was a reward in itself.

"Do you want to go on an adventure tomorrow?" she asked. That gave Darkness pause, but then she started walking again.

"Sure! Tomorrow, we'll go with Tanya. I'm sure she's been released, since I told the knights about my parentage…" she said, murmuring the last part to herself. She'd told the knights her identity and shown them the necklace she'd worn around her neck since the age of five, and they'd let her go and gone to get Tanya. The other five knights had escorted Darkness out.

As she stood outside the prison, the worried expression on her face had faded as she talked to the silver-haired Thief. She had even offered to go on an adventure with her to take her mind off of her friend.

And she'd actually killed something!

Darkness looked around herself, and turned around the see that Chris had fallen behind. Darkness waited for the Thief to catch up. She did that sometimes.

Darkness continued to think about tomorrow. With Chris allowing her to kill things, and Tanya's insults, pitying looks, and baffled anger, tomorrow would be even better.

They both wandered into the guild. A quick stop at the receptionist's desk and they sat down in the eatery.

Darkness sighed. "I just hope Tanya is okay…" she trailed off.

Chris waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, don't worry. You don't need to think about her too much, right?" Darkness nodded her head.

Tanya was resourceful. She would be fine.

"May I take your order?" came a quiet voice from behind her. Oblivious to the incredulous face of the Thief, Darkness turned around.

She gasped.

It was Tanya. Wearing the clothing of one of the guild staff. Her shoulders were barred to the air, and her hair, usually allowed to hang about her face, was pulled into a very short ponytail.

"Tanya?"

Face red, the girl nodded slowly. "Please, miss. I have to take your orders," she muttered. A quick flick of her eyes towards the bar, and Darkness followed her gaze to the people sitting there.

A group of women, all wearing costumes similar to Tanya's, were giggling while looking and pointing in her direction. "Why are you… did the Blacksmith fire you?" she asked.

Tanya shook her head slowly. "Community service."

Darkness nodded slowly. A harsh penalty.

"By the way, do you have four hundred thousand Eris? Unless you'll also charge me interest," she stated, head still bowed. Darkness, however, had stopped paying attention.

She stood rapidly. "Tanya, I can't let this travesty go on! You must be released from this punishment, at once. Unfortunately, someone still needs to do the service. I will take your place!"

With that breathless sentence, she ran up to the counter, face bright red. Tanya watched, hoping that she'd pull it off.

She'd at least enjoy being harassed and stared at by everyone.

She looked at the other occupant of the table. "And you are?"

The woman smiled. It didn't seem to be a particularly happy smile, but at least it wasn't the lecherous grin that a number of other adventurers had leveled at her and regretted.

Luna might not have been able to tame adventurers due to a lack of power, but Tanya had no qualms about cracking a few skulls. Especially when she looked like she did and they looked at he like _he _had.

"I'm Chris. I helped Darkness out on an adventure today," she said. Tanya shook her hand. This silver-haired woman seemed normal, at least.

"Nice to meet you. Do you want anything?" Tanya asked. The woman nodded stiffly, and belted out an order. Tanya quickly wrote it down. "What kind of job do you have?" she asked.

The woman replied, "Thief. Most of the skills are based on your Luck stat, which means that the people who can become Thieves are very lucky to do so!"

Tanya nodded, and looked over to Darkness. She was talking to Luna, and her body was no longer heaving. She'd probably been let down, then.

"Alright, then. Your order will be served soon." Tanya walked towards Darkness, unaware of the suppressed laughter of the person behind her.

"…Alright, here you go, then," said Darkness, as she handed over a bag of money to Luna. She accepted it gladly, and Darkness walked over to Tanya.

"I paid your debts," she said simply. Tanya's mouth was slightly agape. Why did she just _have _that much cash on her?

"Thank you, Darkness," she muttered. Darkness gave Tanya her order, and walked back over to her table, without another word.

Tanya sighed. That was one problem gone. Hopefully, the next three months of having to do whatever anyone wanted would pass quickly.

Maybe she could even supply extra money to Luna to have it waived?

Regardless, she could just avoid having to do the work by hiding out in the Blacksmith's shop, working on her weapon. It wasn't like people were annoying enough to interrupt her work, right?

-OxOxO-

"Wind Breath!"

Hand outstretched towards the fire, Tanya chanted this again. She'd learned this bit of magic for this moment.

Fresh air flew into the forge, heating it to yet greater heights. Tanya continued to pour mana into the spell, watching as the lead melted. Soon, it became liquid, glowing in the container the blacksmith didn't know she was using.

Hastily cutting off the flow of mana, she picked up a pair of tongs and lifted the container. Careful not to drop any, she began to pour it into the molds she'd made.

Making bullets and cartridges one at a time would be tiresome, so she had made many more molds. After this, the final phase could begin.

She glanced towards the tarp in the corner. The gun had been mostly done since yesterday, when she had found the time to finish it after her last free quest for the week. The spell she'd learned had helped with clearing the sawdust that had accumulated after hours of making a stock for the gun.

She glanced back at the mold. It was filled.

She moved on, moving down the line and filling each I turn. With the extra Skill Points she'd gotten from the insects, she'd gotten Wind Breath and improved her Smith skill. She was sure she could finish.

Pounding and bending metals – some of it unheated, since she could exert the needed pressure to change them using her Reinforcement spells – had taken longer than she'd wanted, but the Blacksmith was gone, apparently.

He'd said something about travelling to the capital, and Tanya had wished him luck. His absence was all the better for her – with all the time she'd spent in here, she was sure he would have gotten annoyed at not being able to use the forge himself.

Molds filled, Tanya set the container down, waiting for the metal to cool and casting nervous glances towards the front.

The sign might have said the store was closed, but one look at the billowing chimney would show that someone was there. And it wasn't like she had many places she populated.

The last four and a half days had been… demeaning. Everywhere she went, it seemed everyone knew she was doing community service, so people could request that she do things like work for them for free.

She was in high demand, for some reason, and people seemed to take pride in seeing her powerless.

Tanya frowned as she began to delicately pour small portions of 'gunpowder' – made from the soil the botanist had given her and soaked in the explosive potion she'd bought from Wiz – into the cartridges. This stuff was very reactive.

As the task became mechanical, Tanya began again to think of her community service. She'd had to scrub floors, carry packages, fix walls, and wait on more people than she could count.

Tanya clenched her teeth at the thought of everyone who had taken pride in seeing her deferential to them. Regardless of her figure, she was an adult in this world, so petty things like 'child labor laws' were likely nonexistent.

Tanya wanted to leave Axel as soon as she got her weapon, damn her level. The thought of the Reincarnates who had assaulted her, however, gave her pause.

If she left, they would be able to start out in Axel without any blockages. They'd be able to amass wealth, tactics, and become versed in using their powers. They'd become forces to reckon with, and Tanya doubted she'd find anyone equally powerful that would help her for what little she could offer them.

She would be stuck in this town for longer than she would like, waiting for the next Reincarnate to come through. She shook her head as the molds began to cool.

Using the tongs, she picked up each mold, pouring its contents into the large bucket of water, cooling each. A few minutes of seething at her punishment passed, followed by tediously plating each bullet in the brass she'd obtained from the jewelry.

A bit of mechanical force pushed each bullet into its cartridge, and they were finished.

Twenty cartridges, each filled with an experimental explosive powder, gleamed in the light of the dying forge. Smirking, Tanya picked up the scepter in the corner.

She had had to go back to using her fingers since the Festival, which was worrying. Darkness, during the higher difficulty quests, had spared her a worried glance between all of her provocative moaning.

And she was right to. If Tanya could destroy a scepter using magic like that, what would happen to her hands?

Which was why she had stayed up late trying to finish her gun and bullets. Now that they were done…

Tanya grinned. Testing how well modern weapons stacked up against monster from a foreign world seemed to be a grand idea.

-OxOxO-

Darkness stared at Tanya in shock.

This was weird. It was weirder than when Tanya would finally give up on trying to get Darkness to hit something. It was weirder than seeing her working in a Blacksmith's forge. This was even weirder than whenever Darkness caught sight of her doing menial labor.

Why she didn't just pay off the rest of her community service using her family's money, Darkness didn't know. Maybe she was running from her family and was using an assumed name?

It was the most plausible conclusion she had come to. Her father still hadn't found anything about a 'Degurechaff' family, and the only person who even vaguely matched the description Darkness gave her father was Iris, of all people.

For obvious reasons, Tanya wasn't the Princess. Darkness was probably going to give up on it. Tanya would tell her in her own time, she supposed…

Darkness shook her head, focusing back on her rapidly approaching teammate. It was odd.

She wasn't brooding, she wasn't dejected, and she wasn't even angry or haughty. No, she seemed positively…

Happy. She seemed to be strolling up to the bulletin board, rising up on her tiptoes and not shooting a scowl at her legs. She picked out a quest, and walked up to the receptionist.

The look of mingled amusement and confusion on the receptionists face told Darkness all she needed to know. Tanya was happy.

Tanya, seemingly happy about what she'd been told, began to walk over to Darkness. A faint tune reached Darkness's ears.

…Was Tanya whistling?

Unaware of the confused or shocked looks coming from the few people who weren't talking with their comrades and from her own teammate, Tanya sat down with a contented sigh.

"Good morning, Darkness!" Tanya exclaimed. Darkness said nothing back, just staring.

The leader of their group said nothing in response to Darkness's silence, simply ordering from the shocked maid that Tanya had been glaring at hatefully only yesterday.

Had she gotten rid of her community service, or had something else happened?

"Er… Tanya. What is this? Are you okay? Are you sick?" Darkness asked. Tanya glanced at her, actual innocence shining in her eyes for one of the only times Darkness had ever seen.

"Whatever do you mean, Darkness? I'm alive and have a relatively easy job, we're taking on a quest today, you're here, and I have a scepter."

At the last line of Tanya's speech, Darkness above the woman's head for the first time.

It seemed that she had gotten a new staff, and it must have been the reason for the joy Darkness had seen.

It was unlike anything Darkness had seen, though.

Her blade was in its normal place, of course, jutting out from the top of the staff. That was odd, but Darkness didn't fault the woman for wanting to be able to protect herself. Her ability to sharpen her weapons helped out in that regard.

The staff it was attached to was bizarre. It looked like a piece of tubing she might have in the mansion, or that carried water into the city. That was all she could see of it, considering it was strapped to back.

Tanya noticed her gaze, and took the thing from her back and placed it on the table. It seemed even more foreign up close.

Part of it seemed to be made out of wood, but most of it seemed to be made of metal. It wasn't straight, with it bulging and jutting out in random places. Most of the length of it seemed to be dominated by the smooth, metal tube she'd seen.

Darkness glanced up from the staff at Tanya's triumphant face, eyes closed and smirking. Darkness looked back down at it.

She shrugged. "If you think it'll work, then I guess it's fine," she said, digging back into her breakfast. Tanya opened her eyes, shock present.

She shook her head, pitying the woman. She didn't know what it did.

Tanya dug into the meal that was placed in front of her. She'd get to show it off soon enough.

Minutes later, Tanya would receive the reaction she was looking for. "Wha- What's that?" came a stuttered half-shriek from behind Tanya.

She turned around, and saw that Chris was standing behind them, finger shakily pointing towards the gun on the table. Grinning, Tanya beckoned the girl over. "This, Chris, is a special type of… scepter from my homeland called a Mondragon Rifle!"

The woman's pale skin turned even whiter, and Tanya continued to talk on, not noticing the slight shake that had overtaken Chris. "With this, I'll be able to cast more spells than ever before! Nothing will be able to stop us now!" she declared.

Chris attempted to make herself look normal – if The Atheist realized something was amiss, she might be attacked – and tried to speak to Darkness. "Darkness, what do you think about going on a quest today?"

The woman's eyes lit up. "Yes! With all of us here, we'll be able to take on even stronger enemies!"

Chris rubbed the back of her head nervously. She had wanted to spend more time with Darkness, but Heaven had come knocking. At least The Atheist had been doing so much community service that she hadn't been able to do any quests besides the ones the Guild mandated she complete.

Darkness, finished with her own food, turned to Tanya. "Is there anything else this… interesting from your homeland?" Darkness asked Tanya. She seemed to think for a moment.

"Sure. I haven't made anything else, but using those Smith skills just to make this seem like a bit of a waste…" She trailed off. Chris was praying that she didn't get any more ideas.

Introducing a weapon like a gun to this world could be disastrous. The violence it had caused in other, similarly advanced worlds had been enormous, and the presence of magic, other Reincarnates, and the Adventurer's Cards meant that the advances offered by Tanya would be horrible.

She feared for her people. Tanya finished her own food, and swiped the gun off of the table. "Alright," she said, a fake smile playing at her lips, "time to adventure!"

-OxOxO-

As they trekked through the plains, walking along the worn dirt road, Tanya considered Darkness's words.

Making things from her past two lives – both to help in adventuring and to sell to the wider world – wouldn't be a terrible idea, and they would certainly provide another steady source of income.

She shook her head as she watched Chris and Darkness converse, laughing happily together. With her rifle by her side, she was sure to be able to take on anything this backwards world had to throw at her.

"What's our quest, anyway?" Darkness tossed back to her.

Tanya brought out the piece of paper she had taken down. "We're to kill a group of Slimes," she provided.

Tanya hadn't played many video games in her last life, but she knew that Slimes were supposed to be easily killed. However, this world had surpassed anything the medieval age was supposed to have, with lighting and police and bureaucracy, all without the aid of industry.

She had taken the high danger rating on the thing seriously.

Darkness stopped in her tracks, spinning around. "Slimes? Aren't those dangerous?"

Tanya nodded. "Apparently, but we can take them. They have some sort of core at the center and can resist physical attacks, right? I can take care of them," she said, waving off the woman's concern.

Darkness turned back to the front of the road, muttering under her breath. Tanya stared at the woman dejectedly, thinking for a moment that she was upset about not getting to fight, and only sighed when Darkness moaned when she caught sight of Tanya's pitying gaze.

She should have known better.

Chris, by contrast, seemed deep in thought. Tanya left her to her thoughts, focusing on her plan for the Slimes.

Soon, they arrived at the forest they were rumored to be in. The Guild usually left them to their own devices, considering they rarely left the deeper parts of it.

However, with how many insect monsters had been killed, monsters were beginning to venture out farther, threatening the people who used the safer parts of the forest and the surrounding area and growing fat off of the weaker prey.

"Alright. I should be able to take them out from a distance, but if they survive, I want Darkness up front distracting them while I try to finish them off. Chris, you aren't likely to be able to help them because your defense is too low. Just hang back," she commanded.

Chris pouted, while Darkness began to drool as a far-off look appeared in her eyes.

"Why do we need to listen to you?" asked Chris.

Darkness glanced at her curiously, while Tanya scoffed. "You are a part of our team, of which I am the leader. If you have something against Adventurers, you'll probably want to find a new team," she said, glaring unmercifully.

Darkness looked upset at that thought, while Chris made to apologize to Darkness. Tanya didn't say anything else as she watched the tree line. She meant what she said.

She needed the assurance that the people under her command would listen to her. If they didn't listen to her…

Well, in her last life, she had just reassigned them to another group or punished them, if they were part of the 203rd. In this life, with her lack of official authority, she would just ignore them and refuse their attempts to join a party. It was much more direct, but Tanya didn't really mind.

A rustling in the forest caught Tanya's attention. It sounded as if something was coming towards them. She smirked cruelly. Finally, a bit of target practice after a month of not having access to her gun.

As large as a truck, the thing moved out of the forest slowly. It seemed to be sizing them up. Tanya just grinned. Finally.

"Incoming target," she relayed to the others. Chris stopped her apology, and both took up fighting stances. Neither of them was rushing forward.

Tanya let a low chuckle escape her throat. Finally!

"Enchant bullet: Explosive Vaporization. Enchant Bullet: Penetration. Guidance." She let the spells flow from her lips, giddiness welling up inside her at finally being able to take care of enemies with the same ease as she had in her second life.

The thing seemed to think it could take them, rushing towards them as fast as it could. It was a large pile of something that was almost a liquid, so it was moving perhaps as fast as a regular human. That meant it was much too slow to avoid anything she could throw at it.

Gun shaking slightly from the adrenaline, Tanya's finger depressed the trigger, and out the front of her gun a bullet arced through the air. To Tanya's enhanced senses, it was almost beautiful. To the two women behind her, they probably only caught a glimpse of the light radiating from it.

A spent cartridge was ejected from her gun, and the bullet slammed into the Slime. It traveled into it for a moment, pushing through slime like it had pushed through the air.

It was only stopped by the core of the Slime, where it promptly detonated.

The thing seemed to swell, for a moment, as if it was trying to resist the explosive forces that had gone off. That moment ended quickly, resulting in billowing, fiery smoke and a wave of heat to escape it, the explosion was larger than anything she could do without the gun – she was too close to do things like that anywhere near her own body.

Tanya deactivated her enhancements, basking in the shocked gasps of the two behind her. "That, Darkness, is why I was so happy this morning. Nothing as simple as having a good night's rest could do this. Now, I'm set for life!"

Turning around, she saw that both of them seemed to be frightened. "What's wrong?" she asked them, confusion and Amusement fighting for her face. They weren't…

"What was that sound?" asked Darkness. Amusement won out, followed by a small chuckle. They were scared of the gunshot!

Tanya soon came up with an explanation. "At its most basic, this scepter shoots a piece of metal using a miniature explosion," she explained. Tanya turned away from them, searching the ground.

Since she was the one paying for the bullets, recycling the cartridges was a necessity, whenever they were doing routine work like this. It was just another measure she'd use to save money and pay back Darkness and the Guild.

Picking up the cartridge, she let her gun hang from her shoulder as she cast a quick 'Wind Breath' at the metal tube. It was still warm, but the spell was helping to cool it down. Tanya gazed at her fingerless gloves, making a note to get something a bit more suitable, once she had the money.

Tanya looked at both of them again. Now that the initial fear and confusion had passed, Darkness looked… disappointed.

Tanya sighed, disgusted. "Are you really that set on being abused?"

The woman's eyes lit up, as she nodded despite her rapidly reddening face. Chris gazed at her with fondness, and Tanya sighed again. "Fine. We'll find something you two can fight, alright?"

Darkness seemed much more cheered by that, as did Chris. Suddenly, she took off into the forest, shouting something about finding something they could fight. Tanya just shook her head. What a teammate to have…

Suddenly, something pinged on her Observation spell. She enlarged the screen and began to inspect her surroundings though it. She'd had that thing focused on the Slime, but it seemed it had picked something else up.

She cast a probe out towards the two, and two pings showing normal humans appeared on the screen. They seemed to have found something, if the sounds of Darkness's moaning were to be trusted.

Tanya cast it about herself, frowning. If it hadn't been them, then…

She gasped as she passed over the direction of Axel. A large, contiguous pillar of mana signatures was dissipating, larger than many things she had even done. That had to mean…

Another Reincarnate. Tanya glanced down at the gun that was hanging from her shoulders and grinned. She was fairly sure she'd be able to _convince_ anyone from her last life that wasn't terminally ill to do whatever she wanted them to.

Hearing the sounds of laughter echoing from the forest, Tanya smiled a bit as she sped off towards the pair of adventurers. Reincarnates could come later. For now, she was going to enjoy the friendship she had built with the Crusader and the company of the silver-haired Thief.

-OxOxO-

Tanya basked in the warmth of the baths of Axel. Supposedly, they weren't very good compared to elsewhere, where adventurers were more common and had more cash to spend. But to a sort-of-retired soldier, who could count the number of weeks where she had bathed twice while deployed on one hand, they were luxurious.

The view, of course, only made things better. A completely naked Darkness was one she was quite happy with, and she was envious of whichever man would eventually wed and bed her.

She couldn't obviously, and she would eat her hat if she found a religion that advocated same-sex marriage.

Still, Tanya thought as she gazed at the ridiculous breasts, it was a nice thought.

Tanya cast a quick glance at Chris as she leaned on the edge of the bath and sighed. The Thief seemed oddly shy, like how Tanya had been back when she had been an orphan and been tasked with cleaning herself. She kept giving Tanya odd glances, but seemed totally fine with Darkness.

Tanya shrugged internally. She hadn't been around her for very long.

Tanya resisted the urge to stare at where she knew Darkness was. The first time they had bathed together, Tanya had caught herself staring openly at the woman. Darkness could not have not noticed too, and had had a rather embarrassing talk with the woman about her own chest.

Tanya rose from the water, ready to wash herself down with one last bucket, and then to dress once more. She needed to find that Reincarnate, once they got their reward for the day's work in subjugating that Slime.

A faint giggle reached Tanya's ears, and she glanced at both Darkness and Chris.

Neither seemed to have noticed it. Judging by the serene look on Darkness's face and the embarrassed but not suspicious look on Chris's, neither of them had made the noise, either.

Tanya looked to the windows. Why someone had put windows on the side of the building instead of on top of it, she didn't know, but she knew they were the most likely place for some pervert to be looking in.

Steam obscured her vision, but that was fine. She could just follow the laughter.

It sounded again from the window to her right, and Tanya crept down, stalking towards it. Both of her bathing companions seemed mystified, but Tanya just made a shushing motion towards them. Both played along, and Tanya soon came to the window.

Again, giggling came from the other side. Wishing she had brought her Type 95, Tanya leaped up to the window, roaring.

The person on the other side – Dust, the shock of blond hair told her – shrieked and stumbled down. Growling, Tanya rushed out of the room, forgoing the final washing-down with the buckets of warm water. The other two seemed to have realized what was happening.

Rushing into the changing area, Tanya threw on her clothes and the Type 95 in record time. Even Darkness's bountiful form was ignored in the rush.

As Tanya rushed out of the bathhouses, she missed the look of triumph on Darkness's face. Hurrying to catch up to her leader, she put on her own amulet – the one that told any who looked at it that she was a part of the Dustiness house – and rushed after Tanya.

Tanya activated her Observation spell and then decided on what to do. "I can't find anything, but we can try to look for them. You two go to the general store while I head to the guild."

Both nodded, taking off around the corner. Tanya, instead of running the opposite way, towards the guild, ducked into a nearby alley way, following the faint trail of Dust's mana.

It seemed that he had a bit of potential. Not as much as her, or even many of the actual mages in the Guild. He had enough that it was noticeable. Traceable, even.

Tanya grinned as she took off, rising to a height where no pedestrians or lowlifes in the alleys would see her from the ground and where no one would see her skirting close to the rooftops. It was a bit taxing, but it seemed that Lynn had been right about scepters helping reduce mana costs in this world.

Ducking between alley after alley, Tanya smirked as the sound of footsteps pounding on flagstones crashed into her ears. She was getting close, then.

A few more moments, and the red jacket of Dust bled into her view. Quieter than the wind, Tanya passed over his head, ducking behind a corner and waiting for him to round it. His footsteps stopped abruptly as she stuck out her foot.

The sound of him face planting into the ground and skidding to a stop, paired with his swearing, was like music.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, you-" he began, only to go white as he realized who was walking towards him.

He chuckled nervously. "T- Tanya… Normally, I'd want some sort of compensation for getting assaulted like that, but I'll let it slide." Tanya just raised an eyebrow.

He shrunk back even farther, probably wishing he was some sort of creature that could dig through the ground. Tanya smirked, and Dust began to babble again. "Er… it's a deal, right?"

Tanya just smiled plainly. "I wonder if Luna will miss you."

She wouldn't, and if Tanya explained what had happened – or, better yet, never even reported it – his death would be lamented by few.

He licked his lips, sweat forming on his brow. Tanya just continued to stare at him, and then began to walk towards him.

Panicking, he began to back up, for a moment. He seemed to find some well of strength within him, because he stopped retreating. "So what? It's not like you have any proof, right?"

Tanya shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe, but I know that even if we did report it to the police, you would just get time in jail, which doesn't deter you. I think I'll take your punishment into my own hands," she said slowly, still advancing on him.

His eyes widened and his mouth puckered as he thought of what she could do to him with the realization that she wouldn't go to the authorities. "Wait! I'll go to jail, just please, don't do anything to me!"

She took her rifle from her back. "I wonder which one to puncture first…" she trailed off, pointing the thing towards the man's lower region. His imagination filled in the rest.

Dust seemed actually scared. He quickly assumed a kowtowing position, forehead pressed into the stone. "I beg you, the one who is known as 'Tanya the Evil' for your brutal efficiency and unwavering willingness to abandon fellow adventurers, please spare me!"

Tanya stopped in her tracks. "'Tanya the Evil?' What idiot spread that around?"

He looked up from the cobblestone, fear and dread telegraphed. "Well… the efficiency part is because you take so many quests when most adventurers don't take more than three of them a week, while the abandoning teammates is from… uh… me."

She sent him a skeptical look, and he glared at her. "Don't blame me. You're the one who sent a Detonation spell at a pond and then outraced us."

She groaned, and assumed a more relaxed stance. "Whatever. Besides, you shouldn't fear me; I've grown above the need to care about things like my own breast size. What do you think will happen to you when I hand you to Darkness and Chris, though?"

He stared at her blankly. "I'd still be more scared of you," he replied, completely unfazed.

Tanya sighed and, not for the first time, wondered what she had done to deserve the life she'd been given. Then she remembered she had insulted a being that claimed to be god and thought that that would work out well.

She shook her head. "We're getting off topic. Teach me a new skill and I'll let you go."

He opened his mouth, and then closed it, a thoughtful expression coming over his face. One of conniving glee then appeared, and Tanya experienced a bit of uncharacteristic apprehension.

Dust stood, smiling. He had come to a startling conclusion: Tanya could _replace _him. If anyone asked about a noble from a foreign land who was good with a spear, they would seek out one from the three adventurers with blond hair: himself, Tanya, and Darkness.

It wouldn't take long before they figured out that neither Tanya nor Darkness were that noble, and that he was the only option, despite his attempts at throwing them off with his lack of culture.

But… if the girl in front of her was any good with a spear, then they would think it was her, instead the lazy, uncultured drunkard.

In fact…

He looked up at the girl – because even if she said she was sixteen, she sure didn't look like a woman – and at what was pointed at him. It looked something like a spear.

He rose from the ground, smirking. Tanya took a step back, aiming it at him. Dust never looked energetic or motivated. Maybe lustful, but that was about as far into 'happy' as that man's emotions went.

"May I see your spear?" he asked, laying his hands out.

"It isn't-"

"Regardless," he said, an eyebrow raised, "you _are _using it as one, currently."

She couldn't fault him for that. She took out the magazine at the bottom – she wasn't risking being killed by a ricochet or misfire – and handed him the thing, staring at him curiously. He held it as if it were an actual spear, instead of a gun with a blade on the end.

"Hmm," he said, hefting it. "Well, it's balanced. It doesn't have a lot of reach, but that isn't necessarily horrible. I'd say from your stance that you don't actually know much about using spears, right?"

Tanya nodded hesitantly. She technically knew less than the infantry the Empire; they were supposed to charge at the enemy with those things.

Mages were meant more for reconnaissance, protecting planes, accompanying ground movements, and carrying out special operations. That Tanya had used her blade as much as she had was just to subvert her opponents' expectations that they would be having a battle of purely magical skills.

Even then, she didn't know all that much. "What would you know?" she asked, suspiciously eyeing the man as he slashed the air with her rifle.

He looked at her, just as suspicious as she was of him. "You want a skill or not?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. Of course she did. She didn't even have to take the skill if she didn't want to, and she'd be getting it at no monetary cost to herself.

"Fine. I won't ask about your history – because you use a sword and wield a spear like you were born with it in hand – and I won't tell them about who was peeking in on us. In return, you'll give me skills _and_ lessons on Spearmanship," she said, holding out a hand and smirking.

A similar smirk was plastered on his face, and Tanya wiped her hand on her clothes after they shook hands. He seemed rather pleased with himself, and turned to walk off. Tanya copied him, heading in the opposite direction.

"Hey." Tanya turned around, looking curiously at the squinting man. "How did you catch up with me?"

Tanya just smirked, ignoring the question. Dust walked off, and both parties gloated to themselves that they were getting the better end of the deal.

-OxOxO-

While Chris and Darkness scoured the Guild, Tanya had another reason for visiting the area.

The other two were set on finding the person who had intruded on them. They were stationed inside the guild, searching for that person by talking to various groups and looking for someone who reacted embarrassed upon meeting them.

Tanya couldn't care less, but she was happy to let them try and find someone that didn't exist.

She had described an entirely false person – brown hair, brown eyes, on the taller side – so that Dust wouldn't be found. All of which were entirely subjective descriptions. The definition of 'tall' would probably be different for the two of them.

So Dust was safe, and Tanya got to sit outside and bask in the sunlight while they talked to people. Of course, she had a reason for being outside.

Luna had said that no one resembling a Hero Candidate had come in yet. Tanya knew a few things that set them apart from regular adventurers though, something that Luna didn't seem to have grasped yet.

All of them were dressed in clothing from her first life. All that Tanya had to look for was someone in a t-shirt, or office clothing, or something with a language she knew on it. Some of that clothing had made its way into this world's attire – Taylor and several policemen had ties, while jackets and zippers were commonplace – but all of it was piecemeal. Only reincarnates would be wearing all of it.

All Tanya needed to do was wait for them to show up to the guild. They would need to, if they wanted to fight the Demon King.

On the other hand, it was possible that they had decided to skip this town and move on to the next one. Regardless, either suited her options.

As long as they weren't a threat to her, she would be fine with them.

Another hour passed, and just as Tanya was getting bored with basking in the sun and contemplating if she should deconstruct her gun for a bit of practice, her target walked into view.

Smirking, Tanya made preparations for the ruse she was about to pull. Pointing a weapon at someone else in broad daylight was probably against the rules, which just meant she needed to get out of broad daylight.

She rose from where she had been sitting and stashed her gun in an alley nearby, covering it with an errant bag of trash. She methodically tied her hair behind her head, and then threw on the hood that she had sewn onto her mantle. Her hair was highly noticeable – only she, Darkness, and Dust had it, among the adventurers – so hiding it was a necessity.

Tanya thought, for a moment, about her friends and the last life she had been forced to leave, and let tears well up in her eyes. This needed to be convincing.

She activated a Reinforcement spell, and she began to study the girl. She was wearing a black shirt, had her hair in pigtails, and was wearing glasses. The glasses hinted at her past – Tanya hadn't seen many of those – but the shirt she was wearing raised a very large flag.

The black t-shirt she wore said 't-shirt' on it in white lettering. Tanya didn't understand _why _anyone would buy or wear something like that, but the fact that it was written in kanji meant she was a reincarnate.

Of course, the fact that she was holding a scepter taller than its holder, that also looked based on both fire and ice was another clue, but the final nail in the coffin was the look of wonder that enveloped her face as she looked around, with long, sleek, black hair whirling around her face as she tried to take in everything.

Tanya was sure she would have looked like that, if she had been _told _she was going to a fantasy world.

As it was, the girl seemed completely unaware of the amused looks the shoppers and shop keepers present in the adventurer-specific stalls were sending her.

Tanya smirked as she let tears flow from her eyes. This would be easy.

Running towards the girl and crying furiously, she passed her and braced herself. With all of the might endowed upon her by her Reinforcement magic, she kicked a protruding stone and tripped.

She fought the urge to right herself with a Flight spell or activate an Active Barrier. This needed to be convincing, after all.

She felt pain bloom to life in her body as she slammed into the ground. Blood began to pour from her nose, and Tanya curled up on the ground, only half-faking her sniffling as she repeated a sentence in her head like a mantra.

'Come on, girl, why don't you help the short, pathetic girl who has fallen near you. It's the start to your adventure here.'

"Are you okay, little girl?" she asked. Tanya clenched her teeth at the reminder of what she looked like for only a moment, and she looked up at the girl. Tanya just continued to cry, staring up at her pathetically, trying to avoid direct eye contact, as if she were shy.

The girl leaned down, crouching next to her. "There, there. It's okay. Why don't you tell me what's wrong?" she asked, handing a handkerchief to her.

Sniffing, Tanya took the piece of cloth from her, wiping away the tears and blood. "Th- Thank you, ma'am," she whispered. The girl continued to smile, patting Tanya on the back. A bit more coaxing on the girls part, and Tanya began to regale her with a fabricated story she had made in the past hour.

"I- I was walking through the alleyway, trying to get home. My momma doesn't have money. So- some mean men took away all of the food that I went to get. Momma's gonna be mad!" she cried, once more descending into sobs.

The girl continued to pat her on the back, and Tanya smirked internally. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Tanya looked up at the girl. "We- Well… you could help me! You look like a powerful adventurer! Maybe you can scare them into giving me back the food!"

The girl paused for a moment, indecisiveness marking her face. Tanya looked back at the ground, as dejectedly as she could, and began to speak. "We- Well, it's okay. I just hope momma doesn't have to sell daddy's old clothes. He went to the army, and hasn't been back. I hope he's okay…"

That seemed to do it. Resolve seemed to come over the girl's features, and she stood, taking Tanya's hand in her own. "Come on. We'll go show those mean men, right?"

Tanya's face lit up, and she rose quickly. "Come, this way! I know where they hide out!"

She began to run towards the alley she'd stashed her, ignoring the girl's cries that she slow down and be careful. Tanya pointed down the alley, motioning the girl closer. She rushed past Tanya, unaware of the smirk that Tanya finally let show.

Activating her Agility Reinforcement, Tanya kicked the bag of trash off of her gun and picked it up. Just as the girl had begun to turn at the curious sound, Tanya leveled her gun at her and shouted, "Freeze!"

Tanya began to activate the other portion of her plan. People could still see into the alley way, so solving that problem was necessary.

An application of a few Illusion spells would hide them for now. She was on a time limit, since making the alley seem to be anything other than unnaturally dark took too much mana, and some curious passerby would eventually wonder why it was so dark during the middle of the day.

She would have enough time for this, though.

The girl finished turning around, and her eyes widened. She seemed to do just as Tanya had said, not moving an inch. "But…"

Tanya smirked, but didn't answer the unasked question.

The girl had a brain; she should learn to use it. "Drop the weapon. If you do not, I will have no choice but to fire on you."

Stiffly, the scepter dropped from her hands, clattering loudly against the ground. Tanya grit her teeth. This needed to end faster.

"P- Please…" the girl muttered. Tanya just glared.

"There, there," Tanya said, mimicking the girl's earlier words, "no need to be scared. I just want you to say something for me. Then I'll let you go."

The girl didn't move, and Tanya took that as her cue to tell her what to say. "Speak the words, 'I promise not to harm Tanya von Degurechaff, otherwise known as The Atheist.'"

Her body was beginning to shake, and Tanya walked forward. "Hey. Just say that, and you can leave."

She stuttered out the sentence, and Tanya watched as the staff at her feet contracted. It shrunk, and the fire and ice that it seemed to exude retracted, becoming simple designs on the side.

Sighing, Tanya dropped the Optical Decoy spells, and let the gun rest on her shoulders. "There, that wasn't so hard. You can go."

The girl seemed to blink, sinking to her knees as a gasp left her body. "But… why? Why not kill me? I could become a threat."

Tanya chuckled. "You may not have realized it, but by swearing not to hurt me and actually meaning it, you invalidated the contract you made with heaven. Your scepter doesn't have whatever special properties it had, and it's little more than a particularly strong scepter now."

The girl continued to stare at Tanya, fear and confusion present. Tanya sighed. "Look, I don't hate you or anything. It's just…" she said, trailing off. She grabbed her gun with both hands, taking a bit of solace in its familiar presence.

"That contract meant you would be motivated to kill me. Now that it's gone, you don't need to. You won't get the power of my relics, and you won't get a wish if you kill the Demon King. I suggest that you find a quiet job and ignore becoming an adventurer," she explained. She turned to the entrance to the alley, but the girl's voice called out.

"And if I want revenge?" she shouted. Tanya turned, a calculating look in her eyes, all of the pity she felt for the girl gone.

"Let me make this clear: you live because I don't think you can become a threat. If that changes however…" she trailed off suggestively. The woman shrunk back, clutching the scepter.

Tanya walked over, and the woman pointed it at her. Tanya rolled her eyes. "It's lost its power, and you haven't even gone to the Guild. You don't have any skills that you can even use."

Tanya grabbed it with both hands, and yanked it away from her. Leaving behind the girl, who seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown, Tanya felt a bit of pity. She sighed, and grabbed the bag at her belt.

"Here. You don't have many Eris, but you can have this," she said thrusting a handful of money towards her.

She knew that she shouldn't pity her. She knew she probably should just kill her.

But… she was just a child, and Tanya couldn't really fault her for her idealism and wanting to run off towards danger to protect the innocent. Those feelings were at least better than the rage that fueled the people that Tanya had fought.

The girl grabbed the ten thousand Eris Tanya had handed her. Without another word, Tanya turned back to the entrance. Darkness and Chris might be looking for her.

Eyeing the staff in her hands, Tanya got an idea. Chris had refused to teach her any skills, saying that she didn't have anything that would be worth her time. Maybe this would suffice as payment?

-OxOxO-

Chris stared at the staff in her hands.

She recognized it. It had been created recently, by a God she didn't know the name of. It had even been sent out with a promising Reincarnate.

And here it was, lying in her hands, not a day after they had been reincarnated.

Eyes cold, she looked up at the blonde madwoman who had handed it to her. "Well? Will you teach me a skill now?"

Chris nodded mechanically, wishing she could descend to the world in her true form and teach this cruel person a lesson. She had been right to help spread the rumor about her being 'Evil'.

She had killed someone for this. She had killed an innocent _teenager_ for this. She had decided that learning a skill, that protecting her own life, meant more than any and all of the people that Heaven sent to stop both her and the Demon King.

Chris would take it, and she would seal its latent power.

Why The Atheist was giving it up, Chris didn't know. It could magnify the level of her spells exponentially. No one could stop her then.

Still, if she was going to give it up…

The blonde beamed at her. "Thanks Chris! Sorry we couldn't find that pervert…"

Chris just nodded, ignoring Darkness and Tanya's antics as the former lamented not finding and being ravaged by this mysterious pervert.

Chris took a deep breath, trying to clear her head. It was better if she got the relics, instead of them landing in the hands of some corrupt noble.

So, despite her fears that the only reason the psychopath had killed the Reincarnate was to get a weapon to barter for skills with, she would accept whatever she gave her.

She would worm her way into this crazy loli's trust, and stab her in the back as soon as she could. She was a Thief, after all.

Assassination was not above her, not with this… _pseudo-Demon_.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** And there we have it! Chris has descended from on high to play around in the mortal world, only to be forced to interact with one of the only people in Axel that doesn't believe in her.

How sad.

Tanya has also finally gotten her rifle. Hopefully, she'll get a Type 97 soon. I wonder where that might come from…

Anyway, this is the tenth chapter. You might not have noticed, but I uploaded the first ten at once. With that being said, I'd like to tell you when the next chapter is coming out:

Next week, I'll be releasing another five chapters, one an hour. I haven't decided when I'll start yet, but you can rejoice in knowing that you'll get another five chapters to read.

With that being said, I have a question: If I made Omakes, would you want them included with chapters, or as their own story?

I am leaning towards releasing them with each chapter, but if you all want a dedicated story, then who am I to contradict the will of the people?


	11. Interested Parties

Tanya spun her latest acquisition in her now fully-gloved hands. Really, it was getting too easy to dupe these Reincarnates.

Since that first one, who Tanya had lost track of – she hoped that was a sign the girl was enjoying a nice, quiet life _away _from adventuring – Tanya had taken care of ten of them in the past three weeks.

Five of those encounters, like the one she'd just finished, shared the same progression as that first one: she'd taken their weapons, given the unfortunate teenager money, and either sold the weapon to the General Store or given them to Chris in exchange for skills.

And while she couldn't exactly get a good price from the General Store manager – she had to accept a smaller reward in return for his agreement that he wouldn't sell the items to Hero Candidates – she did get over 70,000 for each.

Her other five encounters had gone differently.

Three had dropped their weapons and said the words, but the power had not faded from their weapons in the slightest. Their weapons hadn't shrunk down or changed in any way.

After she allowed a warning shot to miss their heads, two of them had folded and repeated the words with feeling. Their weapons had changed to reflect that.

But one of those three, the one with a pair of blades, had still not meant the words. She knew because his pair of weapons had reappeared in his hands as he attempted to flee from her.

They had still intended to kill Tanya, and, when she had easily caught up with him, she had gotten… creative.

Or, more creative, anyway. He was only a teenager, after all, and employing real torture against him would have been unnecessary, as well as distasteful.

A slice to the leg and a few Optical Decoy spells had gotten the kid to cave. She had healed their leg, but not given him, or the other two that hadn't meant their words the first time, any money.

They had tried to subvert her desires for a minute too long, and they should have taken her deal at the beginning.

She grimaced as she remembered the other two outlying encounters. They had gone... horribly.

Neither had had a weapon, but a _skill_, like the Shapeshifting Reincarnate that had attacked her after the festival. She had still made them swear not to hurt her, but…

The beings that claimed to be gods and goddesses had likely altered their very being to give them those powers, delicately altering their DNA to enact changes on what they could do.

In taking away most of that power, heaven had been decidedly _less_ delicate.

It had taken most of her mana, but she had been expecting it the second time. Casting Heal had saved the Reincarnate's life.

The first one who had had a skill instead of a weapon, however…

They had ended up a piece of mangled flesh. She hadn't been expecting them to collapse and begin screaming the first time, and she had been unable to help them in time.

After getting rid of what was left of them – this time, she'd fed it to a Giant Toad, which was a much simpler way to dispose of the body, given their willingness to eat anything that wasn't made of metal – Tanya had added their needless death as another reason on her mental list of reasons as to why she hated Being X and his cadre of beings.

Still, she hadn't needed to kill anyone else.

Not that she wouldn't have, if she had needed to, but she really didn't want to. That the truth-detecting item would definitely catch a crime like that after a while was only one reason.

Shaking her head, she dropped the latest weapon off at the general store and grabbed a bag of money the owner had silently placed on the counter. Sometimes, Chris would take some of it in return for a skill.

She probably just sold whatever Tanya gave her to the general store – or some other store that specialized in weapons – for a profit, but Tanya didn't mind, since she'd gotten training in how to best utilize the skills Tanya learned from her.

Pulling up her hood as she left the general store, Tanya walked down the streets of Axel, relishing in the feeling of no one being able to tell her what to do. With all the money she had earned from giving the general store the weapons, as well as everything she had been able to earn from the quests she could easily complete with her rifle, she had paid Darkness back and given Luna enough money that she waive the remainder of the community service time.

Everything seemed to be looking up for her.

She thought that, knowing full well that thinking that usually meant things would end up bad for her. And with how her Luck stat had somehow _fallen_ in the last three weeks, she was sure she would regret daring the universe – or the 'goddess' Eris – to spite her.

However, the point needed to be made that, while she was having a good time, no one else seemed like they were.

Except Darkness and Chris, but that was because they were with her.

Monsters had disappeared farther into forests than anyone could remember them ever going. Adventurers were beginning to take on harder and harder quests in an attempt to earn money, and Dust had even asked for compensation for his services in teaching her Spearmanship.

Tanya had given in, aware that she was one of the only adventurers with money to burn, let alone enough to survive.

She was living well off of all the weapons she managed to sell, and, when she had given up a lot of her cash to pay off that community service, the three of them had just gone on a quest to kill a One-Hit-Kill Bear.

Tanya had eviscerated it, and they had eaten well.

However, while many adventurers and the people that supported them – Priests, Blacksmiths, some Merchants, and others – were suffering, many were taking the change as a good thing.

Less monsters meant farmers could farm more and only have to fight with their crops instead of also contending with monsters. Merchants could lower prices on their products since they didn't have to hire adventurers to protect their caravans.

Of course, if a large portion of the population didn't have money to spend, businesses might start hiking prices up in order to compensate, keeping even more people from spending money on them, which…

She shook her head. The people running Axel were likely responsible, well-adjusted members of society. If the economy began to get out of hand, they could step in. She had nothing to worry about, probably.

Regardless of Axel's economy, Tanya was just glad she had a source of income beyond adventuring, even if it was, at the very least, extortion.

Scowling at the bag of money in her stone gray gloves, she adjusted them again. She didn't like them as much as her old fingerless ones, but they were longer, and she had even managed to stash a few 'surprise knives' in both.

Even if she somehow lost her gun, she would have a distracting and potentially life-saving weapon thanks to them.

In addition to the new gloves she'd acquired two weeks ago, she'd also constructed a pair of goggles last week, which hung from her neck.

She didn't think she'd need them very much – her Passive Barrier could replicate their function effectively – but Reincarnates could present problems, if they managed to slip away from her for some reason. Using any frivolous spells, no matter how small, to replicate goggles in a battle against a competent Reincarnate could be deadly.

Walking into the guild, Tanya brightly sat down next to Darkness and Chris. "Hello. Have any ideas for any quests today?"

Darkness, equally radiant, held up a piece of paper. "Yes. It's a quest to stop two rampaging beasts on a plot of land. They're both rumored to be super strong. I don't care if you need time to use that 'rifle' of yours. You'll be too distracted with one, and when the other escapes your notice, it'll ravage me!" she cried out.

Tanya looked at it. "Denied."

Darkness's head dropped a fraction of an inch, but she didn't seem all that upset. "You really are relentless, huh?"

Tanya looked at Chris, who shrugged noncommittally. She had gotten like that ever since Tanya had begun to learn skills from her.

Tanya sighed. She needed to explain to her that Tanya wouldn't drive her out of their party after learning all of her skills.

Tanya had gotten a _few _of them that seemed useful – like Lurk, which lessened your physical presence by obscuring you from an enemy's senses. It was basically a much better version of trying to use her Optical Decoy spells to hide herself, except those couldn't erase her scent or any sounds she made.

But others, like Enemy Detection – she had her Observation spells, which would only fail if they had _very _little mana – and Steal – she didn't have the Luck to trust something like that – she had waved off.

Tanya shook her head, focusing back on Chris's words. "Nothing easy. All of the monsters are in hiding, since something strong has moved into the area."

Seeing Tanya's inquiring gaze, Chris let out a put-upon sigh. "Luna announced it a few days ago, while you were doing your part-time job," she said, reminding Tanya that she needed to get more of that explosive potion Wiz had.

She had used up the last of it in the past few days, making as many bullets as she could. She had twenty rounds, arranged in clips and packed into pockets attached to a belt – or a 'bandolier,' as Lavendula insisted it was called – she had bought and hung from her shoulder to her hip.

"If there's a strong monster around, anything that it could kill hides, waiting for it to move on," Chris continued, unaware of Tanya's thoughts.

Tanya nodded, and then cast a quick gaze around the guild. There didn't seem to be as many adventurers. She knew that there was still work to do – people that needed part-time work done, or farmers that needed help harvesting their crops – but none of it yielded much experience or money.

"Do we know what it is?" Tanya asked Chris, ignoring Darkness's continued attention on Chris's words, the fantasies they created, and…

She shook her head. Darkness only seemed to be moaning more, now that Tanya was actively ignoring her.

Chris opened her mouth, but then closed it with a snap. "No. All the guild knows is the general area where things like Fire Drakes and Squirrels have gone quiet. It's probably around there."

Tanya nodded, coming to a decision. In her time in the Empire, she had wanted a _bit _of fame. Too much – and, if she was honest, the amount of fame she _had _acquired – would mean she would be promoted to a rank where, if the Empire lost, she would have been thrown out or executed for the trouble she caused her enemies.

Too little would have meant she would be constantly on the front lines, waiting to be killed by a large enough group of mages that even she couldn't fight. Her efforts to become less than famous had been… less than successful, if her being put in command of the 203rd and becoming a propaganda magnet was anything to go by.

Here, however… if she wanted that wish, she needed to kill the Demon King. Doing so would require that she get close enough, and doing _that _meant she would need to spearhead some sort of group that could stand toe-to-toe with him.

Getting as much fame as she could would hasten her rise to the top of the list of Adventurer Parties that populated the countries newspapers.

Newspapers had been a shock for her – people were literate here? – but it seemed that most adventurers, no matter how rich or poor, learned at least a small bit of the written language, in order to accept quests.

Mind made up, she announced to Chris. "Well, we should deliver the adventurers from this plight, right? Let's try to find out what this threat is, so that the capital can send supporting forces, at least."

Chris looked curious, and Tanya thought she saw her mutter something under her breath, but she didn't catch it on the part of Darkness, who, after hearing Tanya's declaration, had shouted in glee.

"To be ravaged by something that scares even Griphons away… berated and derided for being stupid enough to seek something like that out… just the thought of it-"

Tanya cut off the masochist. "Yes, yes, you wouldn't be able to contain yourself. You can talk all about it to Chris while I go get business done."

Trying to ignore the armor-clad girl behind her, she walked to the front desk. Her eyes flicked down towards Luna's impressive bust for only a moment – she didn't want to be caught, like Dust _always _was – she smiled at the woman. Luna smiled back.

"Is there a quest for scouting out the new monster?" she asked. Luna's genuine smile fell, replaced by the resigned one Luna adopted whenever she tried to convince Tanya to change classes.

"Technically, yes, but the guild strongly recommends that under-leveled parties stay well away from that sort of thing," she said, already taking out the quest from behind the counter. Tanya smiled and picked up the piece of paper.

It was nice to know that she could learn that Tanya was going to ignore her 'recommendations.'

Honestly, Tanya suspected that it was some sort of contractual obligation. Luna knew Tanya was strong enough to take on Fire Drakes and Slimes, and she even had backup these days. How much worse could this be?

The quest was worded, surprisingly, much like the one for the quest she had taken on the Brutal Alligators. Go in, figure out what is causing the problem, gauge their threat, and leave. Only, the last command was worded much more strongly.

Instead of a vague suggestion that they shouldn't try to fight Brutal Alligators, this one almost screamed it at her. It even mentioned her by name…

Wait.

"Did you write this, Luna?" she asked, both annoyed and amused. The discouraged smile was replaced by a small frown, and Tanya's eyes rose.

Luna never showed anything other than a smile.

"Tanya. You are one of the only adventurers in this town who has _ever_ accepted community service. I, quite literally, have never seen someone else do that. Pardon the concern I've shown one of the most moral and reckless adventurers I have ever met," she uttered.

Tanya brushed off the compliments. If _Tanya _was moral – and she had no qualms about killing other people, if the rewards outweighed the risks by enough – then there were probably more people like Dust in here than she thought.

"Aww… I didn't know you felt that way, Luna," she said, trailing off suggestively. The receptionist was probably just trying to get her to reject the quest, with such confession of admiration.

Tanya wasn't going to listen.

The woman scoffed, but she didn't let her smile fall. "I am not an Axis Cultist, Tanya."

With that, she began filling out information related to her and the quest on the paper she had been shown. Tanya looked up at her cap, deep in thought for all of the two seconds in took to seriously consider her latest though. Then, she shook her head.

There was no way that was some sort of… _euphemism_, right? No religion would alienate so many people by catering to the desires of a very limited section of their population.

Right?

Shaking her head to get rid of _that_ ridiculous notion – how many people could even _be_ gay, in Medieval times? Twenty people? – she snatched the quest out of Luna's hands, walking over to Chris and the still-aroused Darkness. This would be a nice, easy quest. They weren't going to fight whatever it was, after all.

Not unless a chance to surprise it and bag a nice, juicy reward appeared.

-OxOxO-

After a few hours of getting together supplies – Tanya wanted to come back with results, after all – and they were about to set out towards the north, where the thing was rumored to be stationed.

Then, some… thing stopped them.

Tanya blinked and shook her head. Well, calling it a thing was a bit mean, so Tanya amended her thought.

Dust stopped them, party in tow.

He was standing leisurely by the gate to the town, while his party argued behind him. They all seemed rather angry – not even with him, what a rarity – but Dust was just staring down at the ground with a small smile on his face.

Tanya was suspicious. Dust didn't often leave his natural habitat – the bar of wherever was naïve enough to waive his debts for an hour before realizing their mistake – but she walked out of the gate anyway.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, you flat-chested Thief!" he shouted. Sighing, Tanya turned around.

Dust was pointing at his boot, where a scuff of mud had suddenly appeared. Chris looked slightly embarrassed, but she seemed more enraged.

"Excuse me?" she asked, voice dangerously low. Tanya shook her head.

Why the woman tried to ignore the obvious – that her breasts were pathetic – Tanya didn't understand.

Tanya, with her spitefully provided female body, had long grown to accept that there wasn't a whole lot you could do to change your body…

Wait…

Tanya thoughts crashed to a halt, and she inhaled deeply, ignoring the outside world.

Unless…

Shapeshifting, while a dirty cheat supplied by Being X, had appealed to her, in part, because she had wanted her old body back. Constantly using her energy to convince herself that she was still a man, despite the change in… circumstances, had been tiring and wasteful throughout the last sixteen years of her life.

What if… this world, with its utter lack of care for physics and math when it came to magic or potions or anything, could give her what she had lost…?

She shook her head, trying not to get her hopes up. Another question for Wiz, or perhaps Dust, who wouldn't remember anything as long as she gave him enough alcohol.

Speaking of Dust…

She looked again at Dust, whose face was tinged red and wearing a smile. He seemed a bit unhappy that she hadn't responded to him, but he was, indeed, smiling.

Tanya groaned.

If he was smiling, he was drunk.

She ran over, and separated Dust from Chris, who looked murderous. "Look, we don't have time for this. Nice seeing you Dust, I'll see you tomorrow for the lesson, have a good day!" she said in one breath. His companions looked over curiously, while Dust looked down at her.

A lecherous grin overtook his face, and Tanya heard Darkness gasp at that. "Right~. See you Tanya!" he said, giggling. The other three approached, all glaring at Dust, while Tanya just groaned internally. She wanted to find whatever this thing was as fast as possible, and-

"Did he give you trouble?" questioned Lynn as Taylor took ahold of the man's arm, while Keith looked on, flashing Dust an apologetic look.

Chris nodded, while Tanya tried to wave them off. "Not at all! We were just heading out on a quest, so-"

"What quest would that be?" Lynn interrupted.

Tanya blinked at the ravenous look in the girl's eye, and cast an appraising eye at the three of them. All of them looked like they had seen better days, if the unwashed quality that pervaded their equipment – still stained with the blood of monsters.

Tanya quickly realized what they wanted.

"Would you like to come with us?" she asked hesitantly, already planning to ask Dust that question when they came back. All three lit up, while Dust only seemed disgusted.

Earlier sympathy forgotten for his blond-haired friend, Keith stamped down on Dust's foot before he could insult them. "We would love to!" Lynn, Taylor, and Keith shouted in unison while Dust swore.

As they walked out of the gate, Tanya increased the priority of trying to fight whatever this monster was. It seemed it was affecting Axel worse than she had assumed, if these three were willing to go on a quest with her before even hearing about what it was.

Tanya turned to them the moment they walked out of the gate, and she began to lay out what they were doing. None of them looked particularly happy about doing this quest, but they still decided on going.

Chris was glaring at Dust, who was staring at her curiously, as if he was confused about why she was staring at him.

How drunk _was _he, for him to forget that he'd tried to con her only a few moments ago?

Trying to ignore that question, Tanya set off on the road with everyone else in tow. They walked through plains, eyeing the idyllic scenery, absent of any and all monsters.

It was nice to have even less to fight than usual. Nothing as difficult as the front lines of her last life had presented itself, that pair of Reincarnates excluded. This world was a cakewalk, so far, and it seemed almost inevitable that she would achieve her goal, eventually.

She breathed in deeply. _This_ was what she had dreamed of, when flying in the skies above the Eastern Front. A warm town sequestered away from any fighting, where she could live out her days doing her job and ignoring Being X.

Another half hour of walking set them in front of a forest. "Now," Tanya said, interrupting Darkness's rambling about the foe they would face and the feelings of discomfort shown on the faces of the other party that was accompanying them.

"We're here to figure out what is living around here. Luna says that it could be anything from a very strong Dragon to a minion of the Demon King. That means that they're most likely living in some sort of cave, or somewhere hidden from normal view," she said, walking backwards over a rise in the path through the forest.

The others caught sight of something behind her, and Tanya sighed internally. She really wished she had the 203rd here. They knew how to listen to a briefing, at least.

"Luna said that there are plenty of caves hidden in this forest, so we should stick together in our parties and look around. We'll meet up here in two hours and report what we've found. Got it?" she asked. All of them were still looking behind her.

She glared. The nerve of them, to ignore her while she was speaking. "Hey! What's so…" she trailed off as she looked behind her.

Right. _That _would count as a possible hideout.

A large, gloomy castle marred the beautiful landscape, placed on the top of a large cliff. There seemed to be at least four towers, thick, intimidating walls, and numerous buildings contained within.

It gave off a feeling of foreboding, which was rather impressive considering they were at least a mile away. "Good eyes, everyone," Tanya declared, not daring to turn around.

That much scorn directed at her would definitely not be good for her, especially since she could hear Chris, Lynn, Dust, and Keith all snickering.

No one moved, staring at the impressive sight in front of them, and Tanya hesitated.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Chris. Still, no one moved, and even Tanya was put off by the foreboding feeling emanating from that thing.

Darkness, unsurprisingly, took the first step forward, face red and panting. "To think that something could control that place…"

She was already heading down the path. Tanya turned away from the sight in front of her to the other members of this quest.

The four tagalongs seemed quite unsure as to whether they should go, and Dust seemed to have sobered up at the sight of the towering castle. "Hey… should we really try and go over there? Maybe we can just head back now…"

Tanya shook her head vigorously. "No. We need to figure out what it could be, at least." She also wasn't letting Dust get away until she'd asked that question and knocked him out with alcohol.

With the end of her declaration, she followed after Darkness, wishing the Crusader would at least start running so Tanya could imagine that her panting was due to exhaustion instead of lust.

After that, the others seemed to have made up their mind. They followed, wary of whatever could call that castle home.

-OxOxO-

Tanya followed behind them as they neared the castle. Using Chris's and her own Lurk skill, they had kept a low profile, closing in on the imposing structure. Their tagalongs had lost whatever enthusiasm they had had back in Axel, favoring their lives over this quest.

Tanya did too, but she was sure she could survive whatever this was.

Darkness's moaning had only begun to grow louder as they approached the castle, which was setting off warning bells, sirens, klaxons, and many other loud, jarring sounds in Tanya's head, making her wonder if she should reconsider. Still, they pressed on.

Tanya was behind the rest, ensuring that the back half were protected, while Chris led them forward. Tanya was also casting Observation spells at the castle quietly. She wanted to use better ones, due to the readings she was getting, but doing so risked Lynn turning around and seeing Tanya doing magic she had never heard of.

And the readings she was getting…

She hadn't found much. All of her magic was _insisting _that nothing living was present within the castle, which meant it was faulty – not entirely improbable, since she _still_ didn't have a Computation Jewel besides the Type 95 – or this monster was some sort of undead.

Thus far, Tanya had begged off quests involving the undead, since she wasn't entirely convinced her bullets would work that well on things that didn't feel pain.

There was no doubt that she could just blow them up, but using the number of Explosive Vaporization spells that would be necessary to take them out if they surrounded her was daunting, especially if she were underground or somewhere else where using that spell could mean collapsed roofs.

None of that even took into account that using that spell repeatedly would leave her tired and probably immobile after a while.

Soon, they would be in sight of the front door, and Tanya began to maneuver into the front of the group. If they got there without figuring out what it was, Tanya would need to go in. The usage of Flight magic would be necessary, and she didn't want to display that openly.

Behind herself, Dust and Chris seemed to be the most composed of their group. Chris wasn't new – she had proven herself reliable and cognizant of the strengths of her teammates – and Tanya had begun to expect more from Dust since he had started those lessons.

His skill with a spear – better than anything she had ever seen – begged the question as to why he was a Warrior, instead of something that specialized in spears, but Tanya had promised not to pry into his past.

In the past three weeks, she would show up at the guild, he tutored her in the middle of a nearby dump, and she benefited greatly from knowing how to better use her gun as a spear, if she ever ran out of ammunition.

The gates of the castle loomed, and Tanya sighed. She didn't know what was in there, which meant she _would _have to go in. Chris motioned towards a bush, and all of them took refuge behind it, staring up at the towering castle. "Well, now what?" asked Taylor. Tanya opened her mouth, but then Chris spoke up.

"I can see that the place is crawling with soldiers. They're patrolling the hallways, towers, a few of them are stationed at the gate. As long as we keep Lurk active, though, we should be fine…" she relayed.

Tanya's eyes widened. That must have been the Thief's Enemy Detection was more useful than she gave it credit for, if Tanya couldn't get anything out of her Observation spells.

"It's… they're undead; I can see one through the uppermost window. They're all undead."

Tanya looked at him, bewildered. "How can you see that?" she asked.

A few Observation spells could be used as substitutes for binoculars by 'zooming in' on faraway images, but she didn't have the capability of doing that without a Computation Jewel; what did he have?

"My Farsight skill. I can see stuff far away, and it has night vision and thermal vision at higher levels," he relayed, staring intently at the various windows and walls, looking for more confirmation. Tanya nodded, thinking rapidly.

She had no idea about this. She didn't have knowledge of this world, and what she knew about undead amounted to 'they were once living things,' which was sort of implied by the name.

Tanya stood. "Well, I guess I'll go in and confirm what we're facing."

Darkness and the other four looked at her skeptically, while Chris looked rather pensive. "You're kidding, right? There's no way we can fight our way through that many undead, not without a Priest," Taylor pointed out. Darkness nodded her agreement, before her face also became pensive.

Darkness voiced her thoughts. "If we go in, we'll definitely be torn apart, ravaged by the undead who are attracted to life and pushed to destroy it in equal parts. No doubt, you all will need to escape while I am left behind as a sacrifice. They'll beat on me, and then their terrifying leader will appear…" she panted, eyes becoming unfocused.

Chris didn't voice her thoughts.

If The Atheist went in there, she would definitely get torn to shreds by the thing that waited inside, a Demon King's General.

It was kind of hard for a Goddess like herself to miss the movement of that many undead, so she knew precisely what was in there, even if she couldn't give any proof to the guild. Still, she knew what was in there, and if she gave The Atheist the slightest bit of encouragement, she would definitely attempt to start fighting.

She was the Devil of the Rhine, after all. Why wouldn't she want a good fight?

Chris smirked internally. This was it. The Atheist would get what they deserved, and they would be the one bringing about their own end through hubris. It was perfect!

"I think we should go in," Chris said, nodding to Tanya.

Tanya shook her head. "I'll go in, Chris. You guys don't need to trouble yourselves-"

Chris cut her off. "You'll need the skills I have, right? I can use Unlock to help us move through faster. You need me." Tanya looked at the other four, who all looked as if they agreed.

Just as Tanya was about to nod, she felt ping on her Observation spell. Trying to look as deep in thought as she could, she began to pace, turning her spell towards the direction Axel was in.

Yes, another Reincarnate had come in, judging by the geyser coming from the south of their current position.

Tanya grit her teeth. She needed to get back. She didn't want to fight with them, and the more entrenched in the idea that they were 'god's chosen' became, the higher the possibility that she would have to threaten or fight them rose.

Plus, if they had a skill instead of a weapon, Tanya would rather attempt to Heal them while she had mana.

Tanya licked her lips. She needed to go back. Now. She tried to calm down, hoping that her voice wasn't shaking in worry. "Dust, Taylor, Keith, and Lynn: any ideas as to what it could be in there?"

If they could figure it out based on what they knew – lots of undead, strong enough to scare all monsters away from Axel – then they could just leave and give Luna their best guess.

All of them looked at each other, while Lynn rubbed the back of her head. "Well, only high tier undead can control other undead, so that means that it's anything from an Undead Dragon, a Vampire, a Lich, or even a Dullahan…"

She gasped. "Could it be the Demon King's Dullahan?" she asked, turning to the others.

Taylor gasped, as did Darkness, if for different reasons. "You're right!" both shouted.

Darkness was panting even harder, and Taylor looked legitimately fearful. "It's definitely him. And if it is, then we need to leave. Now."

Chris looked frustrated. "But-"

Taylor shook his head. "I know you and Darkness are devout Eris Cultists – and I am too – but we _can't _take something like that on."

He and the other three already seemed to be running back the way they came.

Darkness seemed undecided, while Chris looked upset.

Tanya was wishing she could remove the fact that she was leading _two_ religious nutcases – how had she missed that Chris was an Eris Cultist? She usually never missed things like that – and helping their religion at the same time from her head.

Chris grit her teeth. They'd be back later, and she had no problem with abandoning the loli then. She began to stalk after the others.

Tanya followed, dragging a nearly catatonic Darkness behind her, wondering why she had to be the one who dragged the masochist through the forest and trying to think of how to take care of this newest Reincarnate.

Looking back at the castle, she grinned. She might be leaving, but that didn't mean she couldn't leave the supposed general with a parting gift.

-OxOxO-

As Verdia walked through the halls of the newly renovated castle, he sighed appreciatively. Finding a place like this to stay had been a boon, and it would be a shame if this place fell into disrepair.

Originally, he feared he would have to stay in some moldy, wet cave. While his night vision was obviously excellent, he knew that even he could make mistakes, and tripping, losing hold of his head, and spending half an hour trying to reunite his body and head seemed like a particularly frivolous waste of time.

Of course, the weaker undead he could gather still suffered from decay, even if he didn't. Their degradation wouldn't assist in building power, and a wet cave would only speed up decomposition.

Just as he prepared to head into the secret addition of the parlor, a knock sounded on the wooden door. He gave a sound of consent, and one of his higher-leveled Undead Knights wandered in.

"My General. Enemies have been spotted approaching the castle." The animated body said this listlessly, and Verdia nodded. He left the room, followed by the soldier.

"Interesting." Without another word, he stuck his head out of the nearest window, leaning out to try and catch sight of the front of the castle. He saw nothing.

He brought his head back in, and tilted it. "It seems they've left…"

Scowling, he headed back into the parlor. "Increase patrols. They were probably here to figure out why the monsters have disappeared, and it seems they've been scared off, after realizing what was here." The knight bowed his head slightly, and then stalked off to inform the rest of the castle.

Verdia didn't want to interrupt them from their cleaning work. He pulled on the unlit mana-fueled lantern that hung on a nearby wall, and watched in satisfaction as the secret entrance to his lair opened. He chuckled as he walked down the stairs.

Even if Vanir, the Demon King's Duke of Hell, was the one famous for wanting a nearly unconquerable dungeon, Verdia occasionally liked to fit the aesthetic of a brooding boss, awaiting some chosen hero.

He looked around. The throne, the completely dark room, the temperature…

All of it fit perfectly. He looked around, for a moment, and then sighed dejectedly as he sunk into the throne at the back of the room.

It _would _be perfect, if he wasn't stuck here.

He would never disobey a command of the Demon King – the being had proved his leadership abilities too many times for that – but still. Axel?

The town of rookie adventurers? A rinky-dink town in the middle of nowhere?

But his King had explained it easily, and Verdia couldn't find fault with them.

Monsters wouldn't dare come out thanks to his presence in the area. Without them, new adventurers would be deprived of experience.

Stopping the flood of reinforcements from here to the Capital and elsewhere on the front lines was important, and he was the only one free enough right now.

He sighed as he thought of the other reason he was there. He was supposed to determine if the 'double blessed' 'Hero Candidate' was still there. If they were, he was supposed to take them out.

He doubted it; all Reincarnates had been able to arrive at the front lines within a week of arriving and given preferential treatment so that they would withstand his King's forces. The prophet – damn that charlatan – had suggested they investigate, and his King had ordered him to comply.

He moved his wrist and shook his head.

He could begin to build up his forces at least; the graveyards of Axel were unlikely to have many good corpses, but the rumors of a Griffon and a Manticore battling for territory nearby intrigued him. Turning either of those into an undead would be a huge pro on the chart of why the hell he had to come _here_, of all places.

A thought occurred to him, and he sighed dreamily, lifting his head higher, as if it were really in the clouds. Wiz, a General in her own right and the 'bandit of the Demon King's coffers,' was supposed to have set up a shop in the town. If his head were screwed on straight, he'd pay her a visit…

Oh well. He'd need to inquire about the 'Hero Candidate' soon enough; as the strongest mage in Axel, Wiz would be sure to show her face when he made his appearance in front of the city and threatened the rookies with death.

The kingdom was unlikely to send any of the Reincarnates to someplace like this, not with how few of them had been showing up recently.

He thought back to the adventurers that were supposed to have shown up in front of his new base. They weren't likely to amount to much, but maybe they'd provide some sort of fight if he visited the town?

_BOOM!_

Verdia's head was sent flying, tumbling away from his body. Head shouting, the body scrambled to reclaim the seat of its thoughts. The back wall, where the throne had been situated, crumbled away, leaving the room bare to the windy mountain air.

His head tumbled precariously close to the edge, but his body managed to grab it. Verdia sighed, and secured his head under his arm.

That done, he looked out into the air. "What…" he trailed off as he gazed out over the land. The very familiar land.

He nodded to himself absently. Yes, this was the land underneath the cliff face his new base was situated. The question of how this – him staring out at it from his formerly-underground lair – had happened was not readily apparent, but he identified it soon enough.

Just as he could perceive all motion around himself and dispatch with anyone who threatened him using a special technique, and how Rangers could look into the distance, muttering a skill allowed him to pick out minute details in the far away from himself.

Of course, he was undead; that meant that the skill was focused on finding large pockets of power, in the form of a soul.

He soon found it. They were small, and had some sort of oddly shaped staff with a blade on the end of it.

Interesting. Mage's didn't usually care about self-defense, trusting in their allies to protect them. He deactivated his enhanced vision – staring at people's souls often gave him headaches – and squirted at the figure in the far off distance.

While her physical appearance was vaguely interesting, his thoughts were much more intrigued by the markings on her soul. They meant one thing.

"Reincarnate…"

It appeared that their party had scouted out this position had left with a parting remark, or they had attacked his castle in some sort of show of courage.

He surveyed the magically-created hole; he wasn't a Mage, but even he knew that this had to be something strong, like the usage of Detonation magic.

The temptation to pursue them, but he stayed his hand.

If they were audacious enough to use magic on his castle as a parting remark, they would be back, and if they had wanted to showcase their courage as they fled with a tail tucked between their legs, then they wouldn't.

He grinned. If a Reincarnate that could use Detonation Magic was in town, then they might actually put up a good fight.

Smirking, he went back inside and rose through the staircase. No doubt, that explosion caused some sort of ruckus inside. It wouldn't be as bad as if they had attacked the castle directly, but there was going to be some damage. He'd finish cleaning up, gather reinforcements from where he could, and then wait.

The Demon King had told him to await reinforcements, after all, and he knew how to follow orders, unlike many of his fellow Generals…

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed in satisfaction. Even though the moment was tainted by using the Type 95 to mutter praises of Being X, the sizable explosion in the side of the cliff looked good. It seemed to have even opened up some sort of cave, if the depression near the center of the blast was anything to go by.

She might have liked to do more actual damage by hitting the castle itself, but damaging its foundations would hurt it more in the long run than anything else she could do to the building directly.

At least she didn't have to drag Darkness anymore, who seemed to have finally recovered from the news that they were facing one of the Demon King's Generals and from the fact that Tanya had been dragging her along for a mile as if she were a piece of freshly-killed meat.

Standing, she asked the one question Tanya hated getting whenever someone realized that she was singing the praises of a god. "You're religious?"

Tanya sighed tiredly. She couldn't really get mad at her. In a Medieval setting, it was expected that she be religious. "No."

Darkness was taken aback by the vehemence in Tanya's reprisal. "But you-"

"Imagine you could kill any monster that faced you, Darkness," she began. She knew that she had to illustrate these things.

She nodded. "Imagine: you aren't a helpless Crusader that can only carry out her goddess's will with the help of others. There is just one, tiny, minute problem: in order for you to kill anything, you have to declare that your god is nothing but a figment of peoples' imaginations," she said, spitting out each word.

Darkness's decidedly uncomfortable expression told Tanya all she needed to know about _that_ notion. A moment of silence reigned, and then Tanya began to walk off. She had a Reincarnate to attend to and some questions to ask an inebriated Dust.

Personally, she was hoping that they had something more interesting than a weapon or a skill; maybe they would have something more similar to her circlet?

-OxOxO-

Chris and Darkness, thankfully, parted from Tanya rather quickly. They wanted to get a bath, and Tanya just told them she had some other business to attend to.

Lynn, Taylor, and Keith were standing outside the guild, waiting for Dust to stop stumbling around and walk in with them. Tanya quickly put an end to that as she wrapped an arm around Dust's shoulders – which was very hard to do when you were as short as she was. She smiled at the other three.

"You all go sort out our pay! Chris and Darkness will get back very soon, and we'll be back soon enough as well. I need to talk to Dust."

They peered at Tanya and Dust curiously, but they didn't complain, and Tanya dragged him off down a side alley.

He was confused and sputtering, but she paid him no mind. "Listen here, Dust. I need to ask you a question I don't want you to remember, so… how much money do you need to get blackout drunk and not remember _any _of today?"

He gawked at her, but she didn't blush or let her gaze waver. Dust was a very straightforward man whose vices were simple. He might have a complicated past, but she didn't honestly care beyond a faint curiosity.

Tanya saw him fight the call of his alcoholism for all of five seconds before greed took over. "50,000 Eris will get me the required amount of cheap alcohol, but the better stuff will cost you 100,000."

Tanya sighed, but she did as asked and divided out the larger amount of money. She would earn a lot of it back using the Reincarnate.

He didn't even count out the money, and Tanya took a deep breath.

Tanya asked her question.

His eyebrows both seemed to be trying to join his hairline, but he answered diligently and asked for another 50,000 Eris. She gave it to him, and he left, completely ignoring the guild and heading to where she was sure some gambling den was.

Tanya, meanwhile, was smiling. Not smirking, or grinning. It wasn't sarcastic or sad.

She was _happy_.

She turned back to the guild. The Reincarnate would be no trouble at all, and then she could continue to grow stronger, earn money, get ready to fight the Demon King, and, now that she had her answer…

She could save up to purchase a gender-switching item from wherever she could find one.

-OxOxO-

She gasped, drawing in a deep, heaving breath as she woke up. Where…

Where was she?

Her horizon seemed dark, unendingly dark, but a single light illuminated her surroundings and fended the emptiness off. She was in a chair, unrestrained, and another chair was opposite of herself, empty.

Had she been captured by the Cordiale's forces?

The sound of slow, even steps reached her ears, and she spun around. Or tried to.

She was stopped by the chair she was sitting in, and before she could throw herself out of it, the sound of a voice that grew louder in time with the steps interrupted her panicking.

"Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. Welcome to the afterlife. Unfortunately, you passed away only moments ago."

Then it all came back to her, making her thankful that she was sitting. She would have collapsed if she wasn't.

The bar. The bombs. The explosion. The smell of the air as a building burned, consumed in a blaze of destruction. It wasn't that different from other air raids, except that her friends, the people she'd spent years with, had…

They died.

Grantz and Neumann, killed in the month before the attack. The rest of the 203rd nearly destroyed by that… monster. She gasped as one last name entered her consciousness.

_Tanya_.

The leader of the 203rd. The White Silver. The one she-

Numb to the breakdown Viktoriya was having, the woman continued to speak. "Your life was a difficult one, full of hardship and strife. But you persevered."

Viktoriya's breathing calmed. She had won?

"How… how did the Cordiale's forces get so far?" she pleaded. She had to know, and hoped for another reason, any other reason, than the one she suspected.

Dresdun was deep in the Empire's territory, far from the front lines in Northern Ildoa and deep in the Russy Federation, and even farther from any effective attack from the Albish. Additionally, no air raid sirens had gone off, and they had had no warning.

Some of that could have to do with people not wanting to bother Tanya after… what had happened near Moskva, but for them to have absolutely _no_ warning…

"It seems the Alliance Cordiale's spies infiltrated the city and disabled all of the alarm systems," she said, looking into the small book by her side and confirming Viktoriya's fears.

She clenched her eyes and grit her teeth, but she made no noise.

Tanya had complained often about the Empire's problem with spying and nationalistic insurgents. The General Staff simply thought that they didn't need to concern themselves with either of those things, which had led to the Empire being surprised by several declarations of war, some scattered uprisings from within the Empire's disputed territories, and, most annoyingly, other countries' desire to aid them.

She almost sighed at the thought of Tanya's hour-long rant about the General Staff not seeking allies, which brought her thoughts back to Tanya…

She continued to try and stifle her tears. They were the cause of her own death and the death of-

Viktoriya gazed at the woman lifelessly. It didn't even matter anymore, if this woman was telling the truth. She was _dead_, and any lasting hatred she felt burn within her would be wasted on hating people she couldn't touch any longer.

Viktoriya doubted that the woman before her was lying. With her beauty, Viktoriya wouldn't have doubted her if she said she was an angel or representative of God.

"Well, did I at least take some of them with me?" she asked, hoping for a consolation prize.

"Yes. You took down… quite a few before your death."

Viktoriya sighed. She'd avenged the Colonel, at least. "At least I died fighting…"

Blue hair shook, as something flashed across the woman's face. Before Viktoriya could categorize what it was, though, it was gone. "Yes… well, you have questions, no doubt, so I'll begin to explain a few things," the woman said, standing from her seat in the white chair.

"My name is Aqua, and I am a Goddess who guides humans who die young to the afterlife," she explained.

Viktoriya's eyes widened as she tried to digest that. More than one god? That was certainly odd, by Christian standards.

She shrugged internally, trying to suppress how… _peculiar _that was. Someone must have gotten things wrong when writing the Bible… or something.

At some point. The evidence stood before her.

Apparently.

"Now, thanks to some recent… _events_, the age of what is considered 'young' up here has been vastly increased. You now qualify under that definition, and won't be sent to Heaven automatically-"

"Er…" Viktoriya interrupted. Aqua paused her speech, an eyebrow raised condescendingly and a hand on her hip. "Yes?"

Viktoriya shrank in her seat a bit, but asked her question regardless. "I have options?"

The woman scoffed. "Yes. If you hadn't interrupted, I would have explained immediately. Since you died 'young' and have enough karma, you can either choose to be reincarnated without any memories in that world you just left, or go to Heaven."

Viktoriya's heart soared. That meant…

Tanya could be in Heaven.

Then she sighed. Of course, her loyalty to the Empire meant that she could have just gone right back in for even the smallest chance of fighting for them again.

This… stumped her. Tanya might be in Heaven, memories intact, or she might have been reincarnated and lost to her forever.

Viktoriya shook her head. Tanya wasn't here, and she needed to decide on her future for herself.

Tanya had playfully criticized Viktoriya's desire to stay near her, and if she could see her now, she'd probably scold Viktoriya for just following her, instead of thinking for herself.

If only…

She sighed. But, no, Tanya had practically spelled out that she wasn't interested in a relationship or in her _that _way. Still…

It was hard not to want to stay near the one constant of the war. Her immediate family had been murdered in the Russy Federation's purges, and Elya had been sent to a different part of the army. Through being shifted from front to front, mission to mission, Tanya von DEgurechaff seemed to be the one familiar thing she knew.

"Of course, there is a third option."

Viktoriya's head snapped up. "What is it?"

Aqua grinned, and began to speak as a heavenly light sprung into being above her. "A world, which has long enjoyed peace, is being threatened by the oppressive Demon King and his army. Everyone lives in fear of the terror he inspires!"

Viktoriya sat, transfixed. It sounded like this world was suffering, much like the Russy Federation's people had under the harsh hand of communism.

"Since that's the sort of world it is, no one wants to be reborn, and the population is declining. So we decided to send people born in other worlds to oppose him," she said as the light above her faded.

Viktoriya nodded, and vengeful rage sprung to life once more. Whether or not Tanya had decided to go there, she needed to.

She hadn't seen her homeland freed, even if the Empire had been close to finishing the fight. She'd settle the score with someone who seemed just as bad as the communist rats had been.

"Also, the Gods will be doing you a big favor by sending you down with any one item of your choosing," she said.

Viktoriya nodded thoughtfully. Powerful equipment would be extremely helpful, if Tanya's mysterious Type 95 was anything to go by. Having something like that of her own was tempting.

Viktoriya hopped out of the chair. "Where do I sign?"

The woman grinned again and shook her head. "While you don't have to sign anything, there is a contract."

She presented a pamphlet to her that made Viktoriya wonder how she had pockets on such… revealing clothing At least, it was revealing compared to their uniforms-

She shook her head. This was not the time. Viktoriya took the pamphlet and began to read some of it.

The title proclaimed: "Contract of Reincarnation and Opposition to the Demon King" in bold lettering, while a smaller line underneath the title said, "and The Atheist."

Viktoriya looked up. "The Atheist?"

The Goddess's face, wonderfully beautiful until that point, became a twisted pout. "Yes. They were someone we reincarnated mistakenly, around two months ago, in the time of the world you're going to. They have two of our relics, and they might join the Demon King. They both need to be killed."

Viktoriya nodded. The Colonel wouldn't forgive her for not trying to understand everything about her situation that she could.

She sat back down in the chair, cracking her knuckles. She had questions she wanted answered.

-OxOxO-

Aqua suppressed another groan. This-

This time-wasting, breast-padding bitch!

She had asked question after question, going on and on for over half an hour, and that had been _before_ Aqua had shown her the relics.

Couldn't this girl tell that she, the magnificent and beautiful Aqua, had other people she needed to attend to?

Sure, the souls that were awaiting her guidance wouldn't be cognizant of anything until she met them, but what did that matter? She wanted to get done with her work so she could watch some anime!

She looked at the girl again. Aqua didn't know why she was trying so hard.

She had died _while _fighting, not doing the action itself. She hadn't even shot that many people!

Aqua suppressed another round of laughter at the thought of the girl's death. She had only taken out as many enemies as she had because the anger-fueled mana overloaded her 'Computation Jewel' and detonated it.

While laughing at the girl's death might have been stress relieving, it also might have alienated the girl, which she had been told _not _to do, since the Boss had gone through all the trouble of raising the age and expanding the number of places she got souls from.

Plus, with how many Hero Candidates were rejecting the contract, they couldn't keep sending down people without being sure they'd follow the guidance of the Gods.

They'd sent a number of people through who… probably didn't have the karma necessary for anything more than a few centuries of purgatory, all in the hope that their fanatical devotion to Heaven would stop them from reneging on the contract.

Eyes felt up the woman as she continued to sort through the various pieces of paper and card in front of her. She was certainly nice on the eyes, if nothing else, but those breasts…

Aqua glared at them enviously, even as contained as they were by the girl's restrictive clothing. She had to be wearing padding to make them look bigger than hers. Just like Eris.

No one was as pretty as her!

Grumbling, Aqua summoned a bag of chips and began to snack. Napping on the job had been banned.

Or, napping on _this _job had been banned, since The Atheist had been the one to suggest the idea. She sat there, waiting and answering questions and waiting and answering more stupid questions!

She sighed internally. At least Aqua had been able to mitigate how important The Atheist was. A few words of assurance had totally convinced this girl – like all the others – that they wouldn't have to worry about them, as long as they had a cheat item.

She was sure none of them, no matter how devoted to Heaven, would try and fight that crazy bitch if they knew who she was.

Finally, after nearly another half hour of waiting, the girl finished. Standing up, she walked to Aqua holding up a piece of paper. "I'll have this skill, please!"

Sighing in relief, Aqua stretched her arms, grumbling about the indignity of having to wait an hour. She stole the paper from the woman's grip, slapped it down on the table, and watched as it disappeared. As it left, a large magic circle appeared beneath the girl, and she gasped.

Happy that someone seemed to be in awe of her power, she quickly handed a bag of Eris over to the woman.

Watching the girl rise, Aqua marveled at her apparent ease in the air. Many of those she reincarnated panicked as they rose, but she didn't.

As she rose up, Viktoriya called down, "Thank you, Aqua!"

Aqua smirked, and began the last portion of her speech.

"Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. You will now be sent to the new world, as one of the candidates who will defeat the Demon King. If you do, you'll get a gift from the Gods."

Viktoriya blinked. A gift beyond being able to live again? "A gift?"

Aqua smiled. "Yes. The Gods will grant any one thing you ask."

Viktoriya gasped. If Tanya was dead…

She could wish for her back!

"Don't worry, Colonel! I'll defeat this Demon King, and I'll save you too!"

With that, the floating woman disappeared. Aqua sighed in relief, releasing a bit of pent up stress. She had another hour before she would be required to talk to another human.

She didn't know how long it would take to keep up the increased workload without taking out a bit of stress on the hapless humans, but she was sure it would happen eventually.

She didn't have anything against them, but she couldn't even berate her underlings anymore. Not since that incident.

All of them except for Eris would just bring up what had happened, and then they'd begin to laugh at her while she denied being the only person at fault.

Besides, the Boss took out his anger on The Atheist all the time. She could certainly do it to a few humans she'd only see once, right?

Aqua settled into her chair and smacked the table by her side. A TV soon sprang into being in front of her, and, unaware of the boon she'd just delivered to Tanya, began to watch a bit of daytime television.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Well, hello again, everyone! I am… _beyond_ happy with all the comments I've been getting, so please, continue to tell me what you're enjoying.

We're getting a bit of backstory on Verdia – who was criminally underused in the light novels and got a few hilarious moments to stalk Wiz in the anime. It's fun to imagine what he would have gone through to turn him into a Dullahan, and I think I've got something… _interesting_.

The presence of a gender-switching item in the Light Novels is confirmed, even if the only way that has ever paid off was in the sixth LN with a certain relic. Suffice it to say, Tanya will be interested in that, even if more pressing matters are currently rising to the forefront.

As to the logical reason that someone in a medieval society would want an item like that: different gender identities and kinkiness were not invented in the 20th century, and… the Axis Cult.

Also, what you thought I wouldn't include Viktoriya?! HA! I laugh at the thought!

Anyway, I'm happy that another familiar face from Tanya's second world has arrived, but I'm sad to say that we won't be getting anymore.

Not for a while, anyway.

Now, regarding the whole 'Tanya spelling out that she wasn't interested in a relationship' thing…

Well, Tanya has often misunderstood her way _into _relationships in this fandom, so the only thing that I can imagine that is more hilarious, unfortunate, and tragic is her misunderstanding herself _away_ from a relationship that she would totally enjoy.

Anyway, as a question… is the manga of Youjo Senki any good? I've heard good things about it from BleedingBlade and their story 'Amor Enim Vult' – go read it, by the way – but I haven't looked at it. Is it worth the energy?


	12. Meeting and Growing

Tanya whistled as she left the guild. The six of them had been given a nice, large reward for determining that it was most likely a Demon General, and they'd split it evenly seven ways.

The other three – as Dust was nowhere to be found, with Lynn having to hold onto his money – had thanked them for the chance, and then promptly asked that they never go on another quest with them.

Tanya didn't blame them. For the average adventurer, fighting a Demon General was pure fantasy, left to the 'Hero Candidates' – the general public's name for the people they didn't know were reincarnated from a different world – that were clearly able to handle that sort of thing. Many were lucky if they reached that level and lived through the experience.

Tanya, however, _was_ a Hero Candidate, even if no one knew. And who knew what the future held?

Maybe a Hero Candidate in her own situation would find that their goals aligned with the Demon King's more, and they might decide to void the contract.

Maybe they'd be able to think about actually performing actions that would violate their contract, instead of thinking of doing so in the third person. She sighed.

Tanya would find out the answers to those questions sometime soon, probably. For now, she needed to find that Hero Candidate.

When asked about the location of a new one, Luna had given her an amused look that Tanya couldn't decipher, spouting something off about 'hero-worship' and 'nobles,' and then finishing the statement with a wiry, "No."

Tanya had tried to decipher those odd comments she got from time to time. No matter how hard she tried, she didn't know why people kept saying the word 'noble' around her.

She obviously wasn't a part of this world's nobility; she wore regular clothing, didn't have a lot of money, and didn't have whatever governmental jobs the nobles had here likely held.

It wasn't her looks, either; the only blond-haired people she knew were herself, Darkness, and Dust. They weren't nobles, if Darkness's perversions and Dust's general demeanor were anything to go by.

Tanya clicked her tongue as she remembered that wasn't entirely true. She was _technically _a noble in the Empire, but earning that title through the War College was hardly anything, as far as nobles went.

Tanya shook her head. It wasn't the time to lament about her past. A Reincarnate was running around, and had been doing so for a few hours. The sun was beginning to set, and the city was darkening. She needed to find them.

She would check with the Blacksmith first; Tanya didn't doubt that some Reincarnate might hit the weapons shop before going to the guild.

Tanya walked, idly surveying the passersby. They seemed to be generally happy, and Tanya couldn't fault them for liking the lack of monsters that made their lives easier.

She would need to put a stop to that, though. Snuffing out the lives of strong monsters – like the Demon King's General – was only expected, and she would complete her job as perfectly as she always did.

Strolling along, she almost missed it. The people of this land had hair colored to be anything but brown or black or blonde – she'd seen people with purple, white, neon pink, and everything else that could be found on a rainbow – or something that was even _more _outlandish, magically altered to be eye-catching. One head of brown hair was unremarkable, even if it did stand out for how not-odd it was.

But Tanya saw it anyway. A tingle of something familiar in her Observation spells – more than the dreaded feeling of heavenly mana that she had learned to recognize after years of using the Type 95 – drove her to look around.

She smiled in anticipation. It must have been the Observation spells catching a whiff of a relic of some sort.

She had seen many of those, after all.

She followed the trail.

Axel wasn't exactly crowded, even when the Festival had been going on, so it shouldn't have been hard, but no matter how hard she tried, her prey kept escaping around another corner, ducking passed her line of sight at the last moment.

It was vexing, but it also spoke of experience.

Tanya narrowed her eyes and sighed, disgusted with herself for taking so long to think of the obvious solution. She ran into a nearby alley, and repeated the trick she had done with Dust, using the air above the dark alleyways to cut corners and try to find her quarry.

They were fast – they must have had some sort of relic that increased their speed – but Tanya caught up eventually. They stopped, and Tanya spotted them.

They were sitting down on the curb of the road, looking out into the city at various shops, head swiveling around constantly, not looking behind them. Tanya smirked, and took aim with her rifle.

They were more of an amateur than she thought, then.

A faint blip on her Observation spell told her that she wasn't safe, and Tanya threw up her Active Barrier.

A shot rang out, slamming into the back of her shield.

Tanya, only a fraction of a second from spinning around and launching a bullet into the space behind her, froze.

An illusion was in front of her? She had heard a _shot?_

"Who are you? Why are you following me?" came a panicked voice from behind her.

It was light, lighter than one might expect for someone handling a firearm in a dark alley.

But… Tanya knew that voice.

She knew how it rose in pitch whenever its owner encountered a situation they didn't expect, like right now.

She knew how it sounded as it gave commands and received them over a radio.

She knew how, half asleep, it groggily but diligently asked what was troubling her enough that she would wake from her sleep, shouting obscenities or crying.

She knew how, when Tanya's own voice had trembled when she had first told the voice she was terrified of the Bloody Valkyrie, it had bolstered her with unwavering conviction.

She _knew_ that voice.

The urge to do something stupid, like fall back on the regulations of the Empire and demand her rank, flew out of her mind as fast they had entered. The possibility of Being X masquerading as this person was too high.

Tanya turned around slowly, lowering her hood and trembling. She didn't even try to hide the look of shock that she was sure was plastered on her face.

"Viktoriya?"

A gun clattered to the ground in front of her, and the form her faithful adjunct stared at her. Tanya's own rifle clattered to the ground, and Tanya reached out a hand, running towards the frozen woman.

They embraced.

The vestigial thought that it could be _anyone_ other than Viktoriya left as she was held. No one else held her like this.

Tanya sniffed.

She had used her anger and sadness at her situation to her advantage, reminiscing on the thoughts of her dead comrades on her first night in her third life, to extract information about Axel from Lynn, Taylor, and Keith.

She had used those same feelings to stimulate her tears in the past three weeks, to dupe whichever adventurers looked like saps.

Tanya was sure she might have even cried when she was impaled.

This was different. It wasn't faked masquerade or a response to pain.

It was relief at having something familiar back. It was joy at seeing her and holding her again.

It was a mirror of what had happened in Moskva.

She didn't stop it or clamp down on her emotions. This was Viktoriya; she could trust her sister-in-arms with anything.

So, she cried. Long and hard, letting out everything and holding nothing back.

Just sobbing.

They sat there for a while. Not speaking. Ignoring the falling sun and the rising night.

Just standing, waiting.

Viktoriya spoke first. "Not that I dislike this, Colonel, but…" she trailed off. Tanya smiled softly to herself, sniffing loudly. She didn't even know where to begin, but snapping at her for calling Tanya by her old rank wasn't the way to go about it.

"It's alright, Serebryakov. I assume you met Aqua…" she trailed off. The woman nodded, and both continued to speak softly to each other.

Another moment passed, and Tanya pulled away slightly. Hesitantly. "It's been so long…" she muttered.

Viktoriya's eyebrows furrowed. "It's only been a few hours at most, right? We were just in Dresdun. I died fighting the Cordiale."

Tanya shook her head. "It's been over two months for me," she said, clutching at Viktoriya again and all the harder at the reminder of how long it had been.

The woman stiffened, and Tanya leaned back and looked up at her expression.

"But…" she trailed off. She pulled away, and Tanya let go, hesitantly.

Tanya, blushing, straightened her clothes. She shook her head, remembering how different she had been at the beginning of that damned war.

Cold, calculating, and utterly obsessed with viewing people as resources.

Trying to be the 'perfect soldier' and cutting off as many emotions as she could was… irrational. People have emotions, and not utilizing the hatred she felt towards Being X on the part of the ones she cared for was as irrational as it was to ignore them, especially with how potent said hatred had grown to become.

Yes, the possibility of her anger overriding her logic, self-interest, and reason was _there_. However, she was using those emotions to _enhance _the conclusions of her logic.

She wouldn't be overcome with them.

Besides, she'd been shown the benefit of using emotions by others. The François's insistence on continuing the war had been the beginning, and throughout the war, both of Being X's premier pawns had shown the effectiveness of utilizing their anger and emotions. Tanya was proud to say that she could use her anger too.

And Tanya had an ample amount of _that_ to burn through.

As Viktoriya brought something out of her slightly burnt clothing, Tanya's blood froze.

It was a contract.

It was _that_ contract.

Before she could warn her, ask her not to look, plead with her to not bring it out, she already had. Shock, fear, sorrow, all of it mingling together into one confused mess.

Then, nothing. Her face had adopted that stony poker face Tanya had helped her improve, that had been a part of how she was able to win any card game the others challenged her to.

Tanya just stood there, trying to say something, anything.

Then Tanya lowered her outstretched hand, standing stock still with shoulders hunched. Let her make her own decisions.

Face blank and white as a piece of printer paper, the woman looked up. "Tan- Is thi-" she tried to say. The look of guilt on Tanya's face confirmed her fears.

Indecision bloomed for a moment, and then Viktoriya grasped the contract firmly, crumpling it.

Tanya made up her mind. She wouldn't be silent. She tried for one of her more apologetic voices "Would you have believed me? It sounds _so_… outrageous, and no sane-"

"Yes."

Tanya stopped, blinking rapidly.

What?

_What?_

She understood the shock on Tanya's face. "Tanya von Degurechaff. We've been through too much. You've saved me too much, and I've helped you some too. Maybe not nearly as much as you have, but… I've done my best. I would do anything for you."

Taking another look at the disfigured contract, Viktoriya shook her head, smiling ruefully and ignoring the tears stinging the corners of her eyes. "I couldn't hurt you, no matter the fake moniker. Devil of the Rhine, White Silver, Mithril-"

"_Don't_ call me that."

Viktoriya was cut off, and sympathy flashed across her face.

Tanya ignored it, too focused on what she told herself was anger. Tanya couldn't help snapping, though; with flashes of handcuffs made of that material dancing across her mind, she wouldn't let anyone call her _that _name again.

Not even Viktoriya could cure the… _taint_.

"…Sorry. But the point still stands. Tanya von Degurechaff, or even… The Atheist. I couldn't hurt you, Tanya, be…"

A brief look of confusion passed over her face, and then-

She dropped to the ground, screaming in pain.

Writhing.

Flailing.

Tanya moved. Terror etched into her face, Tanya tried to figure out what had happened, deploying Observation spells. She wasn't hurt, but-

She stopped, panic frozen. Viktoriya didn't have an item, which meant…

Tanya extended her hands, screaming. "HEAL!"

The screaming seemed to subside into heavy breathing for a moment, but then it started again. Tanya swore pain and death and everything against Being X and Aqua and whoever, flooding mana into both of her relics.

"HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!"

Every time she cast it, Viktoriya only began to scream louder afterwards. Tanya whipped out her Adventurer's Card, looking at the Heal skill and the points she had.

The brief lament that she was giving up so many Skill Points flashed through her mind, and Tanya screamed in anger at the selfish thought, watching as all nine of them disappeared. She felt herself being altered, but she ignored it, turning back to Viktoriya.

"HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!"

The screaming was beginning to subside, but it was still too much. Tears flowing down her face once again, she began to chant.

"**Oh Lord, please grant this lowly believer the power to save one more devout than itself!"**

She felt the power fill her, and she began to scream angrily as she flooded more mana into the Circlet, ignoring the halo that she didn't care enough about to stop from appearing.

"_**HEAL!**_"

A moment passed, and the screaming and pain subsided as the light from her hands intensified.

It all stopped, and Viktoriya began to break down into sobs. Tanya collapsed, noting detachedly that she was crying with her.

Mana flowed back into her body from the Circlet and the Type 95, and Tanya dry-heaved as she gripped the body of Viktoriya.

"Don't leave me again, Visha. Please. _Please_"

She sat there, for a moment, waiting. The body below her didn't stir, for a moment, and then it took a shuddering breath.

"I told you I couldn't hurt you, Tanya."

Tanya cried out again, gripping the tattered clothing of Viktoriya. Again, they rested, and Tanya didn't let go this time.

-OxOxO-

An hour of lying there was all Tanya could take, and she decided to try and bring the unconscious Viktoriya to shelter. She fished her own rifle and Viktoriya's pistol from the floor of the alley, and began to survey the streets.

The sun was completely down, and the streets were dark. Tanya knew that she could fight off any of the riffraff normally, but she was running on fumes.

She had few options. They had strayed too far from the Blacksmith's shop and the guild, and she didn't even know the way to the Eris Cult's residence.

Troubled for a moment and wondering if she would need to break into someone's house, Tanya gasped in delight as she remembered another person she could call on.

Lifting up Viktoriya, Tanya carried her, bridal style, through the streets of Axel, trying to find the shop where she had bought the key to her weapon.

Fifteen minutes passed, and Tanya was panting laboriously. She was almost out of mana, but she'd make it, regardless of how many spells she had to reinforce herself with and the long term damage they might do.

She owed Viktoriya that much.

They arrived at the darkened store, and Tanya cursed. The place was closed.

Muttering an apology to Wiz under her breath, she kicked the door next to the handle, sweeping into the shop, and placing Viktoriya in a seat at the small, white table present in the store. She fished her Circlet of Greatness out of her shirt, and she funneled a bit of mana into it, lighting the room and holding it high.

No one. She must have been at the cemetery, then. Tanya cast another look towards Viktoriya, who seemed to be resting more easily. Tanya sat down next to her, trying to rest herself. She was tired.

For a moment, her eyes drifted shut. She was _really _tired, actually…

After just resting her eyes for a moment, Tanya was jolted to life by a high-pitched shout. She shot up, fumbling with the gun that was resting in her lap. Tanya calmed down in a moment, looking at Wiz.

Right. Unlike the way she had probably left it, the door was broken in – and Tanya probably wouldn't have been able to do it if it weren't for how little crime there was in Axel and how that lack of crime led to a lack of paranoid security – and two people were still there, taking a nap and ignoring the door they had broken down.

Tanya didn't exactly have a way to defend herself, so she chose a much simpler interaction to give herself time to think.

"Hi."

The broken look on Wiz's face as she looked at the door, hanging off of its hinges and illuminated in the early light of the day, tugged at Tanya's heart. She winced, berating herself; she'd left herself and Viktoriya undefended.

"Sorry?" she provided.

Wiz looked rather dejected. "Now I'll have to borrow even more money to break even…" she trailed off.

Tanya winced again, and she brought out a large bag of money. She had been planning to give it to whichever Reincarnate came through, after she took their weapon, but since it was Viktoriya, she didn't need to give her anything.

"Here some money for the door, and I'd like to buy more of those explosive potions, please," she said, offering it. Wiz's face lit up, relief flooding it. She took the money gladly, walked into her shop, turned on the magical lamp above their heads with a flick of her wrist, and began to make herself busy behind the counter.

Then, looking down at Viktoriya, she added, "And anything that'll restore mana. My friend needs it."

As the sounds of Wiz moving about reached Tanya's ears, she heard them fade slowly. Her gaze wavered from Viktoriya, looking at Wiz curiously. She was looking rather conflicted about something.

Tanya almost groaned out loud; she really didn't want even _more_ problems to deal with.

"Well, I suppose it's fine if I tell you… You have bought lots of stuff, and you even came back…" Wiz muttered. Lit by the bright light of the lamp and the rising sun, Tanya looked at the odd Archmage.

She had bought stuff from the woman _exactly _twice, and she had only bought five things last time. Was that _really _considered a lot of time and money to spend on the shop?

Apparently it was. Wiz walked forward, clasping her hands in front of her still-ridiculous chest, and took a deep breath.

"I'm actually a Lich." She said this earnestly, eyes shining with a hint of resignation or apprehension.

Tanya was sure this was some sort of deep, dark, secret, but she had no idea what that meant. What's a Lich?

Wait. Something from earlier that day – no, yesterday, the sun that was rising in the window told her – tickled her mind. Something Lynn or one of the others had said…

Finally she remembered. "That's a type of undead, right?"

Wiz blinked, and she gave a halfhearted laugh of nervousness. "She says 'a type of undead?' like we aren't the strongest ones around, heh…"

Wiz trailed off as the skeptical look on Tanya's face didn't fade in the slightest. Wiz's cheeks puffed up indignantly. "Hey, we are! We have tons of special skills, we're invulnerable to physical attack, and we have tons of mana!"

Tanya just blinked. She opened her mouth slowly. "You don't exactly give off the feeling of 'life-hating' monster to me. You'll have to excuse me if I'm not terrified of a pale shop owner who can't seem to sell very much, if _I'm_ considered some sort of valued and trusted customer."

The woman's pale cheeks lit up as much as they probably could, but the deep embarrassment on her downturned head didn't match how little blood was flowing into her cheeks.

Tanya shook her head. "Whatever. Can you help her?" Tanya asked again. Wiz still seemed confused.

"Don't you get it? I'm a Lich."

_Twitch._

Tanya pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, I couldn't care less; if you were the Demon King himself, I wouldn't care," she said, angrily staring at the woman.

"If you can help her, you will."

Tanya tightened the grip on her gun. The woman knew how to help Viktoriya, if she was revealing a secret with the expectation that Tanya would mystically realize how Wiz could help. She was helping Viktoriya, one way or another.

Even if the amount of mana the shop owner was suddenly giving off was very intimidating.

Then, the mana seemed to evaporate, and Wiz was just staring at her, puzzled.

Still seemingly confused as to her ambivalence to her true nature, Wiz pulled down the collar of Viktoriya's clothing. Tanya grit her teeth as she watched her lay a hand on the defenseless Viktoriya's shoulder, but she stayed silent.

"Drain Touch."

Suddenly, shining specks of light burst into life, seemingly inside of the lich. Before she could ask, the light steadily traveled through the woman's outstretched arm, into the girl seated in the chair.

Slowly, the woman's eyes ground open. They seemed confused, for a moment, and then widened. "Tanya-" was all she could get out, and then Tanya muffled her sentence by pouncing on her.

"Viktoriya!" she cried. She was okay. She had mana. She wasn't some sort of catatonic mental patient, and she hadn't been killed.

Tanya's Heal had managed to save the last person with a skill instead of a weapon, but it had taken an hour. Tanya had ambushed them when they were returning to the guild, and she was thankful that she hadn't had to listen to Viktoriya scream for that long.

Tanya didn't know if she could take something like that.

Stiffly, Viktoriya held her, laughing with Tanya at the absurdity of the situation and the joy they felt. It seemed that they were alone in the world.

Of course, they weren't. Wiz looked very curious as to who could be this close to someone the town was calling a 'Detonation Devil' and 'Evil.'

How the kind Tanya had gotten that last nickname, Wiz had no idea, but she ignored it.

Wiz finished using Drain Touch, and quietly backed off from the clearly emotional pair. They didn't seem to be willing to part, so she rose from the crouching position she had taken and made her way to the shelves of the store, looking for those potions that Tanya was clearly fond of.

Meanwhile, Tanya tried to suppress the growing embarrassment she was feeling about gripping onto Viktoriya for so long, and decided that they had been doing that long enough. She pulled away, and she straightened her cap.

Now that she had a moment and wasn't feeling as tired as before, Viktoriya took a moment to survey Tanya. Instead of the uniform she had worn for as long as Viktoriya could remember, she was instead wearing something much more casual, at least to her eyes.

A green mantle with a hood and bordered with a yellow lining adorned the girl's shoulders, and she wore a plain, thin white shirt with a belt of some kind across her front, travelling from her waist to her shoulder. A glimmer of bright yellow from one of the pockets told Viktoriya that they probably had extra clips in them.

Plain, unremarkable black pants held up by a simple brown belt and what looked to be her standard issue boots clothed her bottom half, while gray evening gloves clothed her hands.

Overall, it was quite different from the uniformed superior she had always known. But Viktoriya didn't really mind; it was nice to see Tanya let her hair down a bit, figuratively speaking.

Tanya cleared her throat, and Viktoriya blushed a bit, realizing she had been caught staring. Tanya chuckled. "It's no problem, Viktoriya. I'm aware this isn't exactly standard issue, but we don't exactly have denim jeans in this fantasy-land."

Viktoriya nodded, and licked her lips indecisively. Tanya winced; she knew they needed to have a discussion about where they were.

And other things, like how she wasn't exactly _just _sixteen years old.

She opened her mouth for a moment, before a sly grin overcame her face, and words spoken in the Empire marched from her mouth. "_I know you probably have a number of questions, but we should probably wait." _

Tanya motioned her head towards the oblivious shopkeeper, who was gathering her potions. Viktoriya nodded. She hadn't been told this stuff for years; she could wait a few moments more.

Tanya walked over to Wiz and tapped her on the back. "How many potions will I be getting for so much money?"

The shopkeeper turned around, touching her fingers together nervously. "Well…considering the number you're buying in bulk, you should be able to get five."

Tanya blinked, stopping short of gaping at what her math told her. "You're making me pay thirty thousand for each? It was only ten thousand during the festival!" she exclaimed.

She was all for the free market, of course, and Wiz raising the prices in response to Tanya's demand wasn't exactly criminal, especially in a fantasy land that hadn't heard of the term 'laissez-faire'. Still, that seemed like a very _generous_ markup.

Wiz whimpered and said, "The festival means that we need to take down the prices, since it's supposed to be a time of goodwill…"

Tanya could hear Viktoriya mutter, "Potions?" from behind her, but Tanya would explain that soon enough.

"Fine, fine," she muttered, taking the potions on the counter and walking back over to Viktoriya. Tanya needed to get her introduced to the guild.

Tanya walked out of the door, and a shout of the woman's name brought Viktoriya out of the building, walking just behind her. Wiz looked on, wondering if another customer would visit that knew something about Tanya's friend.

After walking through the dimly lit streets of Axel for five minutes in complete silence, Tanya turned around. "Alright, stop. I'm not your commanding officer anymore; you can walk next to me," she said, Viktoriya bowed her head, and Tanya bit back the urge to reprimand her for being so apologetic.

She wasn't apologetic to anyone but her; it was a habit she must have picked up after so many years of being her adjutant.

"We're going to be dropping this stuff off at the Blacksmith's and then I'm going to get you registered with the guild," she said, motioning towards the potions gripped tightly in her hands.

Viktoriya, amused, half-asked "Potions?"

Tanya sighed. "Alright. It might come as a bit of a shock, but this world is much more like a…" Tanya trailed off.

She wasn't well versed in fiction by any stretch of the imagination, and she had no idea what might fit that genre in the perspective of a girl from the 1920s. She shrugged. She'd try her best.

"It's much more like the superstitions about magic; there are potions, most people who can use magic need to chant to use a spell, absolutely none of it has _anything _to do with mathematical formulas like in our world, and there is much more… _diversity_," she explained. Viktoriya looked confused, so Tanya sighed and continued.

"Right. I'm not exactly an expert, but there's magic that can shoot fire, water, create ice, explosions, wind… there are ways for people to reanimate corpses, the Demon King's fortress is sealed behind a giant magical barrier, things like that."

Viktoriya blinked. "Did you just say reanimate the dead?" she asked, mingling fear and skepticism bleeding through her voice. Tanya nodded silently, stepping into the Blacksmith's shop that Tanya had brought them to.

"Yeah. It might be a bit weird, but I think it's pretty interesting." Tanya walked in, giving a passing wave to the Blacksmith, who seemed to be staring at the potions in her hands for some reason, and stashing her potions underneath the tarp. As she came back out from the back, the Blacksmith's questioning gaze reminded her of something.

He didn't really know that she was using his back room as a storage room, did he?

She smiled weakly. "Uhh…"

An eyebrow raised, he began. "Well, while I might be concerned with why you have so many explosive potions – and don't deny it, that box has the word _explosives _on it – I'll waive it, since you're a smart girl and you're going to be paying me to house them here," he said, pity and clarity mingling in his eyes.

"What I am more interested in is who this woman here is," he said turning towards Viktoriya. The woman blushed and waved cutely, but other than that didn't respond.

Tanya saw the man's eyes flicker downwards, toward Viktoriya's chest, and Tanya attracted his attention with a very pointed cough.

"That is… my best friend. While she might be too modest to say anything, I have no such quarrels," she said, staring coldly into his eyes. He tried to look away, or back at Viktoriya, but Tanya gripped the man's chin forcefully.

Tanya, staring into the eyes of the Blacksmith, missed the blush on Viktoriya's face, as well as the saddened look she sent at the floor that soon followed it.

"Stare at her like that again and I'll make sure the police will regret investigating the crime. Understand?" Tanya threatened, making sure to keep her tone level and quiet.

Shouting at people was much less effective than making sure to let them know that you're within full control of your facilities and still making a serious threat.

He nodded slowly, and Tanya brightened up. "Good. Come on Viktoriya, we need to get you registered."

With that, they left his store, leaving the Blacksmith to seriously reconsider if he should let the girl use his shop.

His mind flashed back to her expression of total contempt, and he decided that he was sure he'd regret throwing her out as well.

-OxOxO-

Soon enough, they arrived at the guild. A subdued atmosphere brought on by the lack of people greeted the pair of Reincarnates as they strode into the guild. They were ignored by most – it was morning, but the rush of adventurers preparing for quests had already passed, leaving only timid, new adventurers that had only joined recently and people like Dust, who were only too happy to be drunk for as much of the day as possible.

Tanya walked purposefully up to Luna, who seemed curious at the presence behind Tanya.

Whenever she got quests, she was never accompanied by the silver-haired Thief or the Crusader. Who was this person that Luna had never even seen?

Uncaring of her inquiring smile, Tanya introduced her companion. "We're here to get her an Adventurer's Card, if you would please."

Luna's face lit up, and she brought out the device that allowed for new cards to be created. "Wonderful! I'll give you the introduction."

After that, a whirlwind of instructions and facts passed, making even Tanya blink. She'd come a long way since that first night, when she'd gotten her own introduction.

"Any questions?" the receptionist asked.

Viktoriya seemed like she had questions, but, in response to her questioning look, Tanya shook her head. She would explain everything if she had any questions.

"If you'll just hold your hand above the crystal?" she asked, gesturing towards the device. Skeptically, Viktoriya placed her hand above it, and gasped as it swirled to life. Tanya smiled nostalgically as she thought back to her own introduction.

Wait…

Tanya's eyes widened. Right, Viktoriya had killed people as well, which probably showed up on the card. Tanya searched her memory, confused.

Had she failed to check if the card showed the number of humans you killed?

She sighed. She'd been putting it off because she was just a bit scared of the number of people she had killed – it was over two hundred, at least – but she needed to know now.

She looked at her card, tapping the small box that said 'KILLS.' This box was checked by the machine in the back automatically whenever Luna pushed a card into it when she was confirming quests, but Tanya knew that that information was mainly stored on the card. Dust had taken the time to boast about the number of Goblins he had killed, and he had presented his card as proof to his drinking buddies.

She looked at the list. Slimes, Giant Toads, Squirrels, Goblins, and numerous other low-level monsters that were easily killed, if one knew what they were doing. Finally, she reached it.

Humans…

Tanya blanched as she read the number next to it, and then she felt a bit of bile building up in the back of her throat. She'd killed… _how_ many people?

No matter how many times she blinked, or rubbed her eyes, or waved the card around, the number didn't change.

Tanya let a hiss of air out between her teeth. This was… ridiculous and, quite frankly, disgusting, but she didn't doubt it _was _possible.

She had never thought about who she had killed beyond the Aerial Mages she fought. She had expected it to be in the hundreds, not…

She sighed. With what they had been forced to do in Arenne and on the Eastern Front, however…

She shook her head. The Adventurer's Card couldn't be forcibly altered, as far as she knew, which meant she knew exactly how many people she had killed during the war.

Hand shaking, she tapped the minimize icon on the square of text, and stood abruptly. Viktoriya hadn't killed that many people, obviously, but the risk of being tried and executed for mass murder was high.

The card finished, and Tanya tapped her foot as Luna began to read out the woman's stats. "Wonderful! You have pretty good stats all around, with a large spike in your Magic-Power and Intelligence, and Below Average Agility."

She nodded, and Tanya swiped the card from Luna, presenting it to Viktoriya. Tanya began to distract Luna, hoping to play off the action.

Luna was staring at her, annoyance present in her smile, and Tanya waved her hand. "Sorry. I remember what it was like to have you talk about that stuff without being able to see it."

Luna, mid nod, had her gaze dragged to Viktoriya, along with Tanya's. The woman was blushing and had just made a rather loud exclamation in Russy that Tanya wasn't familiar with, which meant she had just said something _very_ bad.

Tanya, about to ask, stopped. When Tanya had been looking at her own card, the description it had decided to provide about herself had surprised her. That was it, then.

Tanya ignored Viktoriya. "Now, I was wondering if you have any quests you'd like us to take care of. I can get Darkness and Chris, so party size isn't the question, with all four of us."

Luna looked down at Tanya appraisingly. "She still needs a job."

Tanya waved her concern off. "She'll be an Adventurer."

Luna's shrank back for a moment, and Tanya prepared herself as she saw an eye begin to twitch.

Luna didn't like that idea. "Absolutely not," she bit out, her smile now plastic and in place.

"I might have lost _you _to that weak, stupid job, but I'll not lose someone else. If you have so much confidence in her and if she has a lot of the same skills you do, she's close to you in ability, right?" she asked, gripping Tanya's shoulders.

Tanya brushed the woman's grip off easily, pulling Viktoriya towards her. "She'll be taking the Adventurer job, Luna."

Tanya heard a foot stamp from behind the counter, and Tanya shrank back. She'd never done something so childish. "No! Please, Serebryakov, think about this decision. Becoming an Adventurer when you could become an Archmage, an Archpriest, a Ranger, or even an Enchanter is ludicrous! Don't listen to her!"

Viktoriya tilted her head, and Tanya began to speak in Germanian once more. "_We need that job. Everything we do – from cast spells to shoot guns – is intrinsically linked together. If you choose a single class, you'll lose access to important skills."_

Viktoriya nodded, and, in whatever the language of Belzerg was called – Bezergian wasn't likely an option, since the people here expected foreigners to be fluent in the language as well – replied to Luna's questioning glares that were Tanya for speaking a language she didn't understand. "I'll be an Adventurer, please."

She presented her card, and Luna groaned, pressing down on the box in the right-hand corner, selecting Adventurer. Tanya smirked, and Viktoriya quickly snatched her card back.

Tanya and Viktoriya beamed at each other, and Luna interrupted their moment. "You said you wanted a quest, right? How about one of the durians?"

"Durian?" both adventurers echoed.

Luna smirked, and an uneasy feeling settled in Tanya's gut. The woman was obviously mad at her for making another person take the path of an Adventurer.

"They're quests no one wants to take for… whatever reason. We've either put a low amount of money on them to dissuade inexperienced adventurers, they contain unspeakably strong opponents, or they have some possibly immoral actions that need to be done."

Viktoriya backed off, but Tanya only tilted her head in thought. She was sure they could take anything this odd world could throw at them. And if they couldn't, they'd just refuse. "Sure thing! What have you got?"

Luna's eye twitched at Tanya's jovial attitude, but she retrieved a clipboard from underneath the counter. "Take your pick. If you can't do one, I'm sure both of you could take a _different _job and take on any quest easily."

Tanya began to cycle through them, unaware of how Viktoriya was looking between her and at the description of herself on her Adventurer's Card.

A Griffon and a Manticore seemed to be a bit too strong, even for her. She'd definitely have to use the Type 95, and Viktoriya could get seriously hurt.

Exorcising a spirit was out, since neither of them had any skills that affected spirits and Tanya wasn't about to pick up any.

_Do reconnaissance on the Tranquility Princess…_

"Tranquility Princess?" Tanya asked the receptionist. Luna smirked.

"Yes. Tranquility Girls are high-experience plant monsters that take on the appearance of girls in order to lull their prey, humans, into staying by their side. They'll feel attached to the girl, and won't attack it. Most can't even bring themselves to think of harming them, while those worst affected by their charm either carry out the plant's will or become its fertilizer," Luna explained, smirking.

She probably thought that the two girls in front of her would be overcome with emotion, but Tanya thought this sounded pretty good. If looking human was their only defense they were going to be very easy pickings for two veterans of World War One.

"Additionally, they provide food for their prey. It isn't, however, something you want to eat. It'll wreak havoc on your central nervous system, making you lose all pain and hunger."

Tanya blinked at the suddenly advanced terminology, but she was soon considering the task once more. Viktoriya, head tilted, asked, "Why don't people exterminate them, then? There have to be some people that will do anything for money."

Luna scowled, and then sent a speculative glance over Tanya's shoulder. She followed her gaze and found that Dust was begging his friends for money.

…Yeah, he might do it.

Luna sighed. "The elderly and terminally ill will often seek them out, wishing for an easy death, and this particular monster has been interviewed by numerous adventurers, and all of them swear that it only wants to kill those that seek it out. We're still not convinced, and this one's forest has become a suicide hotspot."

The anger and desire for revenge that had been present slowly drained away, leaving only resigned acceptance in the receptionist's voice. "It's decreasing the reputation of the guild to have a monster that close, and the logging guild is getting… insistent that we kill it."

Tanya nodded, and then smirked wickedly. "We'll take it. Don't worry, you won't have to worry about it again."

Luna blinked, suddenly looking at Tanya nervously. "Act- actually, we just want you to go and interrogate it. If it's true to its word, then we don't really want to remove it, since older adventurers only have a violent death to look forward to."

Tanya froze. "Uhh…"

Attempting to ignore the problem – she had just admitted to being very okay with killing something human-shaped, if she got paid well – and knowing that Luna would probably never forget this, Tanya handed the clipboard back to Luna and then muttered, "Can we have a map?"

Luna nodded, bringing out a compact map of Axel and the surrounding land. A key in the corner told her that the shaded regions were their breeding grounds – deep inside forests, close to a water source of some sort, and close to smaller trails, while there were several red marks in the shape of an 'x' told her where ones had probably been defeated.

"The one you're going to interview is west of Axel," she said, pointing towards a large swath of land that was entirely shaded. It seemed to be a noticeable fraction of the size of Axel, at least one-tenth of its size.

Tanya nodded. "Are there any other ones you want us to look into?" she asked. Luna pointed to several spots on the map.

"There's rumored to be one on the road from Arcanretia and the Crimson Demon Village, and there are a few other places that might have one. Otherwise, we don't know for sure," she said, pointing to a section of shaded forest near the edge of the map.

Tanya blinked. "Crimson Demons?"

Luna interpreted her expression. "Crimson Demons are a type of modified humans, despite the name. No one's sure how, but all of them have a massive amount of Magic-Power – rivaling yours – black hair, and red eyes. Some think they're all crazy, while others believe that a town full of Archmages couldn't possibly be as eccentric as a scant few people claim they are."

Tanya nodded. That seemed interesting, but going at least one town over from Axel seemed to be a long way, with how their Flight spells now acted. She'd get that one later, when she had other business or when she finally figured out a way to get the Reincarnates to stop coming after her permanently.

"They have clearings around them, right?" Tanya asked, moving on. Luna nodded slowly, squinting at Tanya. She just smiled.

She wasn't about to tell the receptionist that they could survey the land from above and find them that way.

"Alright then. We'll be off!" she said, leaving the guild. They began to walk back through Axel, when Viktoriya, walking reservedly by her side, piped up. "I don't have many bullets left…"

Tanya spun around, scowling. "Where's your rifle? You said you died fighting the Cordiale, right? I don't think you did it with that peashooter," she said, pointing to the pistol Viktoriya grasped in her right hand.

Viktoriya shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't been able to find my Type 97 either," she admitted. Tanya scowled, and then looked at the woman's clothing.

Sure enough, while the white undershirt that she wore was intact, the outer clothing she hadn't shed yet seemed a bit tattered. "Maybe the Type 97 detonated?" Tanya offered. Viktoriya nodded slowly.

It was an explanation both were willing to accept, and in no time at all, they had reached the gates of Axel. "What about your friends?" Viktoriya asked.

Tanya turned to her, a question on her face. "You said something about a 'Chris' and 'Darkness,' right?"

Tanya nodded. "I did. Unfortunately, we're going to be using _our_ magic to complete this. I haven't been able to find any hints that the people of this world have figured out how to fly, so we probably don't want to broadcast that we can," she said, flashing her Adventurer's Card to the guards by the gate. They both waved her through amiably, gazes lingering on Viktoriya.

Tanya scowled at them, but she moved on. They had a quest to complete, and these quests were probably very profitable. This would be a good score, and their spells ensured that anything plant-based wouldn't survive for long.

-OxOxO-

If it were ever seated at a table – not that anyone had ever done something as stupid as to bring one of those this deep into the forest – many would mistake it for human, at first glance.

By design, it looked very much like a beautiful human woman: flawless, pearly skin, long brown hair, a piece of clothing that showed a large amount of skin while also hiding anything _too_ risqué, and a few accessories, like a flower in its hair and three gold bands on its right arm.

But the similarities ended when one looked closer: its hair looked thicker than any hair could actually be, and the clothing looked too good, too perfectly maintained, for someone this far in the forest. Two triangular lines – a deep, dark green that no one could tell was anything other than black – rose from its jawline and ended near its eyes. Its ears were pointed, peeking out of its hair, and the flower in its hair looked far too healthy to have been picked and used as some token of affection.

Still, people could easily mistake it for a human, or some sort of crossbreed between a human and a beastman.

Of course, if one looked below its waist, they would discover the falsehood of its appearance: it had nothing but roots. Younger tranquility girls took the full appearance of a human, but it had no need to look weak. It had several humans who took pity on it and helped it keep the forest clear.

It smirked. Yes… the 'forest'. It was amusing that they thought of the surroundings as anything other than an extension of itself.

In truth, it could probably leave the human-looking portion of its body dormant and solely subsist on the light of the sun, leaving behind any resemblance to a monster they recognized.

But while it might be able to feed like that, without the reputation of a suicide hotspot keeping away loggers, it had no doubt that she would be torn down or infested with monsters.

Besides, becoming a bunch of trees was so _boring_.

It smiled. And how entertaining _this_ would be. Being the forest, it knew that two people were approaching its human portion, coming from the direction of the nearest town. It was sure that it could convince anyone into leaving itself be, at least.

The last few people that ineffective guild had sent to determine her intentions had become quite willing to do as it wished, after a few moments of reasoned thought and, in one case, bribery.

Voices floated on the wind, drifting into the things that resembled ears on its head. "…keep your spells active. It seems we're getting close."

It smiled. A female; this would be all too easy. They were usually at least somewhat moved by its 'duty'.

"Welcome, travelers. Have you come seeking an easy death, or are you lost?"

No one was lost. The road that did go through this forest was clearly marked, and it would be almost impossible for them to somehow wander off of it.

Unless it was feeling bored and obscured the path using the forest; that was fun.

"Or have you come to see… _me_?" it asked. The dark-haired, dark-eyed adventurers that could never kill it and always helped the most in clearing its woods had said this line would entice any who had heard it. She was knowledgeable about humans, and that line worked a lot, for some reason.

It smiled bashfully, staring right at the pair.

Tanya smirked. She loved being right. "As you can see, it's already trying to entice us. Just keep your Oxygen Conversion spell active; I know it's somewhat taxing without a Computation Jewel, but even if we'll only be here a few moments, the chances of it having some sort of airborne poison or drug or aphrodisiac are high."

Tanya ignored its words, its body, and the way it was staring at them. She knew better. "Hello. As part of a quest by the guild, we are here to conduct an interview to ascertain your intentions. We are also authorized to exterminate you, if need be, so please don't act aggressively."

It nodded. This one seemed sharper than most. "Of course! Just don't touch my roots; they're deadly to humans and oblivious to my feelings," it said, staring down sadly. Tanya nodded quickly and set down the backpack the guild had foisted upon her.

It sniffed, but said nothing else, studying the two woman. They were both using magic – the air was different around them – and it didn't know what it was. More importantly, it was trying to figure out how to convince them to leave it be.

It turned to the brown haired one. Unlike the short, mean one, she seemed to be more curious instead of wary.

That was good; it could build on that.

Turning to the taller, plumper woman, it beckoned closer with an arm. "Don't be shy; I don't harm anyone who doesn't desire to be released from life. Just mind the roots."

Slowly, the girl approached, looking curiously at the roots and tree trunk that made up her lower body. It smiled.

The woman paused, casting a glance at the turned back of her superior, before pointing towards its roots. "How far do those extend for? Do you have to…" she paused, making an uncomfortable expression, "help many people?"

It laughed lightly, smiling warmly. It was time to figure out how far it could take this. "Quite a way. Thank you for being so concerned with my health." The woman nodded, and the small one turned around, carrying something.

From within, she brought out the magic item she had seen on the inside of the police station, and held it flat in her palm. It tried to feign ignorance. "What is that?"

Tanya smirked. "Oh, you don't need to be concerned, unless it rings," she said.

The plant nodded, smiling. "Okay. I'm just a monster, so I know that you don't trust me."

Its eyes hadn't moved from the thing held in her palm, and Tanya was sure it knew exactly what the item was. The chance that the thing didn't know what it was was small, but Tanya would be even happier.

Tanya narrowed her eyes at Viktoriya deliberately. "Come over here. We're not fraternizing." Viktoriya nodded, falling in line behind her. Tanya was hoping to use the patented good-cop bad-cop technique, making it trust that Viktoriya wouldn't kill her.

They had already rehearsed what would happen, and Tanya had been holding up the magic item when Viktoriya had asked those questions.

They needed to know how best to get rid of it, after all.

Viktoriya looked troubled, and the plant smiled. "Don't look so depressed, ma'am. As soon as we're done, you'll be able to trust me."

Viktoriya brightened up, and Tanya hid a smirk. It was time to begin.

"First question, Tranquility Princess: what do you think of humans?" this one was easy, and Tanya didn't really care about this one; she was going to ask it very _pointed_ questions later on that would be much harder to weasel out of.

It pause, and then said, slowly, "…humans are incredibly important to me; I don't think I could live without them."

Viktoriya shifted, and Tanya nodded. Viktoriya was supposed to look conflicted, in the hopes that it would rely on her when they moved to end it, if it turned out to be hostile.

"Do you absorb the humans after they die?" she asked it, tone just as even as before. The forest around them began to quiet down, and Tanya raised an eyebrow. It was attempting to simulate tension by manipulating its environment; a good move against rookies.

Viktoriya exclaimed "Tanya!" while the Tranquility Princess reacted. It seemed taken aback at first, but then tears began to form in the corners of its eyes. Viktoriya stretched out a hand, and Tanya swatted her hand out of the air. It didn't answer.

"I'll ask again; did you decompose and absorb the bodies of the adventurers?"

Looking lonely and staring at the ground, it answered. "Yes, they became my food. They've become a part of me… they'll live on inside my body… I'll-"

Tanya cut it off. "Your first answer was satisfactory. Now-"

Viktoriya turned on Tanya, cutting her off as planned. "What's the big idea? It's said its answers; we should leave it alone."

Tanya sighed, glaring at her. She looked actually hurt by the glare, and Tanya almost apologized. The woman was very reliant on her approval.

Still, she pushed on, and Viktoriya knew that it was all an act.

"You can wait, if you're uncomfortable. I promise that I won't kill it, alright?" Tanya offered, sounding annoyed and keeping an eye on the Tranquility Princess. Its eyes seemed to light up when the magic item didn't ring.

Viktoriya scowled and stomped out of the clearing, while Tanya turned back to the Tranquility Princess. "Now, you have no support. We'll be getting to the _interesting_ questions, so consider your answers."

It smirked, and Tanya gave it a smile that matched. It seemed that it thought it was safe. "Interesting? Like these?" it said as it cupped its breasts. Tanya stared at them, for a moment, before looking away.

"Yes, it must be embarrassing to be so flat; no man will ever want you when you have that cutting board strapped to your chest," it goaded. Tanya played into its expectations, glaring down at her body and trying to ignore just how… bouncy the Tranquility Princess was.

It thought she was unsatisfied with her development, but she just hated the entire damn thing.

"So what are you going to do? Despite your hard exterior, you won't kill me; you just said so," it said, crossing its arms over its chest. Tanya stared at them for a second, mouth opened a fraction of an inch, before she clicked her mouth shut.

She smirked, trying to ignore the worrying lust she felt. Was puberty about to start hitting her harder, now that she had real food and a much less stressful environment around her? "The quest the guild gave me was to do reconnaissance on the Tranquility Princess; I don't have to kill you," she said.

It smirked, but its expression turned quizzical when Tanya smirked back. "Of course, if I report that you lied to us, and that you should be exterminated, someone will come along who's brave enough to do so."

It scowled. "I help you humans; this forest remains cleared of monsters because adventurers fall over themselves to help me, I help the aging and the sick and the suicidal pass on to your so-called Gods, and all I receive is their bodies and a bit of help from those willing to do so."

Tanya wasn't moved in the slightest, and she was honestly pissed that it assumed she had a god. "Well, considering I would like to have more areas to kill monsters in, I'm not particularly moved."

It glared now, and Tanya almost laughed at how innocent it had seemed earlier. "I've been here for over a hundred years; do you really think no one else has figured me out?"

Tanya shook her head. She knew that; she was sure this thing had another trick up its sleeve, if what it had said earlier didn't register as a lie. It probably had some sort of incentive.

It smirked. "What do you think happens to adventurers who die here?" she pointed at the ground, likely referencing the equipment buried underneath.

Tanya scoffed. "Why would elderly adventurers come here with a bunch of worthwhile equipment if they're trying to die? Unless you have good equipment from not-so-elderly adventurers you murdered?" she countered.

This brought it up short, and Tanya chuckled. "Well, I think this interview has been telling of your true nature, but I'll ask some more questions," she said as it seemed to be panicking. It was probably trying to search whatever it had that counted as a brain for answers.

"By the way," she added, sitting on the ground and grinning, "I'll be taking silence as an answer I don't like, since you do seem to know what this thing is."

She began. "Have you ever killed anyone maliciously?"

It grit whatever it had for teeth – if it had anything but half-truths and lies in its mouth – and Tanya continued on. "Let's try again. Have you ever convinced adventurers to become suicidal through association with you?"

It blinked again, and it answered. "No."

That brought Tanya up short. It hadn't? The thing smirked, and Tanya clicked her tongue. So much for that…

Wait. She looked behind it, at the large tree. She could see some sort of fruit on it. Tanya snapped her finger, smirking.

"Have you ever provided that dangerous fruit to adventurers, aware of the effect it has on them? Aware that they'd die if they ate too much and that you could claim their dead body afterwards?"

Its eyes widened, and Tanya smiled pleasantly. When it continued to say nothing, Tanya stood up and stretched. "Well, I think that's all. We're done here."

It began to sniff, and tears welled up in its eyes. Tanya shook her head. So unbecoming.

And it didn't even realize what was about to happen.

"I'll save you the energy. Viktoriya! You can come over now!"

The woman ran over, darting out from the tree line, and Tanya sighed happily. It was nice to have backup she could trust completely. Sure, Darkness and Chris were fine, but she was sure that they wouldn't have been able to do it.

They just weren't cut out for this type of thing.

It cried out. "Help me! Please don't report that I'm evil to the guild!"

Tanya chuckled. "We won't have too; you'll be dead."

It blinked, too surprised to keep up its act. "Huh? But you said…"

Tanya pointed towards Viktoriya with an outstretched thumb, handing the woman her rifle with the other. "I said that _I _wouldn't kill you. _She_ said nothing of the sort."

It looked to Viktoriya, emotions flashing across its face.

Viktoriya displayed none of her earlier sympathy.

It was confused.

Viktoriya shrugged, an apologetic grin on her face. "Sorry. Tanya says I need experience to defeat the Demon King, and you Tranquility Girls are apparently very full of it," she said, readying Tanya's rifle.

The forest around them shifted, the trees becoming a wall, and light dwindled. The Tranquility Princess rose, its small, human portion now being dwarfed by the roots surrounding it.

It was mad.

"I may not be especially good at fighting, but I'm sure I can take out a pair of under-leveled _worms _like you! And you'll never kill all of me; this forest is my domain!"

They both shrugged and then shot into the air, rising passed the tree line and into the sky. "You heard her; burn the forest to the ground. I'll put up this item. If you need any help, just holler!"

Viktoriya waved her off, ignoring the faint shouts below her. "Don't worry. A couple Napalm-Type Combustion spells should do the trick."

Tanya nodded, and rose higher still as shouts of 'Napalm' and the frustrated obscenities echoed beneath her. They had at least three more spots to hit that they had seen on their flight to this forest, and they could probably find more if they expanded the area they could search.

Of course, Viktoriya would get tired quickly; Tanya wasn't sure how to make a Computation Jewel that wasn't a Type 95, and without one of the devices, Viktoriya would get tired from fighting quickly.

Tanya would have to carry Viktoriya to the next spot.

Tanya smiled. Somehow, she would have to bear carrying Viktoriya around like she was some damsel-in-distress for a few days.

She giggled to herself as the sounds of battle faded. She was sure she would find _some _way to cope with such a 'burden.'

-OxOxO-

As the sun sank into the horizon, two women wore pleasant smiles as they walked into the guild. There hadn't been anything all that dangerous – the Tranquility Girls were stronger than them physically, but Reinforcement spells and lots of Napalm more than made up for the difference.

As they walked in, Tanya held out her hand. "Alright, I'll take your card. We need to show proof to the guild that we killed them, and these things confirm that."

A questioning look from Viktoriya meant Tanya had a chance to explain what the cards were, what they recorded, and how their skills and Skill Points worked. Viktoriya nodded along, flashing her card looks of unease from time to time.

Tanya still hadn't lowered her hand. Viktoriya, casting one last look down at her card, waved her off. "Oh, I can do it Tanya. I need experience with this world, after all."

Tanya squinted at the woman, but relented. She didn't want to show Tanya her card, obviously, and Tanya wouldn't begrudge her that because she _totally _would have looked at it.

It wasn't that Tanya didn't respect Viktoriya's privacy; it was just that the looks she had been shooting her seemed odd, and Tanya had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with either Viktoriya's stats or the description on her card.

Tanya gave the bag the guild had given her – filled with that truth-detecting magic item, a copy of that map, as well as some shovels, for if they killed the Tranquility Princess and needed to move it – as well as her own card, and walked further in.

Tanya sat down at a table, offhandedly ordering a bit of food as she thought. Viktoriya was as patient as Tanya was, but she was probably very interested in all the secrets Tanya hadn't told her. Tanya needed to figure out how she would be wording everything.

She was going to be offloading some of her less… harrowing… baggage; that took quite a bit of mental and emotional preparation.

Just as she was about to start, however, a strangled gasp echoed from the counter. Tanya swerved around, eyes searching for Viktoriya. She was standing there, looking rather confused. From there, Tanya looked around her.

Luna was… staring… at their cards…

Uh oh. Had she found out?

Tanya jumped up, rushing over and ignoring the curious gazes that attached themselves to her and the rapidly developing scene near the counter. She hoped she could smooth this over, but they might need to leave Axel if she had looked at the cards and figured out just how many people they had killed.

"Is there a problem?" Tanya asked, staring at the cards grasped in Luna's shaking hands. Tanya gave Viktoriya's hand a quick squeeze of reassurance.

"Y- Yo- You- You killed _ten_ Tranquility Girls?!" Luna nearly screamed, terrified. Tanya breathed a sigh of relief, and then smiled. It was just that.

"Yes. We investigated the Tranquility Princess, found her to be evil, killed her, and then moved on to some other ones. Is there a problem?" she asked.

Sounds of outrage came from behind the pair, and both turned around. Tanya finally realized that everyone was staring at them, rage, shock, and fear on their faces.

Tanya was mystified. "Were we not supposed to kill them?" she asked, turning to Luna.

She shook her head hesitantly. "We- Well… nearly every adventurer has some reservations about killing something that looks so human, and there _are_ mitigating circumstances that most might consider…" she trailed off.

Tanya felt the stares pounding into her as she surveyed the crowd, but she didn't cave to the pressure and start apologizing. "They are monsters, they kill tons of adventurers, we get good experience and money for it, and they all had some half-decent loot buried underneath them. Why _wouldn't _we kill them?" she asked, looking into the crowd.

The stuff they had found underground hadn't been _good, _by any means – most of it had been burnt a bit or damaged from exposure to the elements – but the general store manager had taken most of it, and Tanya had dumped the rest in a trashcan, besides a small, thin knife. She wanted to put it in her glove.

Speaking of money…

She turned around to Luna. "By the way, the Tranquility Princess claimed she controlled the entire forest, so we burnt down a large portion of it. You might want to look for her roots, just in case," she said. Luna looked rather faint, and whispers broke out in the crowd.

"So cruel and heartless…"

"If she killed the Demon King, she'd probably take over from him…"

"I don't care if she's legal, that loli is dangerous…"

"She really is 'Tanya the Evil'…"

The first one wasn't objective – she was ruthless and efficient, not cruel, and the 203rd proved she had a heart somewhere in her chest. The second one seemed like it might be an interesting proposition, but those last two hurt.

Her reputation, that was; her enemies and Being X had called her worse names.

The crowd withered away, and Tanya admitted that _maybe_ she had glared at them a little bit too much. Or a lot.

She wasn't exactly a good judge of these things; the glare she'd sent might have made some of her soldiers pause for a moment, but that lot would have required some berating before they actually cringed.

Tanya scoffed. "Besides, I only killed three of them; Viktoriya killed seven," she said pointing to Viktoriya. She waved pleasantly, and the murmuring started up again.

"I don't believe her."

"She probably got forced to do it."

"Maybe we should save her from the loli."

_Twitch._

Tanya ignored their comments and rolled her eyes. She turned to the receptionist. "Luna, our compensation?"

Torn between thanking her for taking out so many menaces and alarm that someone was so blasé about killing things that resemble humans, Luna ducked into the back.

Soon enough, she brought out a copy of the durian quest, a book, and the map from earlier. "If you could, please mark this map with the locations of the ones you subjugated while I calculate your pay."

Tanya nodded, easily marking the area of each spot with a red 'x'. Then, she waited, eyeing the adventurers who were _still_ staring at them. She scowled. She really didn't get it; why were they so mad?

Luna still seemed pretty torn, but she put the book below the counter. She then popped back up.

"In addition to the durian quest, you cleared out a number of outstanding quests put up for any Tranquility Girls. If you would sign here…" she said, holding out a number of pieces of paper. Tanya was about to sign them, when something at the bottom of one caught her eye.

She pointed out what looked to be smudged dirt to Luna, who shrugged. "These ones are probably stained from the months and years of being incomplete. We haven't always had the best places to store this stuff."

Tanya nodded, and then signed them all one by one. Luna went into the back once more, and came back out, bearing a serving tray, and, like usual, it had what was probably money on it.

But it wasn't anything Tanya had seen. She'd seen tons of copper, iron, and, and even a handful of gold Eris. But on this one, a single, shining coin sat.

Voice shaking, Luna said, "This is a Mithril Eris. It is worth… one million Eris!"

The guild quieted down, and the derisive muttering about her suddenly stopped. Tanya looked at it, and then at Luna. "Please break this up. I'm going to be spending some of it, and carrying around something so Steal-able is asking to get robbed."

That it might be made of that most despised metal was also part of it, but she wouldn't be telling anyone.

Luna nodded, bringing the tray behind the counter. Tanya turned to see the guild looking at her differently. "Well. It seems we've earned quite a bit from this endeavor," she said, rubbing her chin. She smiled, and looked up at Viktoriya.

"Why don't we go get you looking like a real adventurer? These schmucks obviously don't know a thing about being courteous to those stronger than them." She smirked, but no one moved.

Tanya raised an eyebrow. The single instance in which Tanya had seen Dust earn more than 100,000 Eris, the people who had been calling him a waste of space that morning had come back to him, begging for a couple of drinks.

It seemed that even wealth wasn't good enough for them in this instance.

Just as she was beginning to doubt whether or not they should have killed those things, Luna came back, holding a huge bag larger than Tanya's head and Luna's bust combined.

She smirked lecherously as she took the money. "Luna. Pay for everyone's next meal, and put it on my tab. I'll be back in a bit," she said, activating a bit few Reinforcement spells to support her struggling arms. She walked out, closely followed by Viktoriya.

As soon as the doors closed, shouting and laughter erupted from behind the closed doors. Viktoriya seemed a bit put off, stopping to stare at the guild, but Tanya just kept walking.

"It's a sort of tradition that people who get huge scores pay for everyone's food. Otherwise, we would have kept it. Now come on!" she said, taking off in the direction of the Tailor's shop.

Viktoriya's clothing was sort of out of place, and Tanya was looking forward to a night in an actual bed, if she let her money talk for her.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Finally! They meet, Wiz and Luna get some more attention, and the Tranquility Princess, which didn't show up in the LNs until 11, gets dealt with. Tanya gets yet another nickname…

Ah. In case you haven't realized from the tags – which I changed – this is also a romance. Tanya doesn't think Viktoriya could possibly be gay and be born before the 50s, or that she is interested in relationships anyway.

While people on the internet might be fairly well-versed in the history of homosexuality, Tanya was born in the eighties, in Japan. She doesn't exactly have a good gauge on the homosexuality of pre-WW2 Europe, though she will eventually realize her mistake. In twenty+ chapters.

Also, Viktoriya thinks Tanya rejected her and also isn't interested in relationships…

There will be _quite_ a trip from here to the end, but I have to say, I'm looking forward to it.

Otherwise, as a question, how easily do you guys… _picture _the characters? For me, I always catch myself imagining Tanya and Viktoriya in their uniforms from the Empire, but I'm getting a bit better.

Ah well. even if you don't comment, I hope you've enjoyed. Continue onward!


	13. Propositions

It was dark out. When they'd visited the guild and then left, the sun had dipped below the horizon, darkening the streets. While Axel wasn't as advanced as the Capital was rumored to be, it did have magical lighting on its main streets, with lamps much like the ones in the guild lining the streets and making nightlife possible for those with the time for it.

Walking through the streets of Axel, they had hit everywhere Tanya could think of: first had been the Tailor, who had been happy to get Viktoriya out of the smelly, dirty clothes she had been utilizing for a bit too long and into something more appropriate.

In keeping with Tanya's monochrome clothes – gray evening gloves, a white shirt, black pants, black boots, with the only color coming from her green cloak – Viktoriya had opted for something in the same vein of color, if not style.

She too kept her boots, and choose pants that might have looked more fitting on a man and that were necessary for the colder conditions higher in the sky. Besides that, she opted for a longer white shirt than Tanya's, one that was much baggier than anything Tanya had seen her wear, with the sleeves opening up at the ends.

Both of their gloves matched, at least, and instead of a mantle like Tanya, she decided to wear a green jacket that resembled their old flight gear.

Tanya sighed at the thought as they headed up the stairs of the inn they were in. Their old flight gear…

She had to admit she missed having the stuff. The clothing was much warmer than anything here, and while that wasn't necessary on the ground, it would be if they ever stayed in the air for extended periods of time.

So would those boots, come to think of it. Tanya, unfortunately, was no scientist, and while she had often deconstructed both her rifle and her Computation Jewels for maintenance, the clunky, flight-stabilizing boot that each mage wore were not one of the things Tanya had looked at often. Recreating them would likely be impossible.

Tanya's thoughts turned back to what had led them into getting a room at this inn. After getting Viktoriya new clothing, Tanya had dropped Viktoriya's old clothing off at the Blacksmith's, before thinking better of that – Tanya was still… unhappy about the looks he had sent her – and leaving the place with more than they had planned to drop off.

They had come here a little while ago to purchase their rooms, and then they had split up.

After some deliberation, Tanya had dropped by the guild while Viktoriya went to that barn. Tanya paid her tab that everyone had managed to rack up in the two hours they had been gone, and Viktoriya had picked up the few possessions Tanya felt were safe enough to leave in the barn – a clothes line, a pillow, and a bed sheet.

Tanya pushed open the door. Now, they were in that room Tanya had paid to be allowed to stay in for the next month. It wasn't overly large, but it had room for the both of them, two beds, and a small window that overlooked one of the quieter streets of Axel.

A magical light illuminated their room, but Tanya wouldn't have cared if she had needed to use candles. She was just happy to be inside and out of that barn.

Of course, to get the room, pay off those debts, and help out Viktoriya, she'd burned through half of the million Eris reward. She thought that having a place to stay and calming the other adventurers' fears that they were somehow evil for taking care of a measly ten monsters.

The day as a whole had been one of the best yet, and it was all thanks to the woman resting in the opposite bed. Darkness and Chris were nice, but neither knew her, not like Viktoriya did…

Although…

Tanya grimaced. Viktoriya really didn't know Tanya's first life, and Tanya had been meticulous in keeping the fact that she even had one hidden from everyone. She had slipped up a few times, referenced things that weren't invented yet here and there, but no one had suspected the ridiculous truth.

She looked at her adjunct, and decided. She'd tell her. She knew that she had another past, and keeping it secret would only cause her to resent her all the more.

"Viktoriya." Immediately, the woman's eyes shot open, staring at Tanya. After a few seconds of pessimistic procrastination, Tanya began simply.

"I haven't been honest with you, and I suppose it's time to fix that." Another moment of hesitation, and Tanya began to lay out her first life.

Being born a man, growing up in Japan, being an atheist, going to college, working a nine to five job, and getting killed by someone she had fired. Her meeting with the one who claimed to be god, and her continued spurning of his insistence that she convert.

Finding herself in a world similar to her last, but one with magic. Enlisting, being given a cursed piece of jewelry that she now had to rely on.

She left out a bit. Some vivid descriptions of how much she despised her body, hatred that she wasn't taller – but there was nothing for that, thanks to the Reinforcement spells that protected her from the neck-snapping forces inherent to being an Aerial Mage at the cost of stunting her growth – and, of course, each and every memory from the last month before they'd left.

Tanya wouldn't be talking about that last thing.

Ever.

Finally, after nearly an hour of explaining herself, she finished. Viktoriya was quiet, and seemed to be deep in thought, probably trying to reconcile what she'd learned with what she knew. Tanya didn't hope for lenience, but-

"Okay."

Tanya blinked, and then blinked again, waiting for an elaboration. Or hatred. Or suspicion.

However, Viktoriya's smiling face just shone, not wavering in the slightest. It did waver when Tanya began to show signs of confusion, such as her mangled screeching. "What do you mean!?"

Viktoriya said nothing, and Tanya decided she'd elaborate, if Serebryakov wouldn't. "'Okay' doesn't cut. Are you angry? Unhappy? Filled with enough potent rage to spite me for nearly two decades? I need more than 'okay!'"

Viktoriya just sat there, considering her words for a moment. Then, happily, she said, "Well, I did say I'd believe you, right? Besides, considering everything else I've seen today, it doesn't seem _that _outlandish. Although…"

Tanya winced. Here it was. Viktoriya was going to begin to rant and rave at her for keeping so many secrets for so long. Emotional scarring on both their parts was sure to follow, and-

"Are you okay?"

Tanya blinked at the question. Was she okay?

She gazed at Viktoriya curiously. "Okay? What do you mean?"

She winced slightly. "I… after everything you've been through, after everything you've had to fake and lie about and hide, and after what happened in-"

Tanya cut her off with a glare. Her statement died on her lips, as did the nervous bravery shining in her eyes, and Tanya sighed. "I think I'm mostly good, Viktoriya. Anything else?"

Tanya could clearly see she wanted to talk about _that_, about what had happened after her battle with the Bloody Valkyrie, but Tanya wouldn't, so she was trying to move the conversation away from-

"Are you really a man?"

_Twitch._

The girl across from her brought a hand up to her mouth, hiding her snickering and trying to look anywhere accept for the strand of hair on top of Tanya's head that had just bobbed in annoyance at an unavoidable reminder of her situation. Tanya just sighed, cursing her hair in addition to everything else.

"Is that really all you have questions about?" she asked. An earnest look from the woman across from her confirmed it. Tanya grimaced.

"Well… I don't have a dick, if that's what you're asking. Although, you already saw that much at Bidin-Budin. On the inside, though, I still consider myself a guy. Plus…" she trailed off, smirking evilly and not upsetting a lightly blushing Viktoriya, who was very much used to those smiles by now.

"This world has magic items, similar to that truth-detecting item that the guild gave us, that can change a person's gender. And once I get one, I'll be slightly more free from this prison of a body!" she shouted happily.

And it was a prison. There were upsides, of course, but her ability to peep in on women was much like having a great view of the beach from a prison cell: you couldn't exactly get to what you saw.

"Really?" Viktoriya asked, shock ringing in her voice. Tanya nodded, and began to wonder why she seemed so surprised. She had already said that Tanya's past was nothing compared to this place, although…

Tanya's eyes widened. Was the reason that Viktoriya hadn't ever wanted a relationship with any of the men in the 203rd…

"Wait! Uhm…"

Tanya trailed off, and she felt a blush begin to build on her face. "I… suppose I never considered the idea, but, Serebryakov, do… you need one of those-"

Tanya's face had continued to burn until it felt like it was practically one fire, and Viktoriya's face soon mirrored her own. She was sputtering, and Tanya felt incredibly awkward, and-

"No! Of course not, why-"

Tanya felt extremely uncomfortable, but Viktoriya just sighed and straightened her hair nervously. "Tanya. With all due respect, hell no!"

Tanya breathed a sigh of relief. Obviously, Tanya had made a huge leap in logic. She was just as straight-laced as she assumed she was, and her lack of relationships was simply due to the war and nothing else.

She shook her head. What an absurd thought, that a pre-modern Europe would ha

Things were silent, for a moment, and then Viktoriya cleared her throat. "Well, I guess that's everything…"

Tanya nodded, ignoring the contemplative look on the woman's face – Tanya had just dumped a lot of information on her – and she went to turn off the light. As she turned it off, Viktoriya asked another question.

"Tanya. Do you remember all of those times we changed in the same room? Or those times that I unbuttoned or took off my uniform? Or the time we were invited to that hot spring in Bidin-Budin? Or that time we were on the eastern front and we needed to bunk together, and you were very insistent on us sleeping together in order to keep warm?"

Tanya smiled. She remembered each of those times fondly, and had thought of the many times in the last few months, with her separation from her last life and Viktoriya.

While they weren't exactly safer times – only the Tranquility Princess and that pair of Reincarnates had matched the danger of a single veteran aerial mage, proving this war was just… ridiculously peaceful compared to the Empire's war – she had certainly had a much more concrete life ahead of her.

"Yeah! Why…" Tanya trailed off, gulping reflexively. Right. Viktoriya now knew why Tanya had been so insistent.

Stiffening her shoulders, she braced herself for abuse, but it never came. She turned away from the switch on the wall, only to see that Viktoriya was turned towards the wall next to her bed, away from Tanya. Thankful for her mercy, she slipped into her bed and stared at the ceiling.

A voice pierced her ears and thoughts of safety. "I won't attack you. I just hope you can live with yourself for taking advantage of me when I was unaware," she said softly.

Tanya paused for a moment, before she began to softly chuckle. Wow.

She knew that berating Tanya wouldn't really do much, so she opted to let her stew in her shame. Plus, the way she worded that soft statement was suggestive enough to make Tanya associate that with something much worse than simply staring.

A magnificent move on her part, because it would definitely get her to apologize, eventually.

Turning over, Tanya attempted to snuggle into the soft sheets to imprint the comfortable feeling into her body and to suppress any memory of lying in itchy hay.

She was also trying to hold out. She wouldn't apologize…

Not for at least a week. Yes, she was fine with what she'd done, and some of those situations that Tanya had used to snuggle up to or get a better look of Viktoriya had also had legitimate reasons for occurring other than Tanya's puberty-driven urges.

She could hold out for a week.

She was a war veteran, after all; how hard would it be to resist the lingering guilt she felt… even if Viktoriya's presence meant it wasn't exactly lingering anymore?

-OxOxO-

Arrayed in a dark room, women dressed in casual clothing sat around a table, each clutching a drink of some kind in their hands. Most adventurers would be shocked to see them in anything that had more cloth than your average fishing net, but they weren't catering to the male adventurers of Axel.

Not tonight.

A gathering of devils had begun. The average human imagination would place such a thing as heinous, as a meeting between separate eldritch horrors, each bent on enslaving humanity to serve their whims and ready to betray the others for the barest hint of additional power.

The male adventurers of Axel, more familiar with them, would think of such a thing as dream-worthy material.

Among a group of such low-ranked devils, however, it looked more like a meeting between good friends or business partners. They had been in Axel for years, and they weren't going to leave anytime soon, barring some sort of tragedy.

No one knew each other's actual, full name, of course; those held particular power over devil-kind, but the lack of knowledge about that area was expected. Most arrayed around the table knew her as the youngest one there.

An outside adventurer would likely just call her a 'Loli Succubus', when comparing her flat-as-a-board chest to her associates' assets, but she was fine with that.

Everyone had their fetishes, and they were happy to cater to them, as long as everything was in a dream. No human could punish another for their thoughts.

Tonight, however, they had closed their shop. They had had to apologize to the various adventurers, and even had to pay them back for failing to provide their service.

The Succubi were not particularly fussed about that, however. This meeting was important, more important than regular money.

The Succubus that adventurers knew as the 'Receptionist Succubus' stood, clearing her throat. "Now, we're going to party, but before we get _too_ inebriated, we should discuss the reason we're partying," she said, cyan eyes flashing in delight.

Everyone else there was only slightly put off by the delay – they did want to know of their benefactor.

"We got word from several customers, and, when I went to the guild itself, from nearly everyone there, that someone decided to take care of some of our oldest foes," she intoned.

They had all learned this hours ago, but no one interrupted. It was fun to pretend you were some high-ranking devil, like Vanir or Maxwell, making a speech to hordes of weak, pitiful devils.

"That's right; Tranquility Girls!" she shouted. Everyone scowled, barely repressing hisses of anger.

"They entice adventurers, get them to stop approaching our shop, and consume their bodies once they've died of malnutrition! We can't take them on – we are too physically weak – and despite the money we've put up for their extermination, no one has been able to kill any," she said, muttering the last part. No one here held any sympathy for them.

They killed humans that were weak enough to fall to their charms, humans that they would have an easy time extracting money and emotion out of.

"Until today! Today, not only was the Tranquility _Princess _finally exterminated, but nine others with her! Tonight, we celebrate their destruction!"

A cheer went up, but no one drank. Receptionist Succubus wasn't yet done.

For effect, Loli Succubus stood. "Who do we have to thank?"

Everyone turned to Loli Succubus, deep in thought. Receptionist Succubus sighed. "We haven't yet determined that. Despite asking people in the guild, we only learned a few things." All were quiet, waiting to absorb this information.

"One: it was a pair of adventurers, but nearly everyone agreed that one probably pushed the other into it. Two: one is thought to be a noble, since they're very powerful and have blonde hair. And Three: both were women."

At the second pronouncement, everyone's spirits wilted, but at the last one, everyone became visibly saddened. Finding them would be hard, and paying them back would be even harder.

They did, after all, want to thank whoever it was; those quests were _technically_ contracts, and the fine print at the bottom did say they were entitled to further compensation from the people at this building.

It was hoped that male adventurers would see the writing, realize who was offering the quest, and take off to do their bidding.

That two females had been able to complete the quest was odd – none of them thought that they were capable of that sort of thing – but they didn't really care. They did need to complete the contract.

Silence reigned, until Loli Succubus spoke once more. "How do we find them?"

No one seemed to know. Even Receptionist Succubus seemed troubled.

"Well," she began, playing with a strand of her hair, "we could try to ask our customers about blonde-haired adventurers; there can't be many of them, right? We'll be able to find the Tranquility Destroyer that way."

Everyone made sounds of agreement, and then began to throw themselves into their alcohol, forgetting about their troubles. Even Loli Succubus, who looked like she was too young to know what the word 'inebriated' meant and who was centuries older than any human, was having some.

They were enjoying themselves, intent on worrying about and figuring out the identity of their benefactor at a later date; for now, they would drink!

"Three cheers for the Tranquility Destroyer!"

They partied long into the night.

-OxOxO-

Blazing eyes surveyed the brightly lit room, and an aging body, tired from fighting long past its prime, tried to act as regally as it could when there were possible enemies all around it.

Oh, Hans, Sylvia, and Vanir had all sworn allegiance, but he was getting very _old_ for a Demon King. He didn't really fault the first two for testing plans to try and usurp him.

It was only natural for those that saw him as weak to try and become the most powerful, but without him at the helm, he was sure things would collapse. He was the only one who knew why this fucking war had been started in the first place.

Or he was the only one who cared, anyway.

While he would love to retire and let his daughter lead, she hadn't yet consolidated power. He had to wait for that, at least.

Suddenly, one of the doors at the far end of the room burst open, and two things walked in. Calling them people, despite their looks, would be folly.

One appeared to be a rather normal looking man. Not overly normal that some people would be disgruntled by it – he was nearing six foot, and his blonde hair drifted passed his shoulders, which was odd for a man – but normal enough that people wouldn't be able to describe him as either ugly or handsome.

Of course, this was by design.

Everything from his perfectly tailored black clothing with golden highlights to the very shallow cut on one of his cheeks, where one might cut oneself with a shaving razor, was manufactured, for standing before him was Ragcraft, the leader of their intelligence division and a Doppelganger of the highest order.

Next to him stood Vanir. Clad in a dark suit and a bright yellow tie, he looked like the perfect gentleman, besides the odd, black and white mask that was divided down the middle. While unassuming, these two were some of the best people in his entire army.

Vanir sat down opposite of him, across the long table that could seat ten beings – his generals, himself, and the 'retired' General that Wiz had taken the place of.

Of course, that NEET hadn't actually ever shown up to a meeting after his place had been taken by Wiz, so they just used it for guests.

All of the seats were not filled.

Wiz was in Axel, maintaining the barrier and losing him money. Celestina was retraining herself, since she had gotten that power boost, presumably because her Goddess had been released or, more depressingly, the number of her followers in the world had gone down. Wolbach was still searching for her other half, and Verdia was in Axel, currently keeping watch for a specific Reincarnate.

Not that the others in the room knew about the Reincarnates' actual origins. Only Verdia knew that they were more than people from a faraway land blessed by the Gods to fight him and his forces.

The two of them called the Reincarnates 'Hero Candidates' like everyone else, but they knew what they _really _were.

Instead of ten, only six chairs were filled. Hans, Sylvia, and Vanir on one end, and him, his daughter, and Ragcraft on the other. He'd called this meeting due to the new threat.

Of course, Hans had an objection. "Hey, when are you gonna get more people? I'm getting kinda hungry, and-"

"Silence."

He didn't often demand they be quiet – he needed them to be happy so they'd take orders, and he couldn't afford to easily kill subordinates as good as these.

However, he was angry.

"All I ask is that you serve me. Not even _well_. I just need you to follow orders if I give them, and in return, I try and help you achieve whatever desires you have, since you couldn't care less about my cause," he spat out.

The two at the end of the table attempted to act above his words, but his personality had only gotten more forceful as he aged, unlike his power.

"Sylvia. The Chimera. You finished your modifications to your body ages ago," he began. The man – because no matter how feminine his face was or how beautiful his tits were, she had a penis and thought of himself as a man – tried smirking. That smirk rapidly faded at his next pronouncement.

"Now, instead of leading my forces, you sexually harass whichever minions don't know about your modifications, which is far too many because _you _two," he continued, pointing at both Hans and Vanir, "ensure I have to replace them constantly."

Neither looked particularly upset, especially Vanir, but he let his annoyance be known.

He first addressed Vanir. "In battle, you do nothing but get our force's hopes up with pronouncements of victory and then feast on their disappointment when a Hero Candidate – or _ten _– shows up. Then you actually help out, fighting the adventurers and feasting on _their_ shame and disappointment. _Then _you abscond from the fight, leaving both sides to go home with few casualties and you to come back more well-rested than anyone fighting a war has ANY right to be."

"Then you come in here, feasting on my _guards' _emotions," he finished. Vanir still didn't look upset, and the Demon King didn't care.

Hans snickered, and he glared at the Toxic Mutant Slime. He might look like a man now, but the sheen of purple sweat showed what he really was. "You're no better. You eat. I understand that you're a Slime, but if you want food, go out and get some of it from whichever battle we're fighting in instead of using my guards as fucking _toothpicks_!"

Hans seemed to have melted into his seat a bit, but he raised a hand anyway. The Demon King grit his teeth. "I know Slimes don't have teeth; it's a metaphor, you fucking _dipshit_."

He let his words sink in, and then he sighed. "Those not with us are trying to amass power, at least. And Ragcraft."

He turned to their guest. While not a Demon General – he was too weak, physically and magically – he was the leader of their intelligence division.

The Demon King's tone became honestly mournful. "I apologize for ruining your thirty-year plan. You've been so deep undercover, and to force you to fake your death to carry out another plan is in bad taste."

The Doppelganger, who had been shifting his form idly, settled on the intimidating, expressionless, pitch-black human silhouette. A slightly nervous voice echoed from it. "Of course, my Demon King! It's no problem. We live to serve you, after all…"

"Yes…" he trailed off, eyes narrowed at the nervousness present in his tone. Then Vanir stood, and Ragcraft sunk into his chair.

"Moi would like to inform the enfeebled and slightly insane Demon King that what the idiotic Doppelganger said is not the whole truth!" he shouted, smirking happily.

A weak, pleading, "Vanir…" was emitted from Ragcraft, but the Duke of Hell carried on.

"The one known as Ragcraft the Prime Minister of the nation of Elroad forgot his original purpose! So entranced was he by his position and his wealth and the splendor he brought to 'his' nation, that he forgot that he was sent to destroy Belzerg's chief economic supporter!"

The Demon King looked at Ragcraft, who had taken the form of a mouse and was trying to burrow into his seat. It wasn't hiding them from his shame.

"That's right! And what Ragcraft learned from his experience, was that if he had not become a part of their government, their monarchy would have already gone bankrupt long ago and been unable to support Belzerg anyway!"

The Demon King fought down the disappointment he felt towards his underling – that was what that Duke of Hell wanted – and took a deep breath. He counted to ten. He tried to do a bit of math.

Still, excess energy, created through his emotions, leaked out. The others were too distracted with their amusement to notice.

He finally calmed down, and when he looked up again, Vanir was rolling on the ground, pointing and laughing at Ragcraft. Sylvia and Hans were trying to hide their own amusement, but it was pretty obvious they wanted to join Vanir in rolling on the floor.

"Fine," the Demon King muttered, trying to figure out just how he would salvage this. His daughter, seated to his right, touched his arm, and the last of the anger drained out of him.

"Fine. Everything's… _fine_. You aren't there anymore, and Belzerg was implicated in your assassination. They'll be distracted by that, and we can begin a few plans early. I have orders, and you all _will_ follow them," he bit out angrily. Sylvia and Hans straightened immediately, while Vanir and Ragcraft took a moment to adjust themselves.

"Hans. The Axis Cult is poised to fall, with nearly all of their resources committed to one city?" he asked rhetorically. Hans nodded slowly, but the Demon King didn't shirk his duties and had read the slime's reports over the years. He already knew this fact well.

"You'll travel for two months and destroy their main resource. Remember the promise we made to Wiz, or I'll personally teleport her to you so she can kill you," he said, ending with a glare and a warning.

They wouldn't harm any non-combatants and get torn to shreds by an undead, no matter how much easier it would be to finish the kingdom off if they could just massacre a few towns and turn their inhabitants into their own soldiers.

"Sylvia. You're on the front line duty. We need them distracted while Verdia does his best in Axel, and Vanir is too unreliable." Said Demon didn't seem to take any offense, but the Demon King didn't expect him to. He was older than nearly anyone, and it took quite a bit more to get under his skin.

"Daughter. You're going to continue training and consolidating." She nodded, and what went unsaid was that she would be trying to win Hans and Sylvia's supporters over to her side. With them absent, she should be able to win over some of the more indecisive among those plotting his death.

"Vanir. You have another month, and then the majority of our contract will be finished." Vanir gave him one of those smiles that he knew meant he was completely satisfied, which wasn't good, since Vanir's satisfaction usually meant he was getting fed some disappointment eventually.

Soon, Vanir would be gone from the castle, the residence and fighting portions of the contract finally done. He provided a very important piece in balancing his forces and the forces of that foolish king. And, with most of the contract done, Vanir would be obligated to help him recruit more demons and continue maintaining the barrier.

He felt very foolish for being made a mockery of in his own castle, but it was almost over.

Foolish… King…

The Demon King grit his teeth and snarled. That damnable _pawn_! His opposite in Belzerg might have been old, but he was nothing but a battle maniac, too jumped up on adrenaline to care that the people and powers around him were using him.

He sighed angrily, and dismissed everyone besides Ragcraft. All of them left without a word.

Ragcraft was still slumped in his seat, but the Demon King didn't care. He sighed and spoke slowly. "Ragcraft. Make sure your intelligence gathering apparatuses are up to date, and then you'll be meeting up with Verdia for some special work."

Suddenly, Vanir burst into the room again. "Moi would like you to know that the Doppelganger has already checked his minions in Belzerg on a vacation he took when he remembered he was your minion, using it as an excuse to take a break from thirty years of dealing with royalty."

The Demon King shook his head, once more trying to convert his disappointment into something else, since the Duke of Hell wouldn't get any pleasure out of anything but shame and disappointment.

"Whatever," he snarled, settling on feeling _angry_. "Go join up with Verdia, and begin building a network in Axel. The Kingdom's source of new adventurers and Hero Candidates is a target we want to be informed about, no matter _how_ weak they might seem."

Ragcraft nodded helplessly, and with room empty, the Demon King sighed. Usually, the room would have soldiers in it, but Vanir and Hans and Sylvia scared his forces. They all tried their best to stay away if they could.

He grumbled to himself. There was no one that had more troublesome companions than him. None of them got along, they bickered with him and each other constantly, and they were almost not worth the effort.

And, if there _was _someone with a more annoying, grating, expensive group of idiots around them, then he genuinely prayed for their health. They must be on the verge of death with friends worse than his generals.

-OxOxO-

Darkness sighed, once more disliking her noble heritage.

Oh, it had its uses; if she hadn't inherited her mother's magical resistances, she was sure that Tanya's spells would have killed her during the Eris Thanksgiving Festival, and she would never have been able to deal with the punishment she took from monsters.

Her father's insistence that she get married was grating, however; she liked punishment, and her father knew this fact.

Instead of settling on punishments she would like, he got creative. This time, she'd been told by her father to sift through piles of birth registries if she wanted to find Tanya's family.

That hadn't been enjoyable in the least.

It was, however, very effective, since her father was getting closer to just ordering her to sit down for a meeting with some nobles son. Maybe even Alderp's.

She shuddered at the thought, and made her way through Axel even faster. Some adventuring would be calming, and then she could try to help her father with the latest crisis: the appearance of some sort of Archpriest.

A massive Heal had been used four nights ago, and while no one knew who had used it, the effects were far reaching. It had managed to cure the wounds of people in a mile radius from it.

If the Priest had come forward, or if the churches didn't have a monopoly over who their adherents were healed by, there wouldn't have been a problem.

However, no one had come forward and the churches did have a monopoly, which meant both the Eris cultist and the _very_ small number of Axis cultists present had decried the other, spouting that the other was overstepping their boundaries and that they should be punished. Hopefully, a few hours adventuring would take her mind off things.

Finally, she burst into the guild, and made her way to the table Tanya always sat at – right in the center, equidistant from the counter, the kitchen, and the front door. She made to sit down, but she paused.

Chris was standing, staring at the back of Tanya. Darkness couldn't blame her as she walked forward and stood next to the Thief.

Someone was sitting next to Tanya, conversing amiably. Long brown hair that drifted halfway down her back and clothed in a green jacket, her tone suggested she was happy. Darkness wasn't sure if she was, because the words flowing out of both of their mouths were utterly incomprehensible to her.

She looked at Chris, who didn't react to Darkness's added presence. Sighing, she tapped Tanya on the back warily. Tanya turned around, stopping her conversation.

She looked annoyed, for a moment, and then she loudly exclaimed, "Oh, Darkness and Chris! I kinda forgot you two existed. Come sit down, I can introduce you!"

Darkness moaned a bit, getting a rather alarmed look from the new addition. Tanya spoke more rapid-fire nonsense at her, until the woman gave a Darkness a look that spoke equally of confusion and judgement. Darkness sat down, soon followed by a golem-like Chris.

"Darkness, Chris, allow me to introduce you to my…" she trailed off, apparently confused about how to introduce her. She introduced herself. "I'm Viktoriya Serebryakov. I'm her friend."

Darkness shook the woman's hand. "I am Darkness, Crusader of the Eris cult," she provided simply. She was thinking too much for any superfluous introductions.

She was trying to figure out how this woman played into Tanya's history. She was older than Darkness was – maybe in her early twenties. Was she some sort of trainer or protector? Someone who had taught Tanya?

Chris also shook Viktoriya's hand, providing even less than Darkness had. "Chris. Thief."

Tanya, about to talk more, was cut off by the sound of a bell echoing through Axel. She stood. "Sorry you two, but we've got places to be. I've been showing the ropes to Viktoriya for a few days, so we're going to take a break. Have fun!"

Without another word, the two left. Darkness felt incredibly lonely, for a moment, before shaking her head. It was fine.

With Chris there, Darkness could still get some experience. Even if she wouldn't get scolded for being pathetic by Tanya in the process.

Chris stood, ignorant of her surroundings and of Darkness, and Darkness let out a small whimper at the thought of being cruelly abandoned. Chris turned to her, about to say something.

Then, she thought better of it. Maybe Darkness could help?

"Say Darkness? Isn't it sort of suspicious that Tanya suddenly has a new friend?" she asked. Darkness nodded slowly. Chris smiled, but then frowned as Darkness began to speak.

"Well, I guess… but we really don't know everything about her, right? It's not like we've been adventuring together for years. I'm sure she has her secrets. Let's just go on a quest."

Chris scowled. Even if she didn't exactly like it, she couldn't take down tons of money from Heaven, and she did need to earn more. With Darkness, however, she wouldn't need to worry about being kicked out for loitering; no one would dare touch her with how much money the noble had.

She smirked. "I've got a better idea. Want to hear it?"

Darkness nodded hesitantly, and Chris began to talk. She didn't have access to the millions of languages she could usually access when she was in Heaven, but neither of them had been speaking this world's language. That meant a Reincarnate had come to her side, instead of only being deprived of their relic. She needed to figure out what had happened.

-OxOxO-

Both women tried their best to be unseen. However, Darkness was very recognizable.

Chris did her best to change that – armor was stashed at the guild, and her long hair was put in a bun. Her Lurk skill made most of that moot, but an emergency wasn't out of the question.

Unseen, they stuck close to walls, attempting to follow the pair.

Chris scowled as they trailed behind. Axel wasn't as populous as many other cities, but it was nearing midday and people were beginning to do their daily tasks. Going to market and selling what they'd made, or trying to get passing adventurers to buy their supplies. It wasn't easy.

They managed to keep travelling, ducking and dodging, and attempting to keep sight of them. Tanya had thrown up her hood, but the woman with her – Viktoriya – was tall.

They followed, followed, and eventually found their way to what appeared to be Tanya's place of work.

She claimed to have worked for a Blacksmith, and Darkness had claimed to see some of her work. Chris thought it was rather obvious; she was nothing without her modern weapons, and believing The Atheist would adopt the ideas of her situation was a bit naïve, seeing as she was still denying her actual gender.

They didn't dare go in; that place didn't look big enough to remain unseen for long, even with Lurk. Despite the warnings Chris had given on the way there, Darkness still attempted to make small talk.

"Who do you think she is, Chris? She must have to do with her past, if they can both speak whatever that language is," the Crusader mused. Chris shrugged, trying to ignore her; she was trying to think on just how this had happened.

Soon enough the pair came out again. Only this time, both were sporting upgraded equipment.

Now, both of them had pistols strapped to their waists and rifles slung across their backs. Chris searched her mind furiously. What Japanese reincarnate looked like that and could use weapons? Some sort of foreigner?

"Did she teach her how to use those?" Darkness suggested. Chris froze. No, they couldn't have taught each other, even if-

Chris gasped. Could they have served together? In that war?

Oh no. Chris turned white as her thoughts began to spiral downwards. Now she had two relics _and _one of her sycophantic subordinates? This was bad.

"Chris? Hey Chris? Do you… what's wrong!" she said, getting louder and louder. Chris shook her head.

She could have a mental breakdown once she was back in Heaven and had taken a closer look at those papers Aqua had so flippantly signed.

They were off again, and Chris worked to shut out Darkness's questions about what she was scared of. Winding through streets and pedestrians trying to keep up, Chris was still trying not to panic, and she was able to manage that much.

She cursed herself under her breath. Why could she only manage? She was a Goddess; why hadn't they _beaten _this maniac already?

Finally, they caught up again. Now, they were stalking down an alley in one of the dingier parts of Axel. Chris smirked. Whatever dirty dealings they had with a shop down here would turn Darkness to her side, at least. The pair stopped at a shop, and Darkness and Chris jumped behind a pile of trash.

Trying to ignore Darkness's cries of pleasure as she was pecked by Crows, Chris looked through the open door, at the two people inside talking to someone else. She seemed to be the shop owner, seeing as she was standing behind the counter.

They were talking with the owner of the shop. Animated discussion was taking place, and it seemed that they were learning some sort of skill from her.

Or, at least The Atheist's lackey was. A gust of cold air blew the door shut, and Chris swore.

She turned around, and shooed the Crows away. "Stop messing around, Darkness. This is serious."

Darkness, seemingly put out for some reason, stood from the ground. "I don't get it. Why are you so scared? Is that woman dangerous to Tanya?"

Chris's eye twitched, and she was tempted to say something she'd probably regret. Then an idea came to her.

She nodded slowly. "I know of that language they were speaking. It's a harsh language used by a warmongering nation in a faraway land. They're even more militant than Belzerg."

Darkness's eyes widened.

That was a shocking statement, since Belzerg was… _quite _militant. Their royalty were referred to as 'Barbarian brutes' by their detractors in the surrounding nations, and for a nation to somehow be even more militant was…

Darkness nodded, and Chris thanked the Crusader for being so curious about her party leader's history. She cleared her throat, wondering how to word this.

Driving away support from The Atheist was the best she could do, since Chris couldn't exactly come down and do battle with the girl. Heaven needed all the mana it could get.

Slowly, she began to speak. "I think that that person might have tricked Tanya, somehow. She's obviously much older than her, but Tanya acts as if she's her leader, with how she's catering to her desires to show her around. That's awfully suspicious. It's entirely possible that this Serebryakov is trying to use Tanya."

Darkness's eyes widened, and Chris only felt a bit sorry for using the Crusader's suspicions that Tanya was a noble against her.

She shook her head. Chris was her Goddess, after all… it was only right.

"Then… what should we do? Tanya doesn't strike me as someone who's easily tricked, so she must be powerful. And if the rumors that they killed ten Tranquility Girls are true, then she might have pushed Tanya into doing something that cruel…"

Chris just nodded along. This was perfect! Darkness would help her drive a wedge between the two, and then Tanya would spurn Darkness for trying to do so.

Her faithful Crusader would be saved from their influences, and The Atheist would get deprived of help.

Both waited, staring at the shop. Another fifteen minutes passed, during which Chris had to 'save' Darkness from the Crows more than once. Then the pair came out again. Viktoriya seemed to be pocketing her Adventurer's Card, while Tanya was skipping. Both watched, concealed with Lurk.

"Skipping? She definitely did something to Tanya. She's never that carefree."

Quietly, both continued to follow after them, but nothing else seemed to happen. They visited a restaurant, had lunch, and then just… walked around, conversing in that language of theirs.

Soon, Chris and Darkness stopped, ducking down an alleyway. Chris wasn't weak, but keeping up Lurk for hours at a time was not exactly easy work. They rested in the shade, thankful that the sun had begun to dip down in the sky.

Soon enough, Chris was rested. The pair stood from where they had been sitting, making their way through the streets and asking people if they'd seen two people with odd staffs walking about. They caught up to them just in time.

People were shouting. Whether they were shouting to run, or for the police, Chris wasn't sure which was more prevalent. It seemed that someone had made trouble.

In the middle of the street, it seemed they were surrounded. Six people, four male and two female, were staring at them angrily. Serebryakov seemed wary, but The Atheist hadn't even taken up her gun.

"What do you all want?"

All of them had black hair and dark eyes. Most of them were sporting regular clothing, but some hadn't yet given up the clothing that marked them as being from Japan. All of them were holding weapons – a spear, a wand, a staff, a pair of knives, a sword, a bow.

Chris was confused. They were alive?

She scowled. How had she taken their weapons from them, then?

She shook her head. She really needed to begin looking through some of those files. Maybe The Atheist had some sort of power that could do that? She didn't know.

Regardless, she needed to begin acting. Maybe she should try and diffuse the situation-

"You can probably guess, Degurechaff! You took our weapons and got us stuck in this backwater instead of going to the capital like all the others! You're going to pay for that!"

Then they all readied their weapons. "Did the other…" she trailed off, counting off her fingers. "…Three people not think you could do it?" she asked, apparently unfazed.

Their leader, the one with a pair of knives, growled. "No. Those cowards don't think we can take you. They're scared of your weapons, but we know the truth."

Tanya readied her mana, and Viktoriya did the same, both ready to respond in an instant. Darkness made to jump out from the small crowd that had surrounded them, but Chris held her off with an arm. "If we let them attack, we might figure out how Serebryakov is controlling Tanya. Patience."

Darkness shook her off. "No. I'm not convinced that Viktoriya is doing something. We should stop this before things become dangerous."

The leader continued to monologue, drawing all of their attentions. "The truth is, that for all of your power, you're a pathetic fool! You've relied far too much on your technology, when we have magic at our fingertips!"

With that, the two mages – the ones with a wand and a staff – began chanting. Tanya almost just put up an Active Barrier, interested in what the weaklings thought they could do, but she wouldn't allow herself to be caught off guard just because she was curious.

Maybe she'd extract information later. For now, it was time to fight.

"Engage!" Tanya shouted. As one, the pair of women jetted off, moving faster than either Chris, Darkness, or the crowd could follow.

The effects of their movement were much more obvious than their movements.

Both the mages doubled over, holding their stomachs. The leader, blades in hand, rushed towards the repositioned Tanya, as did the one holding a short-sword in her right hand. The apparent Ranger held back, while the one with a spear moved towards Viktoriya.

Darkness moved forward, breaking through the crowd, and Chris followed, scowling all the while. She needed to keep up the illusion that she was Degurechaff's ally, for now.

It appeared neither were needed. From the time they'd pulled their eyes from the pair to focus on getting through the crowd, both had already begun fighting physically.

Tanya ducked a frenzied blow from the one with the sword, pulling her rifle from her back. She jumped back from the pair, hanging in the air for longer than normal thanks to the barest hints of a Flight spell. All three of her opponents scowled at her, and Tanya smirked right back.

Above all else, this was a good stress test for their new equipment. Not the guns; Tanya had already tested those.

No, a pair of Type 97s, hanging from both of their necks, were the real reasons they hadn't just run away and let the police handle them.

It had taken her a few days, but with the Type 95 and a few more points into Smith, it wasn't extremely difficult. Both had one in the past, and the Type 97s were made using the Type 95 as a template anyway.

However, Tanya wouldn't have been able to make it without Viktoriya's help. Her skill had been the ability to gain an intrinsic understanding of weapons, armor, or anything that could be considered an 'item.'

Upon her arrival, she had immediately used that skill to learn the inner workings of the Type 97s. She was probably nearly as good as Schugel had been, and Tanya had been immensely thankful.

Regardless of their new equipment, these attackers weren't stupid; or rather, they weren't in their preparations.

They were stupid to try and fight her.

The probable-Warrior and the probable-Thief closed in on her, while the ranger nocked an arrow on his bow. Tanya, finally having landed, shouted, "Active Barrier!" and waited.

They came forward, striking her shield, and doing nothing to it. Arrows, knives, and swords; nothing was really doing damage. They were draining mana, of course, but Tanya didn't much care. She needed to demoralize them, since it would be annoying if they kept attacking her.

Besides, the Type 97 made it so that she didn't have to do nearly anything to simply stand there and revel in how much more efficient her spells were.

Slowly, the hits let up, and they just stared at her shield, unnerved. "Damn you! Let's get out of here, before the police get here!" the Ranger shouted. The other two seemed to think it as a good idea, but Tanya quickly burst that bubble.

She aimed her rifle, and shot each person in the leg. They were only twenty meters away, so she was sure that the wounds hadn't hit any bone and had gone clean through.

Their screams reminded her that they definitely still hurt, though.

Tanya looked to Viktoriya and her opponent. His leg was encased in ice, and Tanya sighed appreciatively. Learning a bit of this world's magic wasn't bad, and Viktoriya had expressed an interest.

Tanya was just happy Wiz had been nice enough to teach her 'Freeze' and 'Freeze Gust'.

She had also confirmed the existence of a gender-swapping item, after phrasing an interest in the limits of magical items and referencing the Shapeshifting 'Hero Candidate' that had tried to kill her.

Portions of the crowd began to move, and police started to close in. Tanya cursed; as much as she'd like them behind bars, she was sure they'd reveal some things she really didn't want known.

Blindly, she cast 'Heal' on all three of the people she'd shot, and dragged the two mages who had just started to recover towards them. Viktoriya dragged the one encased in ice over, and all eight of them presented themselves to the rapidly assembling police.

"Gerrard!" Tanya cried amiably. The thinly-mustached man smiled weakly as Tanya walked towards him, shaking his hand.

They hadn't met since their last interaction, and he was glad for it. He just wanted to be the Head of Police in a relatively quiet town; dealing with nobles was _not_ his idea of a good time.

"Miss Degurechaff. I suppose you can tell me what's going on?" he asked hesitantly.

Tanya beamed at him. "Of course! These adventurers are all upset about a… trade they had with me in the past. They decided that they wanted to try and take their revenge, but I and my friend Viktoriya were able to handle them."

Gerrard looked at the group. All six likely had dark eyes, in addition to their dark hair, but he couldn't tell, since all of them were staring at the ground mutely.

He didn't like where this was going. "Well… what would you like me to do with them?" he asked. He was praying to Eris that she wouldn't ask them to be executed.

"Oh, I don't want you to do anything. Let me and the guild handle this one. Those are within the rules, right?"

Gerrard gulped as he looked down at the noble. Well, it wasn't horrible…

Unless she meant she was going to do something like have them fight in the fighting pits that wealthier nobles were rumored to have, never to be seen by the outside world again. Then it would be decidedly less not-horrible.

One of the kneeling adventurers shouted, and the others followed suit, attempting to decry Tanya.

"She's pure evil!"

"She's lying!"

"She killed ten Tranquility Girls!"

He blinked at the last accusation, and then he suppressed a gasp of surprise.

Nearly frozen, he looked down at Tanya, a question shining in his eyes. She shrugged. "I killed three, Viktoriya killed seven. They're a public menace anyway."

Gerrard gulped, mind suddenly focused on a building far away from his current location and situation. "You can do what you wish with them. You've proven yourself to be a capable adult, so I think you can handle them. Just don't be too rough."

Tanya spoke to him. "Oh, I'm not going to hurt them. I don't want them to attack me, so-"

A cloud of dust interrupted her.

Tanya looked around, and realized that a large portion of the crowd had disappeared suddenly. Tanya shrugged; she got what she wanted. She turned to the six people – prisoners might be a better word to describe them, but she wasn't going to be keeping them like this for long.

Tanya picked up their weapons, and began to walk. "All of you, come on," she ordered. They began to march towards the guild, all six of them glaring daggers at Tanya and the mystery woman at her side.

"We'll just make a run for it; you can't catch all of us…" muttered the man who had held a spear. The other five seemed to think it was a good idea, so Tanya stopped, fixing them all with a dangerous glare.

They were subdued by that, for the most part. Tanya hadn't healed up the legs of the people she'd shot entirely, and sprinting would likely tear their wounds open again.

She looked at the two that had been damaged the least; the Mages.

One – a short girl who had decided to adopt the stereotypical attire one often imagined mages wore – was sniveling. The other – a tall man who was still wearing a t-shirt – was stone faced. She looked back to the girl. Tanya would try her first.

"What was your plan? It's obvious that you were going to try some sort of magic. If you two teach it to us, we'll let you go, no further punishment needed."

The girl perked up, but the tall, stone-faced male was the first to speak. "It's a deal."

The other five looked at him, betrayed, but he shook his head. "I spent two weeks saving up for that staff; I'm not gonna risk losing it. Come on, Shizuka. We need to live to fight another day."

"Rin…" she trailed off, looking at the others. They were glaring at the two, but the girl caved to her fellow mage. "We… we were going to use paralyze on you two. After that, the others said they'd take your money and weapons…"

Tanya nodded slowly. "Alright. Teach us the skill and you're free to go."

Rin smirked, and Tanya, hands full with their weapons, said, "Viktoriya, aim." She did so without question, and the group jumped backwards.

"Not here. We'll be going down this alley." They moved, a group of eight varyingly dressed people filling into a dark alley. Some of the pedestrians thought it was somewhat comical, but the shock of blonde hair, not hidden by a hood, told them it was noble business.

They ignored them.

Tanya handed the girls wand back to her. "Use it on your friends. If you turn on us, you can be sure to get a bullet in the leg for your trouble," Tanya said. The girl whimpered, but she took her wand and leveled it at the group of four.

They were protesting, but the blade of her gun weighed more heavily on her mind than their pleas.

"Paralyze!"

Their movements stopped, all of them frozen. Only their mouths could move, and they were all cursing Tanya, who shook her head. Of course they would blame her when it was their own fault they were in this situation.

"Alright. You two can go," she said, handing the man his staff back. Both Mages, conflicted about what they had done, quickly left, avoiding the gazes and remarks of their friends.

Tanya, meanwhile, looked at the rest. All of them squabbling among each other about who was to blame for their failure, since their plan was _obviously_ foolproof. It seemed they had reached the consensus that their Mages were to blame.

Tanya shook her head. "I could do whatever I wanted with you all."

With her declaration, their squabbling ceased. She took the respite to illustrate the possibilities.

"I could shoot all of you and Heal you. I could take all of your clothing, weapons, and money, and then I could leave all of you in this alley. Or I could have let the police have you."

All of them were silently staring at her. "I told each and every one of you that your lives were built on the fact that as long as you weren't threats to me, you could do whatever you wanted."

Tanya muttered, "I knew I shouldn't have let people who wanted to murder me go free…"

One of them spoke up. Their probably-a-thief leader. "Not all of us wanted to kill you."

Tanya froze, and then fixed him with a glare. "Explain."

He looked entirely uncomfortable, but he continued to talk. "You just assumed that we'd take up arms against you, but we didn't _have_ to-"

Tanya cut him off. "The possibility was still there, and I can't take the time to get to know you all. One of you come in every week, and I don't have the time to make friends with all of you _and_ kill the Demon King."

Tanya shook her head, dropping their weapons in disgust. "We're done here. I'll let you live. You all are young, and-"

The other female – their warrior – interjected. "We're older than you are, loli."

_Twitch._

"She really _does_ have an ahoge."

She shook her head, staving off her anger for a moment. "Idiots. I've been reincarnated before, so despite my appearance, I'm closer in age to _fifty _than five."

All of them looked rather shocked, except for the man who had had the spear, who looked… _intrigued_. Tanya quickly realized why he might feel that way, and fought down the urge to end him for thinking things like that about her.

She sighed tiredly. They had tested their Type 97s, and they had gotten an extra spell out of it. Tanya and Viktoriya better things to do that to lecture lackluster losers. "Whatever. Next time I'll steal your stuff. You all really need to learn not to mess with someone stronger than you."

Tanya walked off, turning her back towards them and heading towards the guild. Viktoriya followed, and the four people, trapped in an alley, were left to think for the few minutes that the Paralyze spell would last.

-OxOxO-

He was sprinting, attempting to push his body harder than the four younger men he'd brought with him and a number of other male adventurers that had heard her words. All of them were heading towards one place.

Last night, the Succubus had said they weren't doing any dreams, full stop. Nothing for anyone. After everyone at the staff meeting the police were having mentally acknowledged that everyone else there hadn't reported the Succubus, including himself, they had asked the girl why.

She'd said something about celebrating the death of the Tranquility Girls, but he hadn't cared about that. He was much more interested in their description of the one they wished to thank.

They had claimed that the slayer was blonde, worked with another female, and was probably a noble. Everyone in that room had thanked the Succubus for the information and thought the same thing:

_Degurechaff._

She worked with that heir of the Dustiness family and she was almost definitely a noble, even if no one had found her name in the registry.

Before leaving, the Succubus had promised them, if they could find the person, free dreams for three months. Straight.

And Degurechaff was that person.

And so, they were fighting to get to the shop. The small, unassuming shop where dreams were made.

It wasn't like Gerrard didn't dislike himself for breaking the law partaking in their wiles, but he was a man with urges that he couldn't resist forever.

His wife of nearly thirty years had been dead for five, and with their help, it was almost like she wasn't gone.

In the dreams, he didn't even always have sex with his wife; sometimes, he just talked with her, desperate to have even a piece of her back.

Three months, free of charge, was more than _very _tantalizing.

He was lagging behind, gulping in heavy, frantic breaths. Gerrard cursed. He looked to the adventurers that were pulling ahead, fighting against the more able men he'd brought with him, and saw that they were pushing down pedestrians and carts in an attempt to slow each other down.

An idea came to him, and Gerrard smirked.

"Hale, Michael, Fischer, Gabriel; as the Head of Axel's Police Department, I order you to stop the adventurers who are causing property damage," he panted out.

All four men paused their running, for a moment, but continued to sprint forward, uncaring of his orders. "Sir, we're sorry, but we won't!"

He continued smirking despite the pain in his lungs. "If you don't do it, I'll be assigning you to night duty for six months. With oversight from the female policewomen!"

The implication was obvious: if you got the reward, you wouldn't be able to enjoy it, and wouldn't get to make usage of the shop for another three months. The female policewomen were also very hardworking and wouldn't allow them to slack off.

All four paused again, and then began to shout as they tackled adventurers to the ground.

"Goddamn it!"

"I'll get you for this, Gerrard!"

"You better enjoy yourself, you bastard!"

"FUUUUUUCCCCK!"

He pulled ahead of them, panting for a different reason now. Free dreams for three months!

The idea tantalized him, and he continued to push forward. Just a few more buildings, and then…

It came into sight, and began to walk more slowly, assured of his victory. He reached the door, and reached out a hand to turn the doorknob.

He paused as his hand touched another. Blankly, he turned his head to his right, and stared right into red eyes and blond hair.

"Why hello, Mr. Police Chief! Fancy seeing you here."

It was Dust.

Judging from his tone, the color of his cheeks, and the way he was talking to him as if Gerrard didn't despise Dust for abusing their kindness by using their prison as a free inn, he was drunk. Very drunk, if he was judging the stink of vodka correctly.

Gerrard was still wearing his uniform, giving up all pretense that he was just another citizen making use of the Succubi. He grit his teeth, and gave an angry smile to Dust. "Hello Dust. If you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to."

He attempted to remove Dust's hadn't from the doorknob, but it stayed firmly in place. He looked back up, to see Dust's smug, smirking, satisfied face. "Now, now, old man. We can… can negotiate. I'll let you take their prize, as long as I can use the police station as my personal inn for the next year."

He weighed his options in his mind. A year of having to put up with Dust for three months of dreaming of his wife and having sex with her.

"And don't threaten me with an extended jail stay; I'm giving T- Tanya lessons, and she'll be very, very upset if I can't attend them anymore," he claimed.

Gerrard doubted it – what this petty criminal could possibly teach Tanya, he hadn't the faintest idea of – but even the threat of a noble wasn't something one took lightly.

He glared at Dust, and let out a single bark of laughter. "Cunning, Dust. Real cunning. But you forget: the police of Axel don't deal with criminals!"

With that, the figure of a small, aging, only slightly emancipated man, with tanned skin, small, shrewd eyes, and a thinning, graying mustache, burst through the window of the door, sending glass across the interior of the room and ruining his uniform.

Uncaring of the incredulous Dust – "He's dealing with Succubi; of course the police of Axel deal with criminals" – Gerrard shouted at the top of his lungs to the crowd of shocked customers, surprised at seeing the chief of police in an illicit shop.

"It's Tanya! Tanya von Degurechaff is the Tranquility Destroyer!"

-OxOxO-

They all sat around a table in one of the more secluded corners of the guild. They had banded together loosely, a team of four and a team of five. Earlier that day, they had attempted to extract revenge. But they had nothing to show for it.

"Why did you two help her? She gave us back our weapons anyway, and we wouldn't have been restrained if it weren't for you two," Kei said.

He was, nominally, the leader of the nine of them, and a Thief. He wasn't exactly the best planner, but he was willing to mediate between all of them if it meant he moved closer to getting revenge against The Atheist.

Shizuka was reserved, but Rin tried to make excuses. "I didn't know that! I wasn't losing something I've worked for two weeks to get."

All of them glared, but none of them said anything after that, or, almost nothing.

There were three there that hadn't helped in the assault. One couldn't care less – she'd help if she thought they had a chance, but she didn't think that would be happening, since Tanya had _guns_. The other two had the gall to defend the loli.

"What did we tell you would happen? Trying to fight her is stupid, and with her experience, we should be working with her," spouted off the tallest among them. He'd given up all of his old clothing for the stuff they had here, despite him being one of the newer recruits.

Kei slammed his fist on their table in the guild. "_Why_ do you insist on defending her, Takashi? She almost killed you-"

Takashi cut him off. "She _saved_ my life by using her own skills. She didn't have to, and could have left me to die. No one would have known, but she decided to save me. And she has helped _all_ of us!"

All six of them who thought she should be punished looked down, while Aya pointed out, "He's right."

Hiroshi, the spearman among them, glared at the woman who thought they shouldn't be involved with Degurechaff at all. "Can it, Aya."

She laughed to herself, and everyone else rolled their eyes. They'd grown used to each other's bickering, and the only thing that really united them was their similar origin and how all of them had been beaten down by The Atheist.

Just as it seemed Shizuka was about to speak, someone cleared their throat. All nine turned towards the noise. They didn't draw their weapons – they were in the guild, and none of them had seen The Atheist come in.

It was someone they didn't recognize – which wasn't just possible, it was likely, since all of them were rather bitter about their experiences and had acted very much like brats to whoever had a good opinion about Tanya.

Tanya, while not a paragon of moral fortitude, did give people free alcohol and was polite. Subsequently, she had acquaintances and drinking buddies, and they had no one.

"Yes. I assume you all are Hero Candidates?" she asked, a confused and hard look in her eyes. All of them were shocked, for a moment. No one had asked them that question, since none of them had an overtly powerful weapon, despite their odd appearance.

Aya spoke first. "We don't have weapons. What'd lead you to that conclusion?" she asked. While the girl wasn't convinced about getting revenge, she was surprisingly protective of them.

The person smiled. "Let me make myself clearer. You all are Reincarnates?"

That really got their attention, and even Aya couldn't speak immediately. This was, apparently, to the silver-haired person's design. She wanted to talk.

"I have a proposition for all of you. It involves getting revenge on The Atheist and the relics she unjustly robbed from you. Would you like to hear me out?"

One by one, the people there agreed to hear her out. Slowly, as the silver-haired thief spoke, matching grins broke out on all their faces, all of them eager to complete her tasks.

Kei the Thief, Rin the Mage, Hiroshi the Spearman, Saki the Warrior, Jin the Ranger, Shizuka the Mage, Aya the Mage, Evan the Priest, and Takashi the Warrior. All of them, despite their misgivings about fighting Tanya, agreed to do so, if they were reunited with their possessions.

Chris smiled as she watched the group of nine rejoice, thankful that she had finally figured out how to best The Atheist.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: And that's that! Gerrard gets a bit more focus – he's one of my favorite OCs in this story so far – and we meet the almost ten Reincarnates that Tanya probably should have killed. Too bad she didn't realize that Heaven lowered their karma requirements so they'd get more loyal Reincarnates.

Oh well. We also catch up with the Demon King, and I introduce the hilarious idea that Kazuma and Co. do so well because the Demon King genuinely prays for the health of anyone with a worse party than he has.

Anyway… how are you guys liking the pacing? An odd question, compared to the other ones, but I think that the pacing is one of my weaker areas . Do you think things should be different or not?


	14. Treachery and Talking

Tanya opened her eyes, and yawned. A bright new day had dawned, and things were…

Well, they weren't _exactly_ progressing. They were stuck in this town until she found a way to ensure new Reincarnates didn't try to kill her anymore, and with the presence of one of the Demon King's Generals, monsters were becoming less and less common.

Thanks to that General, her growth had nearly frozen, and unless they were able to find more Tranquility Girls, they wouldn't be doing much growth until the General left or until the Capital got enough soldiers to send some to Axel.

"Good morning, Viktoriya!" Tanya called out, jumping from her bed. She expected a prompt reply – neither of them had been able to shake the light sleep most soldiers were forced to take – but no sound came from the girl.

She sighed and shook her head playfully. "Sleeping in? We didn't even do that much yesterday…"

Tanya trailed off, her eyes suddenly glued to the window. Outside, a bird was frozen in flight. And not literally frozen, as in caked in a layer of ice or encased in an ice cube, which was probably possible in this weird world.

Rather, it wasn't moving.

"Being X," she grit out. It seemed he'd decided to come and try to taunt her once more. She would start by taunting him for timing this to coincide with a bird's taking flight-

She expected to hear the voice come from the bird, but Tanya inhaled sharply as a voice came from her right instead.

"Atheist."

A sickly sweet voice exited Viktoriya's mouth, who was now sitting up on the bed.

Tanya felt her world begin to shake as she turned towards her right stiffly. That thing _dared_…!

Unaware or uncaring, the thing spoke. "I am quite upset with you, young lady. You've been clipping the wings of my harbingers, and-"

"Fuck off, you piece of _shit_."

The thing wearing Viktoriya's body seemed surprised, and Tanya pushed forward. "Get out! You've proven your insistence on torturing me in some sort of attempt to get me to convert, and at this point, your inability to admit defeat is changing from pride to insanity. But that doesn't _fucking _matter."

"For some reason – her past, the world she was raised in, whatever the hell it is – Viktoriya still believes in god after slogging through eight years of hell. If you lay so much as a speck of mana on her for no other reason than her association with me, I'll-"

The thing smirked cruelly, and Tanya _almost _verbally whimpered at seeing it directed at her. "You'll what? You wouldn't dare touch your precious _Visha_. Or… do you even care about her?"

Tanya moved a shaking hand towards her pistol, but it continued talking. "Yes, you probably only see her as a resource, available to take a bullet for you. She's also quite nice looking, yes?"

With that, the thing controlling her friend used her arms and hands to fondle her. Tanya looked away, blushed, and then shook her head violently. She might not be able to do much, but she didn't doubt that it might try and hurt Viktoriya.

Tanya let out a little laugh. It was time to go on the offensive. "Maybe, when I eradicate that Demon King, I'll probably have figured out a proper way for you to be killed. First, you'll get the honor of experiencing every injustice ever delivered on so-called non-believers. Then-"

It cut her off again, and Tanya's anger only continued to mount as it used Viktoriya's voice. "Say what you wish, my lost lamb. I am here to inform you that we won't be reincarnating anyone else until you leave this town permanently."

Tanya paused, somewhat confused. He'd never shown anything that even resembled leniency when it came to her, and this might resemble that, in a skewed sort of way.

It elaborated. "You're causing too much damage, so we'll just wait until you leave. If you desire to wait around here for another of our Reincarnates to defeat the Demon King, then be our guest."

It gave her one last parting smirk. With that, the sound of a bird's flapping wings reached her ears, and Viktoriya's head lolled to the side. Tanya leapt on her.

Tanya took a deep, shuddering breath as she laid her head against her shoulder and straddled Viktoriya's lap. Then, she backed up, staring her in the eyes. "Viktoriya, are you alright?"

Her eyes fluttered, and she stared down at Tanya. "Huh…? Tanya, what…"

She never finished her thought, as she looked down at Tanya straddling her lap and blushed. Tanya immediately jumped off of her – that was _not_ appropriate, in any way – even as she continued to talk.

"It was Being X! He possessed you."

Viktoriya looked shocked, and Tanya explained to her what had happened. How… not like her it had been, to speak that way, to smirk at her like that, to… do such a provocative thing.

She seemed like she wanted to wave it off, and Tanya thought, for a moment, that she would declare Tanya crazy, and that she would have to go back to hiding her true thoughts – and why did that idea seem so painful, now that she'd already revealed everything? – but Viktoriya did look up and give her one of her patented disarming smiles.

"Alright. Is there anything we can do about it?"

Tanya's anger, so ready to lash out thanks to Being X, drained from her. Her gaze drifted downwards, towards Viktoriya's pajamas and the space that separated them. "Not that I know of…"

Her head jerked back up. "Wiz might! With everything else this world has, there might be some sort of thing that can break spells or block that kind of attack!"

"I'll never have to listen to another of his rants again!" she said with a smile on her face.

Viktoriya smiled warmly. "Wonderful. Could you leave?"

Tanya nodded absently, leaving the room to allow Viktoriya to dress. She walked into the hallway, wondering how many potions she would have to buy to get another spell, one that might dispel any of Being X's attempts at conversation.

"Hey, Tanya. I didn't know you slept here," came a voice from down the hallway. She turned.

Dust, hair ruffled and eyes bleary, was staring at her confusedly. She shrugged. "Those Tranquility Girls pay well, and we wanted to stay somewhere."

Dust was confused. Tanya was a noble, right? Why was she staying here?

He shrugged, guessing that she was really trying to seem like an adventurer.

He furrowed his brow. He remembered something about Tanya and trying to seem a different way…

He shook his head and dismissed the thought, instead wondering how long he could get thrown in jail for, since his plan with the Head of the Police hadn't worked out. Then the rest of her sentence registered in his mind. "Wait, we?"

The door opened up behind her, and Tanya went into the room, preparing to dress. Dust, meanwhile, was staring at who had walked out of the room.

A verifiable beauty had walked out of the room.

Tanya was cute; and, in time, she was likely to look beautiful, if she ate well. It was inevitable with nobles.

Dust wasn't a lolicon, however, and Tanya's bright golden hair reminded him too much of his history. This girl, on the other hand…

Well, she looked a bit old, but that didn't matter in the face of her other attributes. Namely, a very nice looking body.

Imagining the things he could do to her, Dust smirked. He was about to try the oldest trick he knew – pretend they'd hurt him so they'd treat him to a meal – when he remembered that she felt comfortable sleeping in the same room as Tanya.

Just as he was weighing his options, the aforementioned person came out of her room, dressed as always. She looked at her friend, and then followed her gaze to Dust. She smirked.

She flashed him a wide grin, and Dust sighed. That meant she was going to want lessons. "Yes, Tanya?" he asked grudgingly.

She shook her head, amused, and clapped the man on his shoulder. Not easy with their comparative heights, but she managed to convey some friendliness. "Don't sound so glum, Dust! You have two students today, after all."

He perked up, looking again at Tanya's friend. She smiled, and he finally saw the weird staff-spear strapped to her back, just like Tanya's. He smirked, stood tall, and prepared himself. He wanted to get his money's worth, after all.

Tanya beat him to the punch, however. "Yeah, yeah. We'll pay for the lesson, of course. With so few monsters, it's expected that you'd be more money grubbing than usual," she said, waving a hand flippantly and walking down the stairs towards the reception room, followed by her friend.

He sighed angrily. It wasn't like he wanted to be broke – indeed, he'd rather be able to pay for his drinks and not worry about his tab more than usual – but even if he felt like doing honest work, there wasn't much to be had.

With a Demon King's General so close by, monsters just weren't coming out, and the guild favored weaker and newer adventurers if there was any easy work, like carrying luggage or clearing away Crows.

The sound of Tanya's voice marched up the stairs, demanding him to follow, and, realizing he'd spent a bit too much time thinking about his present situation without alcohol in his system, Dust made his way down.

As per usual, Dust brought Tanya to the dump. There weren't exactly many places people could train inside the city without being seen, and during those first few lessons, when Dust had been paying her back, he'd hoped the smell would drive her off.

Oddly enough, neither seemed particularly burdened by the smell of rotting garbage.

While he led them between heaps of trash, picking out the occasionally interesting piece of not-quite-garbage and pocketing it, Tanya spoke to Viktoriya in hushed whispers.

"_The smell is bad, but it has nothing on the trenches. Despite his outward appearance of being a degenerate, he's quite good with a spear_," she said as Dust hollered and lifted up an entire chair whose only problem was a dark stain on it.

Viktoriya tilted her head. "_Why do we even need to learn how to use a spear?_"

Tanya sighed. "_As I told you before, this world doesn't have personal Flight spells like we do. As such, no one thinks such a thing is possible. We want to keep it as a kind of last resort or strategic asset, in case we run into something really powerful, and knowing how to use a bladed weapon well will give us a veneer of being a normal job,_" she explained.

"_But isn't the rest of our magic suspect_?" she asked. Tanya made a noncommittal noise of assent.

"_If they found out the specifics, yes. However, they have one magic system, and they've had it for who knows how long. They don't think another system of magic is possible. Subsequently, they'll write of anything we do as their magic, if we aren't too obvious about it_."

Further conversation was stopped by Dust as they arrived near the center of the dump. Most people couldn't stand the smell, and just left their trash near the borders. They had been able to set up a small clearing in the center, hidden by walls of trash.

Dust turned around, giving Tanya a quick glance. He then turned his full attention towards her friend. "You gonna introduce us?" he asked blandly, schemes for a free meal already spinning in his head.

Every Eris he saved on food was another one he could spend on alcohol, and while he didn't think she was weak by any means – anyone who associated with Tanya seemed to be either strong or weird, if the crowd of dark-haired people accosting them yesterday and her companions were anything to go by – he was sure he could get something out of her.

Tanya smiled. "Yes, this is Viktoriya. This'll be her only lesson with you – she just needs you to teach her the Spearmanship skill – since anything you teach me I can teach her."

Dust frowned at that. "Hey, I don't think that's very fair. Shouldn't she decide who she wants to learn from?"

"I choose Tanya."

Tanya smirked, and Dust stared at the twenty-something woman. He opened his mouth. "You know, you're going to waste away on a shelf forever if you don't try and get to know people."

Dust expected anger from the woman. She was twenty-something, and no one had thought to marry her in the years since she turned fourteen. That had to be insulting. "At this point, you should be thankful that someone even shows interest in you."

Instead of the expected anger, she only tilted her head in confusion. Tanya, on the other hand, was very angry. She muttered to Viktoriya about the different culture here, and how adulthood was at fourteen, in their private language. She nodded her head in understanding, and she simply shrugged at Dust.

Dust, annoyed about her lack of reaction, opened his mouth again. But Tanya spoke up, voice low, before he could.

"I would like to inform you, Dust: I bought all of your debt over a week ago."

Now, he tilted his head, staring at her with only a small iota of understanding on his face. "What do you mean?"

Tanya grinned, and began to advance on Dust. "Well, that means I found every single person or business you owed money to, and I paid off your debts. I gave them contracts, and I am the sole owner of your debt."

He seemed worried, and Tanya continued. He wasn't _scared_ yet. "That means that you now owe me 300,000 Eris, and I _will _be charging you interest," she explained. Horror had dawned on his face, and Tanya stared up into his red eyes.

"So I suggest you begin teaching us, because the more you teach us, the less money you'll owe me. Understand?"

He glared at her. "You really are 'Tanya the Evil'…"

She waved him off. "Oh please. I've been called a devil. Just 'Tanya the Evil' seems to be a step down," she said, moving towards a particular pile of trash and handing him the spear that he trained her with.

"Now, start teaching!" she shouted. Dust complied, aware that she might increase his interest if he tried any funny business where she could see him.

He smirked internally.

Over two months ago, Keith introduced him to the Succubi's shop as an apology to losing to Tanya in an arm wrestling contest. He'd made ample use of it since then, and he would be doing so tonight.

He knew just how to get revenge on her; He might have been very drunk, but he remembered that the Succubi were looking for her. She'd probably done something evil to them, just like the Tranquility Girls.

He knew just where they could find her, considering he slept just down the hall from them.

-OxOxO-

Tanya left the dump satisfied. Buying up his debt and motivating him with threats of increased interest had done wonders for his usually lackluster teaching skills. Now, it was nearly midday.

The pair of women walked through the streets of Axel, enjoying the carefree atmosphere. Compared to their own nation, it would have been impossible to find a town this big that wasn't geared towards the war.

They enjoyed it. Or Tanya did, anyway. Viktoriya was thinking.

Tanya noticed, of course, but said nothing. If her adjutant wanted to think, Tanya would let her. They spent another few minutes this way, and then Viktoriya spoke up.

"Tanya… you said that in your world, people weren't all that interested in religion, and only the very religious allowed it to dominate their lives, right?"

Tanya nodded. "Yep. Most were nominally of one faith or another, but they did little to practice it. I can intellectually understand why Being X was mad if he thought they were all supposed to be praying to him, but I just laugh at his misfortune these days," she said, kicking a stray rock down the road. "Why do you ask?"

Viktoriya shrugged. "Well… you might be against it, but you're more… fervent about your hatred than most of the people in your world were about their love for it, right?"

Tanya nodded, kicking the rock again and wondering where she was going with this.

Keeping her tone as even as she could, Viktoriya continued. "If you're allowing you're hatred for him to dominate your life, aren't you exactly like those people in your world?"

The rock Tanya had been kicking was sent flying down the street, breaking a distant window. Tanya was frozen.

_Twitch. Twitch._

Viktoriya continued on walking and talking, tapping a finger against her chin. "Yeah. If you're revolving your life around religion, even if it _is _hatred of it, then you're just like a person who's totally devoted."

Viktoriya blinked as Tanya's footsteps failed to sound next to her, and she turned around to see Tanya.

She was staring down at the ground, right eye twitching in time with that odd strand of her hair that everyone knew about and said nothing of. She was staring down at her shaking hands.

"Uhh… Tanya?" asked Viktoriya hesitantly. The woman said nothing, choosing instead to stare down at her hands, shaking her head from side to side. The faint mutterings of "IamnotIamnotIamnot" could be heard if one strained their ears.

Viktoriya winced, and loudly declared, "We're going to go to the guild now, alright?"

Tanya nodded her head minutely, and then continued to shake her head and mutter. Viktoriya walked in front of the pair, but she had the distinct impression Tanya was just letting her feet take her to the guild.

Viktoriya frowned. Why did she always have to go and say something stupid? She had been lucky last time, when she'd tried to confess and Tanya had gracefully given her an out after making her preferences clear.

She sighed sadly. Maybe one day she wouldn't nearly ruin everything by opening her mouth.

-OxOxO-

They arrived at the guild soon after, quietly pushing open the doors and silently sliding into the seats at their table. Chris and Darkness looked up, surprised to see them.

Chris had assumed they'd be doing something nefarious, like taking potshots at the local orphanage with spells or planning to sacrifice babies for fun or something. Darkness had assumed Tanya was residing in whichever mansion her family controlled, avoiding the relatively destitute adventurers.

Tanya actually said nothing, just staring at the table and going over what Viktoriya had said. After a silent, painful minute, Viktoriya ordered for them, not having the heart to say anything else to Tanya. The waitress's response confused Viktoriya, and she couldn't help but ask "What do you mean, you don't have that?"

The waitress shrugged. "With the lack of quests, all of the farm work for this summer has already been completed. There's no more food to be harvested until the migrating vegetables come through, and no more monsters means that we can't get any experience loaded food."

Viktoriya sighed, sparing a glance at Tanya, who hadn't reacted to the news at all. "What _do_ you have?"

"Bread and water," she said. Viktoriya stared at her incomprehensibly. The waitress gave her a what-do-you-expect-me-to-do-about-it look, and Viktoriya just nodded her head.

As she left, Viktoriya stared at Darkness.

"I saw tons of good food in the market. Why don't they just go get food?" she asked.

The Crusader perked up, happy to be of help, but still slightly wary of the new addition. "Well, the guild usually gets all of its food from donations from farmers and 'donations' from merchants, and the rest of it from quests. With most of the work done, they can't donate anymore, and the guild isn't used to shelling out money to buy provisions. That takes time to do."

Viktoriya just stared glumly at the table, wondering how to get Tanya to perk up. Then an idea came to her. "Why don't we go on a quest?"

Tanya had complained that they didn't have the experience to learn that Paralyze spell, since it cost ten Skill Points. Maybe getting those points would help her out?

Darkness lit up, while Chris seemed thoughtful. Tanya didn't react.

Darkness jumped to her feet, and ran over to the board. Viktoriya just patted Tanya's back, hoping this would work snap her out of her funk.

Darkness brought over many. Viktoriya rejected most of them, seeing as she wasn't exactly sure of the relative strengths of the monsters. A Manticore and Griffon sounded strong, and if they were closing off portions of the mountain, they must be.

She settled for the Rookie Killer extermination quest. Instead of asking for people to take on Goblins and to look out for Rookie Killers, it specified that they should kill a Rookie Killer.

The danger of seeking one out was apparently implicit, but Darkness was thrilled and Viktoriya, after a brief explanation from Darkness, felt they could take it on, with Darkness in front and their Flight spells in case of emergencies.

Then Chris spoke up. "I've got an idea. We want to end the shortage of monsters, right? Why don't we try and take on the Demon King's General?" she suggested.

Darkness's face burst into crimson, and Viktoriya began to think. A Demon King's General sounded like a strong monster, if it could cause a shortage of other monsters.

And hadn't Tanya said something about wanting to check out her options in relation to that entity? She'd worded it in a roundabout way, but she had said she would switch sides if Belzerg was going to lose.

"Do you know anything about him?" she asked Darkness.

Chris spoke up, this time. "He's a Dullahan. They're pretty strong undead that have an unattached head. They can control tons of undead, and have very strong physical attributes."

Viktoriya's face lit up. If it had a bunch of weaker enemies, then they could just take those on, if their leader was too powerful too beat, in which case, they'd retreat after destroying some of them. If they could, though, they'd beat them into the ground.

Viktoriya smiled triumphantly. "Okay! That seems like a good idea!"

With that, they left. Viktoriya didn't know better, and Darkness was too enamored with the idea of getting abused by an undead to care about the probable difference in skill.

Chris knew, but that was precisely the reason she'd suggested it.

And Tanya was just following them around, much too concerned with her identity crisis – _she wasn't obsessed with religion, she wasn't!_

Had they consulted with Luna, Viktoriya would have realized what a bad idea this was, especially with Tanya so out of sorts.

As it was, Chris was wondering if she should give those weapons back to the Reincarnates after all. It seemed she'd do a good job of killing them herself.

-OxOxO-

Sporting his usual disguise – which he really needed to change, since the person he was pretending to be had supposedly been assassinated on the order of the Kingdom of Belzerg – he stared up at the imposing castle. It was dark, gloomy, and he could feel eyes boring into him.

He smiled at it nostalgically. It reminded him of the castle he had just left, minus the barrier that surrounded the Demon King's residence.

In other words, it was exactly what Ragcraft assumed Verdia would do with his castle.

He walked up to the front, and knocked on the door. "Hello? I've come to see Verdia! He's probably received word of my arrival?" he shouted.

While it was hard to move armies and people across Belzerg, sending messages was fairly simple, especially since he could assume the guise of anyone he desired in order to get it sent.

Nothing happened immediately, but the great gate that he was standing in front of eventually shuddered…

And the door right next to it opened. A beckoning hand drew him closer, and Ragcraft found himself whisked through the castle by four undead, each of them appearing to be strong-looking knights.

Soon enough, he found himself in some sort of study. While not nearly as opulent as anything he had known in his time as Ragcraft the Prime Minister, it _was _clean. Books dotted a number of shelves, and shining marble made up the floor.

"Welcome Ragcraft, Leader of the Demon King's Intelligence Division," intoned the deep, reverberating voice of the Demon King's Dullahan. Ragcraft smiled back. "Verdia. Wonderful to finally meet you."

The headless knight gave a hearty laugh that told him either his lungs hadn't decayed very much or his voice was dependent on some other apparatus for functioning. "Indeed. And, in a roundabout way, we're on the same side again."

Ragcraft smiled. Verdia had been a particularly tricky opponent for the Demon Generals back then, but he'd come around to their side. It was nice that they could be cordial.

Verdia gestured his head about the place with one arm. "So, the place is nice, yes? I've spent some time on it, and besides one setback, it's ready to contain a grand army."

Ragcraft smiled thinly. "Yes. About that… while you claim that to be true, the halls certainly weren't filled with undead. The Demon King wants to know if the 'double blessed' Hero Candidate has been located and if you've increased the size of your army yet."

He might have been surprised about the existence of Hero Candidates – he had been out of contact with the Demon King for nearly thirty years, after all – but they were some of the biggest spenders in Elroad.

He'd gotten very used to their appearance, and how oddly proficient at some of Elroad's exclusive card games they were.

The Demon General sitting on the leather couch grasped his head in both hands and slumped downwards slightly. "Yes. Well, the problem with that is it is hard to acquire corpses."

He raised an eyebrow farther than humanly possible in an attempt to display his skepticism. The Dullahan placed his head on a rag on the table and crossed his arms. "It's not my fault. I can't exactly get close to the town when there are Priests everywhere. Plus, an enormous Heal was cast in the city. There must be some super-powerful Archpriest there."

Ragcraft massaged his temples. "Fine. I assume you have some idea of who the 'double blessed' is?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "Not really. Only one adventuring team has dared to approach, and none have since. I assume they've probably moved on." Ragcraft continued to massage his temples.

Then the Dullahan spoke up again. "As is, the team that did approach us was the one to leave that giant hole in the side of the mountain we're on." That gave Ragcraft pause.

He nodded. "Alright, that suffices on that front. But you should have moved in by now. He ordered you to kill everyone who resisted our rule the moment you confirmed the absence or presence of them."

'Those who resisted' was a very specific term, since they had sworn to Wiz not to hurt the non-combatants. They needed her to help maintain the barrier, so they were stuck fighting those who fought them directly.

Ragcraft continued chiding the more physically imposing Dullahan. "He gave you and most of your soldiers' equipment buffs that can resist any Priest's attempts to cleanse you. A single Archpriest, regardless of power, can't do anything to you."

He sagged. "It just doesn't seem fair…"

Ragcraft sighed deeply, clasping his hands. "Verdia…"

The being seemed quite upset, so Ragcraft attempted to make his tone softer. He didn't need to take out his shame at forgetting his goal and being discovered by Vanir on Verdia.

"Regardless of fairness, we need to stop the flow of new adventurers. With Axel gone, the only area completely safe for young adventurers to level up is in the Crimson Demon Village, and that's only applicable to their own kind. The sooner the war is over, the sooner you'll get your revenge."

Ragcraft grinned internally as her heard the Dullahan's jaw tighten. Things were progressing. "Now, I'll go to the Axel cemetery for the next week and bring you back bodies. I have money, and I can look like just about anyone, nobles included, so finding some lowlifes that can be hired to cart them away from Axel shouldn't be too hard-"

_KABOOM!_

Ragcraft tried not to squeal at the loud noise, and Verdia jumped up and pushed passed the undead knight who had likely been trying to tell them of the invaders, and Ragcraft shook his head. Even thirty years ago, he'd been more inclined to fight than to think.

That was fine. With Ragcraft here, they couldn't possibly fail to take over Axel.

-OxOxO-

Chris was panicking.

Instead of her usual guile and tact, The Atheist had, at the insistence of Viktoriya, said something about 'not particularly caring' and flung some sort of explosive spell at the main gate of the castle.

She wanted the Atheist to die, but she wasn't exactly sure what would happen to her if her mortal vessel was killed.

Thankfully, they were all still concealed by her own and Tanya's Lurk. Maybe they should come back later-

Out of the door they'd blown down, numerous undead began to sprint towards them. Chris was confused, and then she remembered that Lurk didn't work well on the Undead.

Darkness, always unaware of the dire context of their current status if it meant she'd get a bit of pleasure, charged to meet them, face bright red and sword swinging haphazardly.

"Wait!" Chris shouted. She didn't want her Crusader to die too…

Viktoriya took aim with her rifle, urging Tanya to do the same. A moment passed, and then they began.

Viktoriya's expression darkened as she watched. None of their bullets seemed to be doing much. They could pierce their bodies – some were limping and others had dropped their weapons – but all of them were still coming.

Chris swore and she began weighing her options. Darkness, or The Atheist? Which would she choose…

Her love for her followers won out. She wouldn't sacrifice anyone else to try and kill or convert Tanya, and letting them get close enough to kill The Atheist would also mean letting Darkness get captured or killed. "Tanya, try using Heal on them!"

Both turned to her, and Chris explained. "The undead despise healing spells, along with other skills learned by Priests. It's why they're so sought after when exploring dungeons."

Tanya nodded slowly, and then paused. She began to shake again, and Viktoriya dropped her rifle to stare at her as she began to mumble again. "P- Priests? I'm a Priest?"

Her hand fell from her weapon, and Chris was confused by the confused, hurt expression on the girls face.

In the first place, she was the Devil of the Rhine. Why was she feeling anything but hatred and pride?

She turned to Viktoriya, who shot her a helpless shrug and gripped Tanya's hand again. "I might have pointed out that her hate-fueled obsessions with religion makes her just as bad as someone who's obsessed with praising religion. She might have come to the realization that she's let religion define a _bit _too much of her life."

Chris inhaled deeply. She needed to focus if she wasn't. Now was not the time to break out into laughter.

Even if she really wanted to.

"Can you use some sort of explosion spell?" she asked Viktoriya.

She nodded. "It's not nearly as powerful as Tanya's-"

Chris rolled her eyes. "I don't care just save my- err- I mean, Eris's follower!"

Viktoriya nodded, aiming down her rifle. A muttered 'Enchant Bullet: Artillery Shot!' and a pull of her trigger sent a piece of high explosive towards the oncoming hordes, blowing through the first ones.

As Tanya was raising her own rifle – still going through the motions and trying to work through her swirling thoughts – a voice rang out.

"HALT!"

Viktoriya lowered her gun and Chris stood still, unsure who the order was for. Tanya had stopped, not lowering her gun and just muttering to herself. Darkness, on the other hand, didn't stop, intent on rushing towards the army, who had begun to fall back towards the castle.

Chris rushed forward, using her greater speed to catch up to Darkness and jolt her out of the daze she'd worked herself into. Both retreated closer to the tree line and watched as a figure was revealed by the opening of one of the giant doors of the gate.

The Dullahan. A General of the Demon King's army. A former Knight.

Verdia.

Chris felt her hatred stirring against someone who would defy the Gods by becoming the antithesis of life and joining the Demon King. She did realize it was sort of hypocritical, if she was associating with The Atheist, but she was working to fix the latter problem permanently.

She didn't charge forward, however. She knew she didn't stand a chance in this form. She began to smirk as she looked Tanya and her cohort.

They were what she had come to end, one underestimating the danger and the other unaware of her situation.

The thing began to monologue, and Tanya's eyebrow twitched, the first sign of anything other than self-doubt she had shown yet. "Foolish adventurers! Approaching my castle without a Priest and with the knowledge of the dangers inside was foolhardy! Considering your weakness, I will let you off this time. It seems-"

The clearing of a throat was heard, and the Dullahan looked off towards the side. Some faint whispering, too faint to hear the words of but present enough to identify its being there, took place between the Dullahan and some unseen figure, and the Dullahan sighed dramatically.

"Oh, very well. Sorry, but we won't let you guys go. It's nothing personal, we just… have to do this…"

The thing readied its sword, brandishing it towards them, staring at them with just a hint of sadness in the angle it was holding its head. Still, it began to pace forward-

Ragcraft was debating if he should order the knights to help their master or if he should go inside. He wasn't made for fighting, and while turning his body into armor and his hands into blades might work, it hurt to do that and every blow against the makeshift weaponry doled out further pain.

Still, he should help dispose of the low-leveled trash, at least-

Viktoriya got her spells ready. It looked intimidating and she was sure she could feel some sort of bizarre energy radiating from it, but Tanya said she should always be through in testing her enemy's weaknesses-

Darkness was panting heavily, and bringing her own sword to bear. Oh, she knew she couldn't hit anything, but she'd put up a valiant fight, and then be held down in his dingy, dark, dungeons and drained of life-

Chris was getting herself ready, trying to think of what to do. She wanted to kill the undead, but she wanted Tanya to die, but she didn't want Darkness to die-

Unseen by any of them, Tanya had begun muttering 'personal' under her breath in a variety of tones. Flatly, confusedly, hopefully, and then, finally, she shouted, "PERSONAL!"

All of them paused in readying themselves, staring at Tanya.

She was smirking, still unaware of her surroundings. "My conflict with that self-proclaimed god has moved far passed a simple battle of philosophy and religion. For everything he's done to you, to me, our countrymen and opponents, and to the countries we hailed from, the conflict is now personal."

Viktoriya stared at her, blinking slowly. Chris and Darkness looked to each other, just as confused as the pair of Demon King affiliates that opposed them.

"I'm not obsessed with religion; I'm obsessed with proving him _wrong _and living my life peacefully!" she declared, nodding to herself.

She rested her gun on her shoulder, staring amusedly at Viktoriya. "I hope that answers your question, Viktoriya. Now, where were we…?"

She trailed off, noticing for the first time where she was. Her eyes widened in realization and her triumphant grin became decidedly more fixed as she stared at the Dullahan across from them, the people around her, and the mass of decaying limbs and body parts sent flying by Viktoriya's spells.

"Uhh… what's happening right now?"

Before the others could explain, the Dullahan began to shout. "What do you mean?! I was just about to slay you all, despite my misgivings, and you don't even realize what you've _done_?"

Tanya turned and looked at him. If she remembered correctly, people didn't usually carry around their heads like groceries, meaning this was probably the undead General, considering the castle they were at.

She shook her head, ignoring his monologue. He was saying something about not wanting to do it, and her pushing him over the edge. She took advantage of his distraction to motion towards Viktoriya.

She nodded her head, showing she still remembered the small little motions she had taught her so they could communicate silently, just in case. This broke the trance the Dullahan seemed to be in. Meanwhile, Viktoriya looked to Tanya, and Tanya spoke softly.

"Cast Reinforcement spells on Chris. We're not fighting him."

Viktoriya seemed conflicted, for the briefest of moments, and then saluted. She walked over towards Chris as casually as one could when being lectured by a Dullahan, and began to cast her spells.

Tanya did the same on Darkness. She nodded her thanks, and as the Dullahan paused for effect, Tanya stopped him.

"I'm sorry about interrupting your day, Mister Dullahan. I'd pay for the door, but I assume you don't pay your undead legions and don't really need money. Goodbye!"

With that, she and Viktoriya took off towards the forest, while Chris and Darkness sprinted towards the Dullahan, intent on destroying the undead. Seeing as both Viktoriya and Tanya had gripped onto their partners arms, this meant both pairs snapped back into each other, sending them sprawling.

The Dullahan, confused by her words of _apology_ and enraged by her attempt to flee, now felt very empty inside.

He turned towards Ragcraft, who was concealed just inside the castle's door. "Are you sure we shouldn't just let them go?"

Seemingly as weary as he was, Ragcraft nodded. "Yes. It's obvious that none of those… adventurers are Hero Candidates, and that small one said something about not being obsessed with religion. She couldn't be double blessed."

Ragcraft, remembering the last time he had seen them, disagreed. He didn't want to kill them, though, so he couldn't say anything without probably having to do that.

Without a word, they retreated inside, conversing as the party outside bickered. "So you'll help with the graveyard, yes?"

Ragcraft sighed. "Yes, I'll get your corpses. Just start preparing to attack the town. They obviously know you're here, and we will only remain free from harassment from the Capital's knights by relying on Sylvia being consistent in her attack on the capital."

Verdia grimaced. He… she… whatever. They were the very definition of inconsistent, and if they were still trying to fight Hans for leadership, anything could send them back to the castle, intent on bickering with the slime.

Verdia nodded, and then turned towards the gate. "Well, I'll be ordering the undead to begin clearing more of the forest to fix the front gate. Prepare some believable personas, preferably ones that don't use your _actual _name."

Ragcraft frowned at the implication that his last disguise had been lackluster, but he shook his head regardless. He did need to prepare.

As Tanya and Viktoriya dragged the undead-hating Chris and the pain-seeking Darkness back to Axel, Tanya began to think about simply going back to their room and going to bed.

-OxOxO-

Tanya prepared for bed, making herself comfortable. She fluffed the pillows, readjusted her blankets, and took off all of her clothing – besides the Type 97, since she needed to protect herself and it wasn't a relic that had the possible dubious ability to affect her mind.

Outside the room, Viktoriya, having changed before her, was waiting.

Tanya had promised not to look if they both changed in the same room, but Viktoriya wasn't exactly trusting her. Tanya couldn't really blame her, either.

She sighed unhappily. Just the reminder of her strict rules when they were in Axel's baths – no turning around, no lounging, she had to take them as separately as possible unless unavoidable – made her long for the days when she could look as much as she wanted without getting in too much trouble.

The Eris Cult didn't like same-sex marriage, after all; she'd done a bit of digging in-between robbing the Reincarnates of their weapons and power, and those who were raised with its values were sure to think such a concept was impossible.

Tanya had used belief to stare at Darkness for as much as she dared.

She finished, and called out to Viktoriya. She came in, and both settled into their beds.

Tanya was cursing herself for getting so distracted. She'd probably given the Dullahan a bad impression of her, and… one in her situation might want to talk to him amiably about the possibility of an alliance.

"Goodnight, Visha," she muttered. Viktoriya nodded, and turned her back to her, saying nothing.

Tanya clenched her teeth. This had been her routine since she'd asked if Tanya could live with what she'd done.

And it still did bug her, but she'd hold out a week. She only had two days left. She definitely could, and wasn't contemplating, daily, how grand an apology she should make.

Tanya rolled her eyes at her own actions. Who was she kidding?

"I'm sorry for taking advantage of you, Viktoriya. I'd… _never_ do something..."

She sighed. "Even if you didn't know, I really shouldn't have done something like that. Alright? You know that I'd never try and…?" she asked, trailing off and trying not to have to voice the end of her sentence.

The last part was just… in case Viktoriya had been harboring thoughts about what Tanya _might _have done. Tanya's fears about Viktoriya thinking Tanya might have ever rap…

She shook her head and dismissed her own memories with a grunt,. Regardless, Tanya's worries had been growing since that second day, and-

Viktoriya turned over immediately. "Of course I know you'd never do anything like that! I was _joking_, but you took it too seriously, and I wanted to see how long you'd-"

Tanya felt her worry begin to dry up, and Viktoriya sighed. "Thank you for the apology, and of course I know you'd never do anything like that." With that, she laid on her back.

Tanya, also, turned onto her back, staring at the ceiling and waiting for sleep. She was tired from a day full of using magic and thinking very hard about her identity and her sixteen-year battle with Being X.

That her hair twitched occasionally at the thought of Viktoriya's joke went unnoticed.

-OxOxO-

_Three_ distinct voices, each muttering in the dark, broke Tanya's sleep light sleep.

She fought the urge to clench her fists or to shout; if intruders had gotten this far, it would be wise to hear what they might let slip in a room they thought was silently sleeping. Through her eyelids, she could see a light, likely from the hallway.

"You're sure, Dust?"

Carefully keeping her face still and trying desperately to quiet her heavy breathing, she thought furiously. What did Dust have to do with this?

And if he _did _have something to do with this…

Her breathing calmed. Even Dust wouldn't sink so low as to make deals with rapists. He would have probably joined some kind of criminal gang by now if he was okay with that.

"Yes, yes. She's the one you're looking for. It might have taken you days to find her without my help; don't I deserve a reward?"

A long, drawn out sigh snuck into her ears. "Fine. Go and fall asleep; you'll get triple what you were promised, at no extra cost."

Tanya tried to think about what reward he would want enough that he would gleefully shout about getting that also involved sleeping, but she put that aside. She'd be calling in his debt tomorrow, and she'd relish in whatever pleading he had to do.

Maybe making him relive whatever painful past he obviously had would be enough revenge?

His gleeful giggling drifted away. Speaking, this time closer to Viktoriya, broke out. "This is her partner?"

Tanya wasn't so concerned with their words. She was much more worried about the lack of another sound. None of the floorboards had made a peep while they moved. That meant Thieves – not unlikely, considering she'd earned a million Eris, and she couldn't think of anyone else that could be that silent.

"Look at her…" said one. Their voices were closer now, directly above her. She fought hard to keep her breathing even.

"I wonder what this barrier is…" trailed off another. Tanya's eyebrow's moved slightly, and Tanya cursed herself while wondering what kind of thieves could sense the mana in her Passive Barrier she constantly maintained, now that she had her Type 97.

"What are her dreams like? Just a quick peek wouldn't hurt, right?" asked the first one. Tanya couldn't help the confusion that crossed her face.

She heard gasps, and she shot up. The jig was up; now it was time to fight.

She began pouring mana into her Type 97, and, despite being covered by cloth, it lit the room up. Unfortunately, she was a touch too slow, too unprepared.

"Sleep!" shouted the higher voice that belonged to the smaller one. Tanya's Passive Barrier, only fit for deflecting debris and in place to detect that something had tried to attack her, shattered.

Tanya began to feel very, very, verrryyyyy sleeeeepyyyy…

She shook her head, lurching out of bed and fumbling with the top of her bed stand. She collapsed to the floor, but her prize was in her hand.

"Ohhhh go… god… please grant this ser… ser… sleepy o**ne the power to vanquish…**"

Her voice was beginning to strengthen, and Tanya could feel the tiredness fading. Anger began to build. She wouldn't be kidnapped.

Not again.

_**Never **_again.

But the pair seemed to have recovered. One was shouting sleep, over and over and ovvveeeerrr…

And as Tanya finally lost consciousness, she saw that Viktoriya had been put to sleep as well.

A flash of anger disturbed her drifting off, and she tried, feebly, to struggle, to try and resist she always had.

However, mana was a very effective tool in the right hands, and Tanya wasn't full rested from the day's activities. Another moment of struggle passed, and then she finally succumbed.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** So, Tanya has been forced asleep. I'm sure she won't have a bad reaction to that at all.

Ragcraft, another one-and-done member of the Demon King's minions, was also underused in the LN. I'm more than happy to use him here, as he'll push the noble and fair Verdia into doing something he might not want to do without the annoying explosions of a certain Mage to push him to attack.

Tanya, with more time to… _think_ beyond her immediate survival and promotion and hatred of Being X, gets posed a completely unexpected question from Viktoriya and breaks down about it.

Anyway, continued reading on. Tanya will have to face representatives from heaven's opposite in the next chapter. Let's see if she likes them anymore than she does Aqua and Being X, shall we?


	15. Clothed and Afraid

Tanya opened her eyes blearily, and she began to try and look around. She was annoyed when there wasn't much light coming towards her eyes. She tried to time the end of her sleep with dawn, to get as much done as she could, but-

Then it all came rushing back to her.

She had been forcibly put to sleep, and the cloth covering her head wasn't a blanket, but instead rough burlap. The lack of light wasn't due to it not being dawn, but the lack of constant light in whatever room she was in.

Her breathing beginning to become frantic, Tanya began to run through what she liked to call her diagnostic check. The name was a bit of a misnomer – she wasn't a machine – but it reminded her of the technology of her first life, and it was much less disheartening than calling it a 'post-crisis checkup on her health and sanity.'

She began to try and calm her erratic breathing. She was fine, nothing had changed, she was okay and she wasn't _there_ with _him_ and she was alive and okay and not on the eastern front and-

She groaned, and she tried to move her hands to cover her face in an attempt to repress her memories. They were tied behind her back, and she grit her teeth.

Great.

With a sort of mantra running through her head – they weren't handcuffs, they weren't, they were not they – she realized that she had neither the Type 97 nor either of her relics.

She only had her mana. Of course, that also raised the question as to where her stuff was.

Her opponents might have thought her defenseless without a fancy stick and her hands tied behind her back, but she knew better much better.

A burst of Observation spells told her that no one was in the small room besides her, and she nodded to herself as she began to build up mana.

"Sharpen Blade."

While she didn't have a _blade_, per say, she could channel the mana into her nails to make small, glowing extrusions that were sharp enough to cut through skin and muscle.

As it turned out, the ropes holding her hands together could be cut as well.

Minutes of carefully maneuvering her fingers passed – she didn't want to hurt herself – and the ropes, fiber by fiber, were sliced away, leaving her hands free.

She cut off the flow of mana, and ripped the bag off of her head. She found herself in a dimly lit room, lit only by a single mana-fueled light near the door.

The walls were the smooth stone that lined the interior of nearly every permanent building in Axel. A small window near the top of the right wall of the room, one that, from the brief glimpses Tanya could get through it, showed the streets of Axel.

It was a bit odd for them to store her somewhere easily viewed by the outside world, but they probably wanted to move her somewhere else soon. She smirked at the knowledge that, even succumbed, she'd overcome their spell before they thought she could.

She stalked towards the door, straining her ears, hoping to catch another conversation. The last one still confused her.

Peeking in on her dreams didn't seem probable, even with magic.

Then again, someone had invented a truth-detecting device and a gender-switching magic item. Mind reading didn't seem all that infeasible.

She heard nothing through the door, and tried the handle. Surprisingly, it moved under her hand, and Tanya peeked through the unlocked door into an empty, unlit hallway.

There was another door across from her own, and a staircase on the right. Tanya could now make out faint sounds of conversation, and straining her eyes showed her that a small amount of light was drifting down the stairway, likely through the cracks between a door and its frame.

She grit her teeth. Obviously, she couldn't escape through her room – she'd need a real blade if she wanted to cut through iron or steel with the spell…

She looked to the other room. She'd check in there for something to cut her way out. If she couldn't find anything, then she'd wait for someone to check on her. While they checked her room, she'd sneak up behind them and take a hostage.

She tiptoed toward the targeted room, turning the knob and slipping inside. Her hand brushed against the wall for a switch, and it found one easily.

What met her gaze wasn't other people, in a similar situation to herself, or boxes full of weapons or cash that might be expected to accompany an operation that made a habit of kidnapping women. Instead, Tanya was shocked.

Shelves of paperwork strewn across desks and peeking out of boxes met her gaze, and Tanya stared incomprehensibly. What kind of illegal business left a paper trail this big?

Tanya tilted her head and went up to one box.

'Dreams for O Month'

Tanya blinked, and rubbed her eyes, unsure if she was dreaming. Yes, it still said 'O Month'.

Eyebrows creased, she wondered why this place would use _symbols_ for its months instead of names. What…

She shook her head. If she could wonder about the naming conventions of this fantasy world, then she was wasting too much time. She thought rapidly, wondering about their purpose.

Were they attempting to assemble some sort of black market of information? If they could peer into dreams, then they'd learn about everyone's secrets and perversions. Tanya gulped, and backed away from the piles of contraband. She needed to tell Gerrard.

Even without the moral objections she had, telling the police about this would mean she'd get their gratitude forever. Their gratitude would return dividends in her being able to get out of any sticky situation she found herself in.

She could imagine any number of situations that was applicable, most of which involved that truth-detecting device and an investigation into her past.

Alternatively, she could blackmail the people upstairs with her knowledge. She didn't know what she might want to purchase over the black markets, but there had to be any number of interesting things in this world.

Suddenly, the sound of a door swinging open crashed into her ears, and Tanya lunged for the light switch, hoping that they hadn't seen the light. With the lights in the room off and the door above shut again, she was plunged into darkness.

Soft steps sounded down the steps, and Tanya hid just inside the doorway of their apparent records room. They became louder, and then softer again. Betting they'd come to check on her, Tanya peeked around the corner, and saw a figure's back.

She smirked, and stepped out of the room. They flipped on the switch in that room, and Tanya saw them recoil as an empty chair greeted them.

After muttered "Sharpen Blade," Tanya flew towards their back, propelled by rough Flight spells. Tanya grunted as she hit them, and both tumbled to the ground. Tanya had overestimated their weight and flown over them into the chair she'd freed herself from.

She rectified her mistake quickly, jumping back over the fallen chair and landing, once more, on her still-dazed captor.

Tanya took a deep breath, and then realized that they – a she by the tone of her stuttering voice – seemed to be calling for help. Tanya looked down, and smirked.

The cloak they had been wearing had covered their front, presenting them an apparently vexing trap to get out of.

Ignoring their muffled shouting, Tanya leaned towards her chair and the ropes she'd left on top of it, managing to grab it. A few quick movements of her hands had one of her captors bound and their cloak tied tightly around their neck.

They continued to squirm about, but Tanya ended that quickly. She grasped one of their legs, punctuating her order to "Be quiet" by scratching their leg with her sharpened nails.

They shouted out for a moment, but she made no more noise after that. Tanya nodded.

"Good. Now, you're going to help me get out of here. If you don't struggle, you won't get injured. If your friends try to stop me, however, I can't guarantee your safety. Understand?"

The person she was straddling nodded slowly. Tanya stood, dragging them up by their shoulder. "I'll undo the tie around your neck to let you speak. I hope you're persuasive, because if you don't convey how much danger you're in, you won't be able to speak again."

She loosened the tie, and they took in a gasp of air. Pressing her right hand into her back and holding her shoulder steady with her left, they walked out of the room. "Plea- Please! You have it all wrong! We just-"

"Quiet!" she snapped. She wasn't particularly fussed as to why they kidnapped her – she wasn't exactly sure if this world practiced had either slaves or serfs, but she knew for a fact that there _were _sickos that would want her for her diminutive body.

One of those Reincarnates had looked at her _speculatively_, after all. She would kill him first if they ever tried it again.

She shuddered and tried to suppress a surge of memories – a warmer-than-usual night in the Russy sky, falling endlessly, the feeling of a cloth pressed to her face – and focused on her objective.

Fighting down revulsion, Tanya walked them up the stairs. "Once I leave, I'll report you kidnappers to the police. I'd clear out of here, if I were you."

They chuckled nervously. "Oh, the police won't do anything about us. They'd probably protect us, in fact," she teased smugly.

Tanya froze, and then fought to keep her balance as her bargaining chip continued forward, unaware of Tanya stopping.

She cursed; they must have gotten some information on the police as well. Then, Tanya sighed tiredly. That could be rectified easily enough, even if it would be tiring.

She smirked, trying to keep her nervousness out of her voice and buried deep within her mind, where it belonged. "Change of plan: we're going back down, and I'll destroy all of your files."

A Napalm spell would be difficult, but she should be able to pull it off. It was a shame she'd be destroying evidence, but she wanted the police to act. She'd still get a bit of thanks for destroying the records of whatever they were being blackmailed with.

She resisted, harder than they had earlier, twisting her body in an attempt to throw Tanya off. "No, wait-"

Tanya pressed into their back with her nails, and they screeched. Tanya tilted her head; she hadn't pressed down _that _hard…

She shook her head. Focus on the mission.

"What don't you understand about the blade I have pressed into your back?"

They continued to struggle, and Tanya fought to keep her balance. "No! I must struggle; the livelihood of my associates is at stake! I can't let you destroy them!" she shouted, fear and determination lacing her tone.

Tanya growled and continued to struggle. They continued to make commentary. "Besides, why would a woman want to kidnap someone as cute as you?"

Ignoring their attempt at persuasion – and that was a really weird attempt – Tanya grappled with them. They still wouldn't stop, and Tanya grit her teeth.

Angry now – why wouldn't they stop _moving_? – Tanya reinforced her arms, grabbed the other woman's arm, and _twisted_.

Even with her reinforcement, she would have never been able to do more than bruise someone without a Computation Jewel. Something more painful might have been possible with a Computation Jewel, but nothing would come of her attempt.

Back in her second world, anyway.

Here, however…

_CRACK!_

They screamed loudly, and Tanya worked to get the makeshift gag back on. Here, with presence of the levels she had gained and the increase in effectiveness her Reinforcement spells got just from using them, snapping bone in this woman's arm only took mana.

"I told you, we're-"

Her words were cut off by the sound of a cascade of feet, and Tanya began to panic a little. They were crying now, not fighting at all – Tanya expected someone in this sort of business to be more capable of taking pain, but they were probably the Mage that had put her to sleep.

As much as she wanted to ditch her and fly out, she needed her equipment back. Leaving things like her gun, relics, and Type 97 lying around could mean disaster.

She wanted to be the one to introduce this technology to the world, after all; she had _ideas _of what to do in the far future, after she killed the Demon King and finally got free from Being X.

Tanya carried the woman over her shoulder, taking a moment to admire her bare legs. She ran up the steps, and kicked down the door.

The action worked, but the door had been locked. Tanya cursed, and began to dull the pain in her legs with a few Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spells. She'd probably torn something, but she didn't have time to-

Tanya's thoughts froze as she assessed the scene outside the door. She was speechless.

Soft mood lighting lit the room a lurid shade of pink, and numerous chairs, each of them dyed blue and made of leather, were arrayed around the room. Each was separated from another by _leopard skin_, of all things, hung on a bar of metal reminiscent of bus seats, giving them an impression of being booths rather than simple seating. A small, stout table sat in front of each one.

Tanya might have been confused as to why a kidnapping ring had such a suggestive interior – maybe they also ran a strip club? – but the occupants and the center of the room destroyed her earlier assumptions and left confusion in their wake.

A table, filled to the brim with delicious looking food that Tanya hadn't enjoyed since the Demon King's General had shown up, was the largest thing in the room. A sign above the table – which looked like it could seat at least thirty – said in cluttered, obvious lettering, 'Thank you, Tanya von Degurechaff!'

At one chair, near the head, Tanya could see her rifle, pistol, and Type 97 resting out in plain view.

More than all of that however, were the people in the room. Each and every one of the people seated around the table or standing and staring at her in shock were, in three words, 'sexy as fuck'.

Some wore an elaborate series of pins, hooks, and metal loops, stretching cloth across their bodies. Others wore more, showing off plenty of skin and wearing enticing, frilly pantyhose.

Tanya could even spot a few of them that had nothing that even resembled a bra or bikini, using their hair to cover anything that would get them rated mature in some sort of harem anime. Tanya could let her mind fill in the blanks as to what was underneath, though.

For a moment, they stared at Tanya, and Tanya _stared_ at them.

With her mind imagining what the little that remained covered looked like, all Tanya's mouth could do was let out a very intelligent "Uhh…"

All of them still seemed more confused than hostile; more worried than angry. Slowly, Tanya set the woman she had been carrying over her shoulder down, and cut a hole in their cloak.

Underneath, the woman wore a very similar outfit to those in the room, even if she wasn't as well-endowed as the others in the room.

She gulped. It was official.

Tanya had come to an incorrect conclusion, and needed to fix that mistake, and she needed to try very hard not to stare at anyone in the room.

However, her conclusion _was _logical; she had been kidnapped in the middle of the night and tied up in a dark room. What else should she have assumed?

She decided to choose a middle ground: no accusations, and no apologies.

"What is going on here?"

One of them – pink hair cascading as far down as Darkness's with pointy ears poking out of it and wearing see-through gloves that were longer than her own – walked towards her slowly.

Tanya tried to not get too distracted, ensuring she was sparing enough concentration to keep her spell running. It was hard not to, however, with just how much of the woman seemed to _jiggle_ with every step.

Frankly, it was obscene, and it bordered on ridiculousness.

That didn't mean Tanya didn't like it, however.

Softly, the woman spoke, an edge of fear present in her voice and cyan eyes. "We were hoping to thank you?"

Tanya blinked, and then tried to phrase her question as diplomatically as possible, given what she'd gone through. "For _what_?"

She smiled down at her, as if the answer was obvious. "Why, for killing so many Tranquility Girls, of course."

Tanya looked to the other occupants of the room, who were all nodding energetically. Carefully, she set the girl in her arms down. "Well, I'd love to accept that, but you should probably Heal her. I kind of broke her arm…"

All of them gasped and seemed stunned, for a moment, until two of them rushed forward. Tanya hesitated for a moment, before snapping her fingers. "Oh right. I'll just use Heal on her, and she'll be fin-"

"NO!" all of the screamed. Tanya shrunk back, but didn't give up her hostage/patient. "Why not!?"

The one with the pink hair, who seemed to lead them, spoke quietly, panic on her face, her former tepidness nowhere to be seen. "We're Succubi! We'll be eradicated if priestly skills are used on us if the worshiper doesn't believe in a Dark God."

Tanya pinched the bridge of her nose, more annoyed with their description of some religion than their claiming she was a part of one. Why would someone call their own god 'Dark'? That seemed like the worst way to attract followers.

She sighed, and shouted "Heal!" anyway. She remembered Wiz saying something about Heal being effective against undead because the skills of a Priest relied on their connection to their god, back when she'd first met her.

Tanya had no such connection, meaning hers was technically weaker than a Priest's, if said Priest had as much mana as she did.

They all shouted for her to stop, but, bit by bit, the girl's soft crying, which Tanya hadn't heard, began to fade. They all stared at her, flabbergasted.

"But… aren't you an Adventurer? Why do you have a Priest skill?"

Tanya nodded, wondering how they had figured that out, and handed the girl over to the pair waiting. She turned to the tall, pink-haired one. "That brings up my next question. Succubi?"

She nodded, and Tanya elaborated. "No, not _are_ you all Succubi. What _is_ a Succubi?"

She remembered something term that, vaguely, from her time in Japan, in relation to some sort of marketing scheme done by another company in a desperate and oddly successful attempt to save themselves from bankruptcy. She didn't remember many details, though.

Clearly, they had something to do with sexuality, because Tanya had no idea why they'd wear clothing like that otherwise. Besides that, Tanya assumed they were some sort of being that opposed 'gods,' if they couldn't be healed by a Priest.

They acted surprised. "We're very minor demons who feed on the vitality of men," she explained.

Tanya opened her mouth again, but the woman expected her question. "We have a mutually beneficial relationship with the men of Axel. We give them whatever dreams they desire, about whatever they want, and we charge a bit of money and take some of their life force."

She seemed rather nervous, and Tanya could guess that she only really explained that to first timers they saw as a source of food an income instead of someone they were indebted to.

"Then what were you talking to Dust about?"

One of them, purple hair drifting passed her shoulders and ending in curls, jumped up from her seat. Tanya blinked at the wondrous sight, and exhaled through her nostrils, wishing now, more than ever, that Being X hadn't imprisoned her in this stupid body.

Maybe she'd do the same to him and ignore every other option, purely out of spite. She'd done a lot more out of spite, after all.

"Well, I came around to give him the dream he paid for, but he was awake. He told us about where you were staying and a bunch of stuff about you, and we told him he'd get three days of dreams for the price of the one he paid in return."

Tanya's eye twitched, and she swore she'd get back at him. For now, however, she would continue focusing on her newest acquaintances. "And the kidnapping?"

That was what most vexed Tanya. If they had wanted to talk to her, she would have come easily, if they had openly expressed their admiration for her having killed the Tranquility Girls.

Luna had thanked her, and some of the Crusaders had thanked her for doing a job that needed to be done, but that was about all the 'praise' she'd received.

The purple haired succubus shrugged apologetically, rubbing the back of her head. "We panicked?"

Tanya sighed deeply. "Fine, whatever. _Why _do you care so much that I killed a bunch of plants?" She began to make her way to what she assumed was her seat, and most of them began to sit down.

It seemed that they didn't hold any grudges for her attack on them. The tall one flashed her a smile.

"They kill adventurers using their wiles, depriving us of a food source. We want them eradicated out of both a sense of self-preservation and… a bit of jealousy."

Tanya nodded all the while, sinking into her seat heavily. Well, this was certainly a very interesting night. But for now…

She looked out across the table as she slipped the Type 97 around her neck, shouldered her rifle, and put on her belt and pistol. She'd eat her fill – it would be rude to reject what they'd offered, and all this food looked wonderful – and then ask them some questions. Like just how much those dreams cost, and how long she'd get free dreams for killing the Tranquility Girls.

-OxOxO-

Ragcraft muttered to himself angrily. Why that Dullahan didn't just march on the town, he didn't know.

Sure, they couldn't kill _everyone_, but there weren't many people who'd sit by and let an undead do what they wanted with their town. They'd resist, no longer be considered non-combatants, and cut down to feed his army.

Plus, he'd get more and better undead soldiers by just killing the adventurers that came to stop him, instead of scavenging graveyards.

He sighed tiredly as he made his way towards the graveyard. Verdia did have a sense of honor, which was probably what stayed his hand.

He shook his head and continued to trek forward. It was nearing midnight, which meant that absolutely no one would be here.

If someone was there, then he and whoever they were could _both _raid the cemetery. He couldn't really think of another reason someone would be out here at this time of night.

The people buried here were just poor or homeless. Priests didn't take the time to send their spirits off, since they couldn't pay for the service.

And while they _technically _went on a waiting list, by the time the Priests got to them, they'd already become some sort of undead. He didn't need to be a Priest to know that.

He finally got to the top of the hill – the undead couldn't get down without possibly tripping over themselves and injuring their already decaying bodies – and groaned at the sight that greeted him.

He'd marched through the dark, tripping time and time again because he couldn't see in the dark in his human form, and what waited for him?

Someone sending spirits to Heaven, in the middle of the night, using a magic circle, of course.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, but continued on, changing his stature and features. Before, he had been just slightly taller than average with dirty blond hair that drifted down to his shoulders.

Now, with a much brighter blond mop of hair that was cut shorter and bright blue eyes, they'd have to listen to him. He looked and could act like a noble; threats would accomplish his goals.

He stalked through the expansive graveyard, dodging behind the occasional sickly-looked tree or mound of dirt whenever he could. Catching them in the act would be crucial, and-

His thoughts stopped as he approached them. He had assumed guards surrounded the 'Priest,' but a closer look at them showed him he had been wrong. Instead of living guards, perhaps Crusaders who would help a young, naïve Priest be a good person instead of lusting after money, they were Zombies.

Full-fledged, rotting corpses, given new life by a master. And while it could mean he was facing a Necromancer, he had an answer that was much more plausible.

Wiz. A Lich, someone powerful enough that she could defeat most of the forces in the Demon King's castle, if done by surprise. And, more recently, as the Thief of the King's Coffers.

The idea to imitate Verdia struck him, but he wrote it off. Even a Doppelganger couldn't imitate the energy that the undead gave off, and Wiz didn't like him anyway, if the Dullahan's annoying muttering was anything to go by.

Instead, he strolled behind her in the guise of his midnight-black silhouette. She would recognize him as a strong monster, at least, and then a conversation could begin.

He crept up behind her, and when, only a foot from her, one of the zombies finally noticed him, he tapped her on the back. "Wiz."

She shrieked, and the bright circle dimmed as she lost concentration. Arms raised, as if to start casting a spell, she tilted her head at the sight of him. "Who…"

"I am part of the Demon King's army. I had come here for a different purpose, but I think he will thank me for checking up on you," he rattled off. She nodded hesitantly, turning back to the circle.

He stood next to her, and asked his first question. "Why are you losing so much money?"

She pouted miserably as she watched souls fly towards Heaven. "I don't know. I try my best, but no matter what product I try and stock, no one seems to buy them."

He nodded, and was about to move on, when she added, "Oh, except for one. A special customer of mine buys five impact-explosion potions every week or two. I don't know what she uses them for, since no one has said anything about repeated, large explosions, but I'm too afraid of scaring her off to ask."

As she continued to talk, Ragcraft, instead of sharing the happiness present in her tone, was mildly annoyed. "And? You've still been losing money, and month after month, the Demon King has to spend resources getting enough money for your rent and sending it to you."

She began to pout once more. "I'm so- sorry…"

Ragcraft sighed again, wondering if he should have just remained the Prime Minister of Elroad instead of coming back. "Just… make some safe investments, or ask someone you know for help. Now, this one is off the books, but… what do you think of Axel?"

She smiled softly, and began to tell him about the town, some of her favorite parts of it, and how she wished some of her products would sell. He smiled and offered occasional advice, but he was otherwise uninterested.

The Lich still hadn't given up on portions of her humanity, just like Verdia.

He phrased his next words carefully. "Say, Wiz… The Demon King has been wondering about Axel, and has been thinking about moving me here to monitor it. Also, he moved Verdia here recently, and he's been causing problems for adventurers by depriving them of monsters."

This wasn't even just information he'd asked of the Demon King and Verdia. In the few hours he'd been in Axel, Ragcraft had observed that the economy was stagnating.

He had been the Prime Minister for Elroad, after all; he knew a thing or two about an economy that was not just hurrying, but sprinting towards ruin.

Axel was declining, obviously, due to the lack of monsters.

Adventurers, with their lack of spending money, had to settle for horrible food. Farmers couldn't sell all of their food, leading to them having to lower prices, despite doing the same amount of work. They made up for it by putting up fewer quests for adventurers, saving them a few Eris and dooming the adventurers to even worse food.

Shops were forced to lower their prices to try and attract even the smallest bit of business. They had to pay their employees less or even fire them, leading to more people having less money to spend.

People would tighten their belts and continue spending less, and the whole thing would repeat for a few weeks or months, until aid was provided by an outside source, likely either the nobles, the clergy, or the royalty.

Wiz seemed to have seen some of it too, if the truly saddened expression that marred her face was anything to go by.

He then raised his own tone. "Not to worry, Wiz; Verdia will leave as soon as we confirm a few things about Axel. If you could help, then we'll leave even faster!"

Her face lit up at the opportunity to help, and Ragcraft internally shouted in triumph.

If they could figure out the defenses of the town, they'd have an easier time of getting in, taking all the people who survived with them to use as undead, and then retreat to the castle and teleport out with the help of Wolbach, who was still searching for her other half and should be here in four weeks.

"Of course! What do you want to know?" He smiled at her, morphed his body into the one he'd worn while travelling there, and began to ask questions.

He asked about the strength of the adventurers, and she told him that there were two or three that could be considered truly strong, as well as a few who were over level thirty.

He asked how she knew, and she told him that she often strolled through Axel while buying ingredients or new products. She heard things, and she still talked with plenty of people, even if she did try and stay in her shop to catch whoever might show up.

He asked about the presence of Hero Candidates, and she told him there was a large group of people who resembled them in looks and who didn't have the matching weapons.

He asked about the double blessed Hero Candidate, and she told him that none of them had any strong abilities or weapons to speak of.

Ragcraft felt he could almost giggle, but he stifled it for now. "Wonderful! One last question: can Verdia use this graveyard for-"

"No."

He blinked at her uncharacteristically blunt response, but he nodded regardless. It seemed that she hadn't become entirely soft once she had become an undead.

"I understand, Wiz," he told her while thinking of how he would be coming back tomorrow once he had hired some adventurers.

She seemed taken aback, and he smiled softly at her. "Keep up the good work. I'm sure you'll be able to break even soon!"

With that, he morphed his body back into the silhouette and loudly walked towards the beginning of the slope of the hill. Soon enough, he saw her turn away – this form's ability to survey its surroundings was unparalleled, so literally seeing out of the 'back' of his head was child's play – and he crouched down, preparing to transform.

If he'd had a face, he would have grimaced, but he didn't have a choice. He needed to figure out which bodies were best suited for becoming undead, and he couldn't do it in broad daylight or under the watch of Wiz.

He felt his arms and legs mold together, and he felt his neck disappear. Slowly, his body became one of his stealthiest forms: a Giant Worm.

They were easily killed by adventurers, but that was _only _when the Giant Worm tried to take on an adventurer. If they remained underground, they were nearly impossible to find.

It took him but a moment to adapt to his newest form, and then Ragcraft was off, burrowing through the ground, bumping into the occasional body, and making a mental map of where the best ones were.

He would be at this for a few hours, and then he would trek back towards Axel for a bath.

-OxOxO-

As she chewed on a frog leg, Tanya eyed the Succubi around her, wondering if Demons preferred to feel awkward during their celebrations.

She rather doubted it, but the atmosphere definitely suggested it. She'd eaten her fill and sipped at the wine, trying not to feel awkward as everyone spoke quietly. It didn't feel like a celebration.

The sounds of others eating, the occasional comment about the food or even the _weather_, and some whispered questions that Tanya couldn't make out from her position filled the room for several minutes.

It was almost unbearable, but Tanya was too busy eating and enjoying the alcohol to care, for now.

Finally, she had finished with her first serving. Just as she swallowed her last morsel, she began on her next serving, shoveling more food – Squirrel, Toad, and even a bit of Rookie Killer – onto her plate, carefully ensuring that her pajamas remained free of sauce.

The Succubus to her right blinked as she watched Tanya eat. "You have a rather voracious appetite for one so young."

Tanya almost spat out that she was sixteen, but that would have sent food flying across her plate and killed the pathetically weak conversation.

Since Tanya wasn't feeling homicidal, she just nodded. "Lots of mana usage means you have to eat a lot of food. I used to eat even more, back when I was a mage."

She tilted her head. "I thought you were an Adventurer?" she asked, and several of the surrounding Succubi looked their way, interested.

Tanya nodded slowly. She supposed she should reveal a few personal details that she could afford to let slip, if she was going to use their debt to build some sort of relationship with their business.

No doubt, they earned tons of money by providing dreams to frustrated teens and adventurers. She wanted a bit of that money, since she was sure the money she had managed to accumulate doing quests would disappear soon enough.

She'd already spent a large chunk of it on getting provisions for Viktoriya and building their equipment, and the materials used in Computation Jewels weren't cheap.

"I am. I fought for my nation in a war. Joined when I was… eight? Nine? Something like that."

The others seemed shocked, but Tanya had grown used to that reaction. She just sipped on her wine imperiously, hoping they wouldn't ask too many questions about the war.

After a moment, conversation began to spring up after that, no doubt about her, but it was more sufferable than the near-silence of earlier.

"By the way, what's your name?" Tanya asked as she nibbled at a bit of cabbage. The woman next to her smiled.

"Sorry to say, but we can't give those out freely. Those have power over weaker demons, among our other weaknesses…" she said.

Looking up from where she was staring at her plate, she looked up. "You can call me 'Receptionist Succubus' if you need to address me." Tanya nodded, but didn't pry into the weaknesses further.

She could ask Darkness about their weaknesses tomorrow. No doubt, most of those weaknesses had to do with religion, blocking her access to using such methods. Still, Darkness was a Crusader, which meant she might know a few more.

As Tanya looked around, it seemed that most of them had already finished eating. "You all said you feast on human vitality, right? Why eat at all, then?"

She shrugged. "There aren't enough jobs to be able to feed on them alone, so we supplement our diets with whatever food we can buy."

Tanya nodded, and went back to her food as the Succubus's attention was caught by another Succubus. A few more minutes passed, leaving Tanya to stew in her thoughts of what to do with the opportunity before her.

They would be good allies, if they treated her to food whenever she took out a Tranquility Girl.

Suddenly, one of the doors out of the room that Tanya hadn't seen burst open, and the three Succubus that had left earlier ran in, all of them happy. Several got up to greet them, including the receptionist.

Tanya turned to the purple haired Succubus who had been one of her kidnappers. "What's the big deal?"

Her happy expression faded into one of puzzlement, and then she nodded. "Right, you might not know. Demons of all kinds have really weak bodies. Pain and damage done to them, even clipping a simple nail, is very harmful. We're just happy she didn't go insane or die from that arm break."

Tanya's gaze turned to the Succubus who she'd hurt, and she grimaced. She'd nearly killed one of them, and now she was trying to make inroads…

"I guess I should apologize…" she mused.

The girl next to her waved her off. "No, it's our fault for kidnapping you. It's just… you started saying that prayer, and we were sure you were going to exorcise us," she said, looking apologetic and rubbing the back of her head.

Tanya fought the urge to grab a quick look at her breasts, and, for the millionth time that night cursed Being X for not giving her a male body.

Tanya rose to go apologize anyway – she wanted to have an upper hand in negotiations, and they could use the Demon's near-death as ammunition against her – but the scantily clad demon began to talk again.

"By the way, what Dark God do you worship? There are rumors of a Regina worshiper working near Belzerg, but…"

Tanya continued to walk, ignoring her question. Everyone – and she meant _everyone_ – expected everyone else to praise some sort of god.

In her last world, it had gotten very annoying, and it hadn't gotten less annoying here.

Here, at least, there was justification for everyone's interest in it: you got support from whichever church you worshiped, and you got barred from entering the premises every church you didn't worship.

She shook her head as she walked towards the gaggle of Succubi, who was seeming a bit overwhelmed by all the attention she was getting. She wouldn't give anyone a definite answer as to her religion.

Let them assume she praised what they expected her to praise.

Tanya broke through the circle, lightly pushing them out of the way instead of elbowing them. What if elbowing a Demon gave them internal bleeding?

She didn't know, but giving someone internal bleeding seemed to be a very bad way to keep these people thankful to her, so she erred on the side of caution.

They parted easily, and Tanya cleared her throat once she was in front of the girl.

Her eyes widened, and Tanya began her apology. "Ahem. I am sorry for causing you so much harm. I wasn't aware of the possibility for death, and I didn't know what was going on. Still, I shouldn't have broken your arm just because I was trying to escape."

Tanya bowed her head, hoping she had done enough. Instead of some sort of icy acceptance like she had expected – Tanya certainly would have been absolutely furious at anyone that tried to kill her, accident or no – Tanya was hugged.

"Aw, it's alright. We lolis have to stick together, right?" she asked her happily.

_Twitch._

Tanya felt her right eye twitch, and she was sure that stupid strand of hair on the top of her head was waving wildly, but she stiffly returned the hug. "Yes…"

The crowd around them began to return to the table, and both began to walk towards Tanya's spot on the table. "How'd you all sneak into our room? I didn't hear any of the floorboards creak."

A pink eyebrow climbed up the girl's forehead, before she giggled. "We can fly," she said.

Two purple wings sprouted from her back, thin and lithe. The girl began to float up, until she topped Tanya in height.

Tanya just raised an eyebrow, and the girl broke into a fit of giggles, curling up in the air. Tanya nodded respectfully as she slipped into her seat.

"Cool," she said as she took yet another sip of wine. The self-proclaimed loli slipped into the one to her left, her wings receding and a small pout forming.

"'Cool'? Usually, we get asked how we can stay afloat," she said crossing her arms, clearly fishing for the question. Tanya smiled amusedly, weighing if she should show her magic off.

Smiling widely, she decided she might as well. They had shown her theirs, after all. "It's just using mana or a spell, right? Just like me?"

The Succubus, on the verge of agreeing with her, whipped her head towards Tanya, eyebrows knit and eyes staring.

A grin on her face and a bit too much alcohol in her system, Tanya rose from her seat an inch, before scooting her chair back and rising further.

"No WAY!"

The gaze of every other Succubi was drawn to them, and they made similar declarations as they realized Tanya was flying in the air under her own power.

Tanya basked in the praise. "Yes way! Just a simple application of mana and force is all it takes!"

She began to do little tricks she'd picked up in the spare time the 203rd often had as it traveled from front to front, battlefield to battlefield.

A cartwheel, a bit of marching through the air as if she could walk across it, and even walking on the ceiling.

Thankfully, she didn't even have to worry about some stupid nightdress falling down around her head, as she hadn't gotten around to getting actual pajamas. She was still wearing the clothes she had first come here in to bed.

She wondered, for a moment, why that mattered, and then she decided that didn't matter, and that the people around her cheering loudly were much more important.

They ate it up, and Tanya sighed happily. She didn't often get good praise – she was awarded medals and favorable reports, but no one had ever held a party in her favor before, except for the 203rd.

Then, she stood on the ground, surrounded by scantily clad women all asking questions. She only halfheartedly hid her lustful gazes, mentally writing her actions off as her choosing someone to answer the questions of.

She picked the Loli Succubus. "Are you some sort of Devil?"

She chuckled. "Nope, pure human!"

She picked another one with a much more attractive figure – blonde, honey-colored hair and wearing even less than the average succubus there. "What else can you do?"

Tanya laughed. "All sorts of things! I can cast numerous Detonation spells, Lurk like a Thief, and cause untold damage to any who stand before me! Plus…" she trailed off, gathering a bit of mana.

"Reinforce Agility!" she shouted, pouring in as much as she could. The people around her slowed down, and Tanya ran to each, touching hair, pieces of clothing, and giving even a passing caress to their exposed skin.

She assumed her previous position, and reacted to their near simultaneous cries of fright at the unexpected touches.

Then, applause broke out. Tanya surveyed them again, picking out the purple haired one. "What Deity do you praise?"

Tanya froze.

The other Succubi all began to clamor for the answer. "Yeah! They must be super lenient on Demons, so Wolbach seems like she'd fit!"

The Receptionist Succubus spoke up, shaking her head. "No, she's not in any way representative of Sloth. It must be Regina!"

Another spoke out. "What could she be vengeful about? Plus neither of them can bestow flight! She must praise some sort of God from that Kingdom she mentioned that she fought for!"

More and more, they tossed forward names. She recognized none of them, but Tanya knew one thing: she followed none of them.

Faster and faster and faster, they continued to shout out names. They continued to _dare_ suggest that she would bow before another being and call them god.

They continued to shout, all of them looking at her, having decided that only she could tell them.

"Which God! Which God! Which God!"

"NONE of them!"

Her shout had silenced them, and Tanya snarled at the cowards. "Do you all assume I have to have help to do what I do? That I have to bow my head, crawl through the dirt and grime, and _beg_ for someone else to save me?"

Still, none of them spoke.

"Never! A thousand – No, a million times never! After all they've done to me, I couldn't, wouldn't and won't!"

With that, she snarled again, pushed passed the crowd, and sunk into her chair, glaring at them. Shamefaced and confused, they all followed her, sitting back in their chairs.

Tanya took a deep breath, trying to sober herself. She shouldn't have said that, but she couldn't take it back. She'd just have to make amends the old fashioned way: talking.

She cleared her throat. "I am sorry for the outburst, but I stand by what I said."

None of them dared to make a move, and Tanya pinched the bridge of her nose. Great. She'd ruined one of the first parties thrown in her honor.

She shook her head. "Moving on: I was wondering how much that Sleep spell costs to learn," she said, staring at the Loli Succubus.

She jumped out of her chair, bowing at the waist. "I- I'll demonstrate! I need more practice, after all…" she trailed off, looking to the others in the room.

The purple-haired one rose slowly, and Loli Succubus simply chanted, "Sleep!"

The Succubus seemed to waver on the spot, and another rose to set her in her seat. Tanya looked to Loli Succubus, and her stature straightened.

"Um… The spell isn't as effective as Paralyze, and it can be resisted by either high magical resistance or by someone with a strong enough will. But, since the skill is a part of being a Succubus, it should cost fewer Skill Points to learn for anyone we teach!"

Tanya nodded, patting her on the shoulder. She cursed as she realized her card was back in her room, and sighed. "I'll just have to learn it tomorrow. Now, I have a few propositions for you all, if you'll let me speak."

They seemed to pause for a moment, and Tanya winced at her own stupidity. She glanced down at the table, and swore she wouldn't drink in situations like this. She was obviously _very_ lightweight if three glasses of wine could get her to spill so much.

The Receptionist took the first step, leaning towards her. "We'll listen to you, Tanya."

She smiled, and began to relay her ideas. They spoke, long passed morning and well into the middle of the day. But Tanya got her ideas out, and they had even taken up a few of them.

It was a start.

-OxOxO-

Chris was worried about The Atheist; not for her, of course, but about her whereabouts.

She had taken yet another day to come down, leaving her angels and Aqua to the work she usually got.

She had needed to get those Reincarnates their weapons back, however. It hadn't been easy, diving down to the bottom of the lake she'd been throwing them in, but she'd managed it.

She'd hand them out, give them a bit of training, and then, hopefully, see the end of The Atheist.

After that, she could pay a trip to the Demon General that was living nearby with them, watch him get defeated, and then wish them luck as they headed towards the capital.

Of course, giving them their weapons meant she needed to watch for The Atheist, so she didn't catch her giving them back their weapons. Unfortunately, if the shouting of Viktoriya was to be believed, The Atheist had disappeared.

Darkness and Chris had both tried to calm her when she'd burst into the guild earlier that morning looking distressed, but they hadn't succeeded. She had honestly only become more worried when they said they hadn't seen her.

She'd left again and been back within the hour, claiming she'd searched all of Axel for the petite Adventurer. She'd raised a complaint with Luna about it, waving around a large sack of jangling money she'd give to whoever found her.

Most of the other adventurers had left after that, scouring Axel. Chris was currently sitting with one of the few groups that hadn't left – the posse of Reincarnates. They were arguing whether they should help search for her.

Chris shook her head at their squabbling. "Enough. We wait here. You all still don't have your weapons back; I'll get them to you in a few days." Most of them glared at her, anxious to be reunited with their weapons, but all of them quieted down regardless.

She had wanted to bring them in sooner, but she would have to travel passed the guards, and coming back with a large bag of weapons wasn't exactly inconspicuous. She could have just Lurked out and Lurked back in, but she would have to wait for someone to go through the gate.

And since there weren't any monsters to slay, that meant she would have to wait for merchants, who were starting to become scarce with the lack of monsters and their parts.

Suddenly, the door burst open, startling the ten of them and the others who had decided to stay. None of them looked enthusiastic, and all of them were shying away from their leader.

Followed closely by a worried and calmer Darkness, Viktoriya marched up to the front desk, grabbing Luna by the small amount of cloth on her arms. "We couldn't find her! The guards said she never came by, no one has seen her, and you said she hasn't come her yet! That means she's _missing_, probably in the basement I told you I could sense her in!"

Chris felt sympathetic for the hapless-looking receptionist, who tried to pry the other girl's grip off of her. "P- Please! Adventurers go missing all the time! Have you tried the police station?"

Chris winced at the way Luna shrank away from what must have been a chilling stare. Chris couldn't see it, but everyone who had was backing away rapidly. "You _dare _suggest that Tanya wouldn't know how to evade every law known to mankind?"

Chris tilted her head, wondering at the odd description. One would usually assume an ardent supporter would say something about her being too pure to remain outside a prison cell; clearly, she knew her superior.

For the umpteenth time that day, the doors of the guild were blown open. All eyes turned to them, realizing that the police had assembled there. Leading them was, of course, Tanya von Degurechaff.

As a cheer went up at her being found and the police began to spread out, Chris wondered if the adage about speaking the devil's name applied to those who weren't actually demons.

Viktoriya ran towards The Atheist, and she embraced her for a moment. Then, she pulled away, leaving the shorter one smirking. "Well, it's nice to see you all so happy to see me, but before we continue…"

She spun on the spot, pointing towards the bar and the only person not staring at her. "That's the man! He's the one who led those strangers to my residence!"

Three police officers rushed towards him, dragging him towards Tanya, Viktoriya, and a rather sheepish looking older man.

"Dust…" he trailed off.

The adventurer looked angrily at them. "Hey, what's the-" he cried, only to cut himself off as he stared at Tanya. She smirked back at him.

Suddenly, his annoyed tone became rather apologetic. "Tanya! How nice to see you. Did you have an interesting meeting last night?" he asked, an eyebrow raised suggestively.

Tanya, unfazed, turned to Gerrard. She was going to enjoy this. "This is him, Gerrard. He's definitely the one."

He looked down at her, pleading with his eyes that she didn't have to do this. In her earlier meeting with Gerrard at the police station, however, she had outlined exactly why she needed to do it.

This was revenge on Dust; he'd led people she didn't know to where she was staying. Sure, _he_ knew them, but Tanya didn't know if he would sell her out for a bottle of booze if given the opportunity. She just wanted to make it clear to him what she could do.

This was also revenge on Gerrard. He'd told the Succubi about her in the first place, and she didn't really want people giving her name away so easily. So, she wanted to make a spectacle out of this.

When he'd asked why he should help her, she had pointed out that, while his fellow policemen might not care about what he did, the policewomen surely would.

He'd caved in an instant, and here she was, watching as Dust was clapped into handcuffs.

He brought out a hastily written notice of imprisonment, and read out what it said. "Dust. You have been a petty criminal for months, harassing people, conning people, and even peeking in on bathing women. However, you've gone too far this time."

He paused, and looked down at her again. She smiled, and motioned him to continue.

Groaning, he read out the last line. "For giving the location of Tanya von Degurechaff's current residence to _potentially_ harmful aggressors, you are charged with one month of jail time, with no chance for getting out early."

He looked quite pleased, but Tanya cut off his dreams of living comfortably for a month quickly. "That is, you won't be in the holding cell, but an actual cell, under the supervision of the policewomen."

Now, he looked angry, because he hadn't ever been in a real jail cell, since most of his crimes were really not worth the effort. He opened his mouth again, but she waved the police officers onward, and they began to leave.

Gerrard, throwing one last annoyed glance at Tanya, read out an addition she had made. "Additionally, if you attempt to appeal this, you'll be put in court, where all of your _other _crimes will be reviewed, since you were never technically tried for them."

With that, Dust threw one last glare at Tanya, before he hung his shoulders and trudged on, in a calculated display to gain sympathy.

Tanya only felt a twinge of it, which was soon crushed under her feelings of watching a well thought-out plan being executed perfectly.

Viktoriya stuck close to Tanya as she sat down at her table, and Darkness sat across from them. Before any of them could wonder about Chris's absence, she nodded to the Reincarnates.

"Remember: I'll have your weapons for you tonight. Just be here by then."

All of them gave her an assortment of goodbyes – from Shizuka's demur "Goodbye" to Kei's steady nod.

She sat down and began to talk amiably with Darkness as the other two spoke in their own language. Darkness didn't seem to mind – she'd asked what it was about and left it at that – but Chris did.

The whole point of her being close to The Atheist was to learn about her and try to get her killed. Crucial details could be passed between the two of them, and Chris wouldn't even know.

She stood, offering to go get a quest. She needed to get those weapons.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** And that's that! Everyone is gathering more allies, and things are still coming to a head.

Now, after this, I'll be settling into a more regular upload schedule. Something like one or two chapters a week, I think, depending on if I hang you guys off of a cliff or not.

Other than that, I'll ask again, just to be sure: Should Omakes be part of a different story, or should they be tacked on to the end of the regular chapters? I've actually got a side story half-finished – no spoilers – so I'm leaning towards making the Omakes their own thing as well.

Still, if you all would prefer something different, please tell me. I'll be accepting votes for that up until I post chapter 20, at which point, I'll either make a seperate story or shove them at the end of the chapters.

**A/N 2: **Several people, including the esteemed Gremlin Jack, writer of 'A Young Girl's Delinquency Record' – go read that too – have suggested that I post this on SpaceBattles Forum, to which I'll say…

Maybe? Right now, I'm looking for my first job and getting my driver's license, so I don't have as much time to write as I would like – 24 hours a day. Still, uh… I promise I'll at least try to crosspost it there. Eventually.

**A/N 3: **In case anyone not using mobile is curious, I made the cover image. It took two hours, but that's what I get for using Google Images.

**A/N 4:** This section is to respond to reviews on FF net alone.

**Prometheus-42:** I will be completely transparent: KonoSuba is not exactly... consistent with a great many things – Aqua's ability to turn anything into water and the… vague timeline among them – and the Divine Relics are also one of them. In the Sixth Light Novel, for example, the Princess is threatened by a Divine Relic that once belonged to a Reincarnate that died, and it had plenty of power, despite its owner being dead. Meanwhile, Mitsurugi's sword's powers are completely unusable by any besides him. I'm guessing it has something to do with whether the relic's creators decided it could be used by anyone or by only the owner.

**simple405:** I _think_ I mentioned, somewhere, that the Reinforcement spells don't exactly do wonders for your height and a war's dismal food doesn't do wonders for physical development. If I haven't… uh, well, I guess I probably should have.

**DNWorks:** Tanya's interactions with Vanir will be interesting, to say the least. He is more powerful than her, and she could also spill every last secret she has to those around her that she doesn't tell. Meanwhile, she represents something he doesn't like very much at all: someone that doesn't mind killing humans before he can extract every last bit of shame and embarrassment from them. On the other hand, he will want to reveal that she and Viktoriya love each other at precisely the right moment to induce the most emotions. I can't wait!

**carnagie:** Tanya is no Schugel. While the Type 97 and Type 95 do have similarities, they are not identical, and she just doesn't have the knowledge required to completely reconstruct something like that from memory, even with the Type 95. Thankfully, Viktoriya fulfilled that niche quite nicely. As for why she wouldn't ditch everything she knew for this new world's magic, Tanya, like most people, prefers things she knows works. She _knows _that having gunpowder in the age of horses and a Computation Jewel in the age of waving sticks around are massive legs up on everyone. Also, she _is_ an Adventurer, which means she would have to _find_ someone that knows that spell. The Megumin spinoffs highlight that people that know the Blast, Detonation, and Explosion spells are rare to practically nonexistent, in that order. Some of them might have congregated in Axel for the Eris Festival, but they wouldn't stick around long enough for her to try and learn anything from them, even if she wanted to waste the 30 Skill Points and hours upon hours of learning it would take to get them, as outlined in the spinoffs and volume 16.

As for why she wouldn't dump the Type 95, it _is_ useful, even if she despises it.


	16. Dealings with an Undead

Tanya breathed a contented sigh as she walked towards the bulletin board of quests. Yesterday's quest had been simple and easy – help escort a few families that wanted to move to a nearby town called Hora that supposedly had a few monsters kicking around.

While the normal expectation would be that they, as their hired adventurers, would fight off any monsters, there had been nothing. All four of them had just helped carry supplies instead, and Tanya was starting to wonder just how bad not having any monsters around might be.

They'd made it back, those three had bathed together while Tanya collected their meager reward, and she had taken her own bath alone before retiring for the night.

Today, she was deciding on their next quest. Chris had begged off helping out by claiming she had some other work she needed to do, and all of them had given her a hearty goodbye.

There wasn't much; the last of the Durian quests – including the ones to exorcise the spirit– were gone, besides the one with the Griffon and the Manticore. She sighed as she saw that nothing new had been added.

She could work at the Blacksmith's, but he was contemplating shutting down shop until the Demon King's General left. Without monsters to slay, the only work he had was to fix broken farming equipment and other smaller jobs. He wasn't even willing to pay her anymore thanks to how little business was coming in, although he assured her he wouldn't get rid of all of her things.

Of course, without anything to do, she could go help the Succubi set up… their newest venture. She had already given them her and Viktoriya's last 100,000 Eris from the Tranquility Girl quests, to help them get started. They claimed that they didn't need anymore help, but she was sure they were just trying to be polite.

Just as she was about to go back to their table and admit that they should just disband for the day, Luna waved to her. Tanya smirked as she walked forward. Hopefully, she and the other guild staff had found another Tranquility Girl Viktoriya could kill.

"Hello Luna," she said. Luna smiled sweetly at her, and Tanya only grinned more.

If she was desperate enough to put energy into looking happy, instead of only using her permanent smile, then this would probably be good.

"Greeting, Tanya!"

She opened her mouth, as if to continue, and she just sighed instead. Tanya blinked in surprise as she adopted a much more frank look. "Uh…"

Tanya resisted the urge to wonder if she'd been struck with illness and was hallucinating, or if she was just dreaming, but she could have sworn that Luna's sigh was _forlorn._

"Thank you for taking the community service. I don't think I ever… properly thanked you for that."

Tanya tilted her head. "Is it really that big a problem?"

She hung her head down, and Tanya managed to work down the urge to let her mouth hang open into simply staring wide eyed. "Are you kidding? We don't have any adventurers on staff to force them to, and they always have an argument ready about how 'they're important to the defense of the town' and how locking them up might impact the ability to defend it."

"Well, what about the army?" Tanya asked. Luna shot her a very piercing stare, but Tanya managed not to fidget.

She sighed again. "If you mean the Guards or the Knights, all of the best of them are fighting or dead by this point, which leaves all the poorly trained reserves to guard relatively unimportant towns like Axel. They'd actually hurt us more than help, considering they'd probably wind up as Zombies or other undead if they tried to fight."

Tanya tried to get a word in, but Luna sighed once more and gave her one of the most genuine smiles Tanya had seen. There was clearly some lingering frustration hidden behind it, but it seemed she was better. "Again, thank you for actually doing what an adventurer is supposed to do. Now…"

"I couldn't help but notice that none of the quests are to your liking. Perhaps you would like to take on a new one we're issuing?" she asked.

Tanya nodded, and Luna pulled up a piece of paper. "Yesterday, a noble I've never seen came in and loudly declared that he wanted some adventurers. When asked why, he said he was relocating the pauper's cemetery," she explained, pointing to the plans she had laid out.

Tanya nodded in understanding, thinking that she should steal that idea for the Succubi's newest venture. If they hadn't already done it, she would direct them to make the cemetery more accessible to the town's Priests.

Maybe she would pay them to give rights to the town's poor. It would only increase the Succubi's newest, more open identity's reputation, after all.

She didn't like the idea of paying a Church, of course, but she couldn't exorcise the undead herself. Her Heal simply didn't have belief behind it.

She grinned to herself. If she wanted to, she could always use her Lurk skill and Optical Decoy spells to steal her money back from them. It wasn't moral in the slightest, but they were part of a religion. She was sure they'd done worse.

Luna continued on when Tanya nodded. "He took two of them, but none of them have come back. We'd like you three to investigate the graveyard for them. Losing such a nice looking noble would be disastrous."

Tanya gazed at Luna for a moment, wondering if she was more interested in the noble and his looks than the missing adventurers, but she nodded regardless. This quest didn't seem like it would be too hard.

She skipped over to the quiet pair of them, brandishing the piece of paper. "We've got work to do! I'll explain on the way out!"

And, as they left and headed towards the gates, she did, giving her personal comments about Luna's possible infatuation to Viktoriya in Germanian. Darkness looked put out to not be included, so Tanya explained in this country's language.

Instead of laughing, she acted like that was normal. "Luna's twenty-something at this point. People will begin to pass her by because she isn't young, and she'll have to work at the guild forever."

Tanya shrugged. "Our homeland doesn't consider someone an adult until much later than the age of fourteen, so I guess it's expected that there would be differences in how we interpret that."

Darkness stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "Why? How far away is it that you've got something like that? Even the remnant states of Norse aren't like that."

Tanya kept her unhappiness at the topic rise to the surface, but it seemed that she wouldn't get a chance to talk yet. "And another thing. Why are you an Adventurer, and how did you survive in a war with that job? You know you're both lucky to have survived so long with a trash job like that."

As they presented their Adventurer's Cards and weapons to the Guards, who waved them through after a cursory glance, Tanya shot a look at Viktoriya, who looked just as lost as she did, though Darkness probably wouldn't pick up on the slightest movement of her eyebrows or the way her pace picked up ever so slightly.

She opened her mouth, and then she closed it again. She couldn't use her own abilities as examples – Darkness hadn't heard of them, and even if she wasn't a Mage, she had demonstrated her intellect enough that she probably knew the basics of what magic could and couldn't do.

"Well, maybe the job isn't actually all that bad," she offered. Darkness's skeptical look told Tanya exactly how much merit she gave that idea.

Tanya sighed and decided she would at least try. It would take her focus off of that pesky question about where they had come from. "Look… if you combine a Crusader's defensive skills – I wouldn't know what they are, since you seem intent on increasing your resistance to every kind of damage – a Thief's Lurk skill, and Basic magic, like Create Earth and Wind Breath, you could create a bodyguard that could remain unseen, take a hit for their charge, and create a smokescreen to cover their retreat."

Tanya grinned in thought. "You create a better job that way. And I'm not alone in this. Viktoriya is just as strong as I am and has nearly all the same spells. I'm obviously doing something right, and so is she."

Darkness just shook her head. "If someone could do all that stuff you mentioned, then they could probably just take the Bodyguard. It might be advanced, but doing that would boost your skills and stats."

Tanya watched as Darkness continued to talk. "And, if taking those skills is about doing everything yourself because you can't get any teammates-"

_Twitch._

"-then you should have given up the job when you got me and Chris! You're obviously suited to being a Priest-"

_Twitch._

"-with your Heal and those odd buffing spells. Viktoriya would be the Archmage, Chris would be the Thief, and I would be the Crusader. We'd cover each other's weaknesses and help us focus on growing our strengths."

Tanya resisted the urge to punt the girl over a nearby hill – Tanya could do it, sure, but the Crusader would love every second of it – but she sighed and gave it a moment of thought.

Not her idea to become a Priest – never happening, she wouldn't ever give in to him – but the idea of people becoming something of a single machine.

She hadn't ever considered it. There had been a limited amount of 'teamwork' in coordinating the various companies and platoons of the 203rd, but there had been nothing like this.

Trying to stick together in a four man team in her last world, leaving one portion of their spells to each soldier, would have been suicide – Active Barrier spells couldn't do their job and cover more than one person; four Flight spells at once, on four different mages was impossible for all but Tanya and the Bloody Valkyrie; and presenting four targets together like that would have made them a much bigger target – but she wasn't in the Empire anymore.

Tanya glared at the ground. She just wasn't used to not fighting in the air. Attempting to apply everything you know about one doctrine of fighting to another resulted in either laughably pathetic attempts at fighting – Dacia's soldiers grouping themselves together might have worked on a cavalry charge, not on Aerial mages…

She sighed. Or, doing so would result in needlessly limited fighting styles. Everyone in the Empire thought Aerial mages should fly like planes and obey physics to an extent, but she'd shown them that creativity with your Flight spells allowed you to dart around and hack every theory of flying to pieces.

Tanya conceded a nod to Darkness. "I suppose you're right that I haven't been thinking in the right way about working together as a small team."

Darkness's face lit up for a second, and Viktoriya's seemed to grow concerned, but Tanya shook her head decisively. "We won't be changing our jobs, however. We're used to working like this, and changing that would be devastating to our productivity."

Darkness sighed tiredly while Viktoriya nodded, and they remained silent, for a moment, simply walking and taking in the scenery.

Then, Viktoriya began to speak to Tanya quietly. "_Tanya… shouldn't we be thinking about the future as well?_"

She turned to her, stuffing her latest ideas into a corner of her head and looking at her. "_How so?"_

"_Well, you did say we might be switching sides if we need to. We don't really know much about the other side, though. Shouldn't we start trying to figure out what they could offer us, or if we should even join them? What if they wouldn't ever accept… humans, or something, and we were tricked?"_

Tanya supposed that she was right. "_You have a point. Thank you, Viktoriya…"_

Tanya trailed off, too deep in thought to notice Viktoriya looking away with a light blush. Tanya turned to her rigid former adjutant. "_How about you figure out what this side thinks of the Demon King, while I go and interview the undead at that castle?"_

Viktoriya raised an eyebrow. "_Is that wise? Couldn't you-"_

Tanya waved away her concern. "_If he's a threat, I'll just make a quick getaway. I…"_

Tanya finally realized what Viktoriya was getting at, and she grit her teeth. "_I won't be taken by surprise. I'll get back safely. I promise."_

Viktoriya still looked concerned, and Tanya fought the urge to raise an eyebrow. She was still nervous, even though Tanya had given her word?

Eventually, she nodded, and not a moment too soon. The hilltop the graveyard was on was beginning to come into view, and Tanya quickly whispered to Viktoriya. She recommended that Viktoriya keep Darkness from investigating anywhere near the castle, just in case she caught sight of Tanya. Unless, of course, she seemed like she would keep it a secret.

Darkness suddenly interrupted their planning. "What are you two talking about?"

Both of them didn't flinch at the question – Viktoriya's poker face was legendary and Tanya's was nearly as good – and Tanya gave her one of her practiced reassuring smiles. "Oh, we were just talking about that noble who wanted to relocate the cemetery, and how I wanted to tell this charity I know about of it."

Darkness looked rather intrigued. "Charity? Like some sort of church?"

_Twitch._

Tanya shook her head, ignoring the faint twinge of anger she felt. "No, nothing like that. I haven't discussed everything with them, but they want to provide jobs, housing, and food to the poor, and education to orphans and children."

Darkness looked intrigued, but Viktoriya piped up. "It's interesting, but education was mandatory and state-run where we come from."

Darkness looked surprised at that. "The only education that happens here is done by nobles and hired tutors…"

Tanya interjected before they could continue. "Speaking of the charity, I promised to help them and forgot. You two finish the quest!"

With that, she began to run back towards the town, leaving both of them to their discussion. Hopefully, they'd find something to track down tomorrow, or maybe they'd even finish it.

Tanya did want to finish the quest, but Viktoriya was right that she should begin to ask about the other side. Tanya wanted assurances if she could join them when they were about to deal the deathblow to Belzerg, and this would be a good litmus test.

Was this General open to negotiation, or would he see the person that assaulted his castle and fly into a rage? Did the Demon King keep rational people in his employ, or was he a cliche that wanted nothing but to spread death and destruction?

-OxOxO-

Chris stared at them, open-mouthed shock clear on her face.

"What do you mean, you're _leaving_!?" she shouted. Currently in one of the side streets of Axel, they place they were in had boxes strewn about and few other people that only paused to stare at them for a moment before walking away. She thought it was the ideal place to begin handing out the relics.

"Exactly what we said, Chris. We don't think we can win against Degurechaff. She has guns, our weapons aren't anywhere near as powerful anymore, and she could end anyone of our lives in an instant, or just shoot us in a leg to prolong the pain," said their spokesperson, Aya.

In her hands was her relic. Behind her, Shizuka and Takashi stood, Shizuka with her wand and Takashi with a staff that none of them had seen before. Chris was fuming – they didn't want to fight Tanya, even after she had given them their greatly-less-overpowered items back.

She tried to smile at them. "But she needs to be stopped; we can't let someone so dangerous to walk around-"

Aya cut her off. "We don't care; she can do whatever she wants, as long as she doesn't try and kill us. She didn't kill us, and for that, we are thankful. You all can get yourselves killed fighting a _war veteran_ if you want."

Chris felt her face heat up in anger, but she paid it no mind. "So you'll let her do what she wants, spiting the Gods and trying to destroy everything?"

Takashi shook his head. "She hasn't done anything like that. She's not a paragon of virtue by any means, but she isn't trying to massacre the human race or something."

Kei stepped forward. "Stop! We need to be united in this, and I'm ordering you-"

Shizuka stepped forward, speaking softly. "We said we'd follow you as long as our goals aligned. They don't anymore, so we are leaving."

Kei deflated, but Chris continued to try to get them to stop, but none of them paid her any heed, walking out of the alley with their weapons in hand. The other four who remained all consoled her. "Don't worry, Chris; we'll help you take her down," said Jin.

Kei motioned towards the pile of relics. "Yeah, we've got enough here so that some of us can have two relics! There's no way we can lose!"

The other nodded, and Chris conceded that they did have a point. She had dragged up every relic she could find in that lake, gathering ten total. Even if three of them had just wandered away, the remaining seven depowered relics could be split between the five of them.

That was another thing: two of the Reincarnates weren't there.

Evan and Saki had taken the quest put out by that kind looking noble who wanted to move the pauper's cemetery, and neither of them were back yet. It was worrying, but they'd divide up their relics until they came back.

Chris shook her head and stared at the group of determined adventurers. "You're right! We'll use our power to weaken and destroy her!"

They began to divide up the relics, and Chris wondered how much longer it would take. The Atheist would likely move on from Axel if more Reincarnates weren't arriving.

-OxOxO-

Darkness talked idly with Viktoriya about the charity Tanya had mentioned. The ideas they had about helping people seemed radical, but none of them sounded particularly bad. She'd need to talk Tanya, as well as whoever owned it.

Darkness liked her lips as another silence overtook them. Chris's words about Viktoriya's possible motivations were still rattling around in the back of her head, and without Tanya there…

"Hey… where are you two from? It must be far away if it has its own language." Darkness saw something flash across her face for a moment before it became pensive, while Darkness stared.

Her age and features told Darkness that she could be some sort of nanny or servant, and she always acted subservient to Tanya, following behind her and almost never being seen without her.

However, they seemed to be more than master and servant, as if they were good friends. Darkness couldn't wrap her head around it, and her fear that Chris's theory was correct was growing stronger.

Viktoriya smiled. Tanya had told her to distract the Crusader from heading towards the castle Verdia was holed up in, and Tanya did say she had spilled a few secrets to the people running the charity.

"Well, she spent her… early life in Japan," she began, only to pause in her explanation at Darkness's gasp.

"The same country that all of the Hero Candidates with outrageous powers and Divine Relics come from?" she asked. Viktoriya shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose so."

Darkness nodded to herself. A noble who might also possess one of those relics would be on par with the power of the royalty. She suddenly understood why Tanya had been so assured of her ability to be successful despite her horrible job.

"Then she spent over ten years in the Empire, fighting its enemies," she continued.

"What kind of enemies?" Darkness asked. Viktoriya made a pained face.

Darkness sighed internally. "I won't pry if you don't want me to."

Or, she wouldn't yet.

The woman thanked Darkness, relieved that she wouldn't have to lie. Tanya had told her to weave in as much truth she could into what she said, and lying too much would only get Viktoriya confused. She'd be more likely to slip up.

Having to say they fought monsters wasn't true; they might have fought dozens of people and communists, but only… _one _of them could be considered a true monster instead of simply being monstrous.

After that, Darkness continued to contemplate Tanya's past, and Viktoriya let her stay quiet. They soon arrived at the graveyard, and found…

Nothing.

No noble, no adventurers. Just empty graves, displaced dirt, and practically dead trees and grass that lined the hill the cemetery was situated on.

Viktoriya stood watch while Darkness surveyed the graveyard, trying to find something. The only thing they found that was out of place were a couple dozen empty graves. Some areas had more holes than others, but neither of them could find anything of note besides how a large number of bodies were just… gone.

"Nothing… they might have finished and gone to their new location…" Darkness mused as she looked at the annotated map of Axel. The noble had wanted to move the graveyard away from where it was to a more suitable location.

The map said that the land near the Kowloon Hydra's lake was barren, and that moving the graveyard there would mean undead would rise less since it would snatch up as much mana as it could get. The notes made by the noble also claimed that they could just toss strong undead into the lake, where they would be drained of their power by the Hydra.

It was possible this could allow it to rise earlier than its predicted ten year resting period, but it wasn't like they could do anything about that thing anyway.

"Alright. It seems that there's nothing here. We might as well head towards the-"

Darkness stopped suddenly as she caught sight of something. In the muddy, displaced dirt were deep grooves, reminiscent of a cart's tracks. She looked up, following them around the graveyard, and quickly found that they trailed off down the hill, _away_ from the direction of the Kowloon Hydra's lake.

"Viktoriya, look! Tracks!" she shouted. Darkness heard a nervous laugh from behind her, but paid it next to no mind. They had found a clue.

But that begged the question: why were they going that way?

"What do you think Viktoriya?"

She shook her head, still unsure of how to try somewhere else, instead of going towards the tracks. They were pointed towards the north of Axel, where Viktoriya knew the Dullahan's castle was.

"What?"

"There's tracks. Why would the cart be travelling that way?"

Viktoriya shrugged, coming up with an easy excuse. "Could bandits have mistaken them for wealthy and undefended targets?" she suggested.

Darkness turned to her, suspicion shining in her eyes. "Bandits? That would be an odd sight… I suppose that some adventurers might turn to crime with the lack of quests, but the guild usually supports adventurers if they really need the money that badly…"

Viktoriya winced at her blunder, and she shakily suggested they go check the supposed spot of the new graveyards.

"What? Shouldn't we try following them first?"

Viktoriya crossed her arms. "These tracks aren't going to disappear," she said, praying that they would despite her declaration. "We should go check the new site, in case someone is there that can explain why they aren't there."

Darkness agreed with her verbally, privately thinking that maybe Chris was right about Viktoriya being suspicious after all.

They walked there without as much as a word passing between them.

-OxOxO-

Nearly imperceptibly, Tanya's eye twitched. She was sure that stupid

As opposed to the first time she'd been there, her Observation spells told her more than nothing this time. She still couldn't see the undead, but she could see that there was a single living being inside.

Additionally, they told her that, unlike the last time she'd left the castle, body parts and craters left by her Explosive Vaporization were no longer around, likely covered by freshly dug earth.

Tanya sighed, wondering how to go about this. She had attempted to wipe out the Dullahan's forces the last time she had been there, in her self-questioning stupor. Just flying in and announcing herself seemed like a surefire way to get herself immediately attacked.

She'd try knocking, then. She didn't have time to puzzle out what the Dullahan might accept as an apology gift, so her words and good intentions would have to suffice until she figured out what might be suitable.

As she flew from where she had been resting on the last forested hill between the castle and the road towards it, she noted that the hole she'd blown in the side of the mountain had started the weather away, except for a small indentation in the center. She winced; she'd apologize for that as well, and for the room she had probably hit.

As she sped towards the castle's gates, she saw that there was something going on in the courtyard of the castle, and that undead could now be seen patrolling the walls of the castle.

She sighed. He'd found more corpses; she could hope that he had found them in the wilderness, but the sudden disappearance of a noble and two adventurers in relation to a graveyard meant that he had most definitely had something to do with her current quest.

She landed, silently reinforced her arm, and knocked on the gate. Three resounding bangs sounded, and Tanya was sure that no one couldn't have heard the sound.

She waited, for a moment, and then a rasping shout echoed over the walls. "Who goes there?"

Tanya shouted back. "An Adventurer! I-" she hissed as the contract sent coursing pain through her torso.

The contract reminded Tanya suddenly why she had wanted Viktoriya to come with her originally. Sighing angrily, she grit her teeth and amended her statement.

"One in my position might desire to speak to the Dullahan amiably." She tried to raise her voice, but the lingering pain made it come out as more of a struggling statement.

Tanya was sure that it would take a few minutes for them to get permission to come in, and in that time, she would recover and figure out a proper apology for her accidental attack on-

"Go away. The master is busy and wouldn't entertain you regardless."

Tanya stared angrily at the door, opening her mouth to argue. She glared up at where she heard the voice come from, but nothing responded.

Then she shook her head. She wouldn't get anything done by talking to this underling; she would need to go to the top. Flying over the walls was out, but she had seen a much better entrance…

-OxOxO-

She decided to announce her ire with an overpowered Artillery Shot. She quickly activated Lurk and her Flight spells, and then, after taking a few seconds to finish the spell, she shot one towards her last hole.

The entire hill seemed to shake, and Tanya flew towards the new hole. A minute of searching found the remains of the depression in the middle of the hill she'd spotted last time.

Most of what was probably an underground storage room was gone, leaving only a door and the very narrow, spiraling stairway beyond it. She frowned.

Going inside of a building – somewhere she hadn't exactly spent a lot of time fighting – wasn't entirely smart, considering her powers, but she did need to find out more about the Demon King's army and goals.

Everyone said awful things about him and his army: they wanted to kill every human being, their leader was pedophiliac and homosexual, and he wanted to crush everyone underfoot.

Unfortunately, she couldn't exactly trust the opinions of the general populace; propaganda was a powerful thing, and she didn't doubt that some of the wilder claims about the being were false.

No one would willingly follow a leader like that…

She bit down on her teeth and fought to forget her memories of a person as bad as every allegation against him – round glasses and more red cloth than she ever wanted to be near streaked behind her eyes – she went over her words, waiting for pain.

When none of it came, she tentatively decided that gathering intelligence didn't conflict with her obligation to oppose the Demon King, though the clenching in her chest felt very… uncomfortable, even if it wasn't painful.

She drifted upwards, rounding the spiraling staircase and coming to a blank wall. She deactivated her spells and began to search for some sort of switch, since a doorknob or handle were both absent from the blank wall in front of her. Just as she found a small button on the wall that looked tempting, the wall opened on its own.

She immediately began to throw up a weak Active Barrier and studied the figure in front of her, glaring. Then, slowly, she began to lessen her glare.

A hulking figure blocked her view: dressed plate armor, only portions of his arms and torso lacked the heavy, dark metal. It was as close to black as it could be while also retaining its shiny luster, and crystalline portions of it shone bright blue, hinting at some sort of magical power.

What wasn't heavily armored were covered in a mesh like the bodysuit Darkness wore underneath her own armor that was even darker.

Her gaze drifted up to where its head would be, and then drifted down to a spot under its arm, where its head actually rested. Tanya couldn't make out any of its face, but considering the head was detached from the body, it probably didn't look very good.

Of course, the bright, shining red light and the heavy breathing the head was exuding might also have something to do with the dark shadows that seemed to cling to him.

A cape drifted down from his shoulders, shaking slightly, like the rest of its body. The rest of her glare faded.

It managed to stutter out two furious words that were tinged with hints of respect and worry. "Why… who…"

Deciding to stave of the thing's anger, she held out a hand in this world's universally accepted sign of greeting. "I'd like to learn about the Demon King's army, please!"

As Tanya breathed a sigh of relief that the contract wasn't burning through her, the palpable anger drained away in an instant.

"…Huh?"

Tanya gave him her most genuine smile. "You heard me! I haven't been able to find much in Axel, so I wanted to learn more from you."

He didn't seem to have picked up on her sincerity, since he seemed more annoyed with a shake of the hand holding his head. "Run back to your father, little noble girl. I don't have time to play games, and you haven't even brought your companions…"

Tanya's eye twitched, and she sighed angrily. "One: I am an orphan. Two: I am sixteen. Three: I am not leaving."

Now, Tanya felt pity coming from the towering figure, and she fought to not lash out. She didn't want pity for her underdeveloped body; she wanted something different.

"…I'm sorry about your family," he managed to grind out, and Tanya blinked as he continued to stare at her hand.

It seemed he felt sorry about more than just the disconnect between how she looked and how old she was. Tanya tried not to let her surprise show.

Both stood there, her hand outstretched in greeting and the other's hand holding his head.

He seemed to survey her, for a moment, until he came to a decision and shook her hand.

He sighed. "Very well. I have been bored. If you can entertain me, I'll consider talking to you."

Tanya followed behind eagerly. She hadn't really wanted a fight, but if he was willing to trade vital information for something that simple, she'd gladly play the part of an entertainer!

They walked through the castle, and Tanya marveled at the wealth she saw. It wasn't extremely opulent, and there wasn't any gold or tons of mysterious artifacts, but what was there was well taken care of.

"One in my position would say you've done a great job refurbishing a castle that's been abandoned for years," she complimented, wincing at the questioning look he sent her. Her wording made it sound like she wouldn't.

"But you wouldn't?"

She shrugged helplessly. "One in my position might not be able to do something… direct like that, and they'd want to discuss that."

He gave her one last look of questioning, but she said nothing more. Then he began to grouse. "Not like you did anything to help this place in the looks department. You've shot Detonation magic at my home twice now; nobles would execute a commoner for daring to set foot on their land, much less shooting magic at it."

Tanya shrugged, thankful that he had picked up how she had to speak so fast.

As they walked through the place, the Dullahan asked her about her lack of fear of the undead eyeing her hungrily. She simply shrugged.

"I've faced worse."

A bunch of half-dead corpses had nothing on her. She could likely hack any of them to pieces, and while popular media in her first life told her that bullets might not be all that effective on Zombies, even they needed bodies.

Tanya could burn them to a crisp in any number of ways, and if she was ever overwhelmed, she could fly above them.

He scoffed, throwing a glance at her rifle. "Unless you think that odd… spear on your back can cleave through bone, you won't have any luck."

"It can."

The girl stayed silent after that, and Verdia was conflicted about the brat who had dared to come to his fortress three times, and who had the gall to not assault his castle properly, trying to skip all of his minions.

"Have a lot of experience cleaving through the undead?" he asked.

"_Sure,_" she lied emphatically. She might not have a lot of experience fighting undead, sure, but every one of them she had seen so far were formerly people. She had quite a lot of experience fighting them.

Both were silent after that, simply walking towards the courtyard. Verdia was barely containing his questions – like how the hell she'd managed to get a _gun_, of all things – but he could be patient.

As they got to the courtyard, Verdia mused that Ragcraft would be happy to have another corpse for their eventual invasion if she died, and he hoped that this Reincarnate had what it took to survive.

Tanya's nose wrinkled as she caught a whiff of the courtyard. It had been easily ignored when they were inside the castle, but it was unbearable here: the stench of death.

It was like… well, not an old friend. It was more like a weird family relative nobody liked and who they put up with anyway because it was polite.

She shook her head. Smelling it now was still a slight shock, however, with how little death she had witnessed in her two months here. Comparatively.

Dozens of bodies, all of them arrayed throughout the open area of dirt. Dozens more undead were arrayed around them. She turned slowly to Verdia, who shrugged just as flippantly as Tanya had during their discussion.

"We need more soldiers, and their bodies were in the pauper's cemetery. No one cared about them."

"Wiz did," Tanya said quietly. The Dullahan perked up. "You know Wiz?"

Tanya nodded and raised an eyebrow. "Do all of you undead have some sort of club, then?"

He pointed at one of the better dressed Undead Knights, motioning him towards the center of the courtyard. "No, but the Demon King's Generals all know of each other, even if some of us have yet to meet in person."

Tanya watched the Undead Knight walk towards the Dullahan, when his words caught up with Tanya. Before she could rationalize what the Dullahan had revealed about Wiz, a grinding sound reached her ears. She turned to see the Dullahan had drawn a circle on the ground. He backed away and pointed towards it.

She tried to play off the surprise she felt at discovering Wiz's apparent side-job as one of Belzerg's enemies. "So, how are we doing this? I think a fight to the death would be a bit improbable…"

He chuckled. "Oh no. You claimed to be so strong: let's see you take out a few of my knights!"

Suddenly, a dark shadow extended from under the Dullahan, and three more knights rose up from the ground, joining the one that opposed Tanya.

She filed away a reminder to ask him about how to do that later, or if there was another variant of that. Summoning allies, undead or not, seemed like a very good ability to have, if it meant more bodies between her and her enemies.

He stepped out of the circle, and Tanya debated about how much she should show. She wasn't exactly confident in her ability to finish them off just by using her 'spear,' but revealing how much magic she could do might push the interest she was hoping the Dullahan would have on her into dangerous, 'you-are-now-my-sworn-mortal-enemy' territory.

Then, his voice rang out from the sidelines. "You may use any of your tricks, Mage."

She frowned as she grabbed her rifle from her back, gathering mana in the Type 97 that hung from her neck. "Fine; I'll show you what I can do!" she shouted, knowing full well that she would hold back a bit, as she always did.

Verdia leaned forward, eyes figuratively glued to her rifle. Was it the real deal?

The two undead in the front began to charge her, one wielding a mace and the other wielding a sword. The other two, both holding melee weapons of their own, hung back, probably wishing to take her down while she tired herself out against their friends.

She waited until both were close to her; until she could almost taste the disappointment the Dullahan felt at her being a showboat; until she could smell their repulsive breaths.

Then she watched, smirking, as both of their overhead swings struck the ground directly in front of her.

She turned her head to the Dullahan. "Are you sure you want them to fight me? It seems like they've rotted a bit too much to be good fighters." From what she could see, he was just as confused as his minions.

Both of them rushed her again, swinging their weapons around their bodies widely.

Unheard by any of them, the sounds of her whispered "Reinforcement spell: Agility," exited her mouth a second time, and she leisurely dodge both of their attacks, assuming her earlier position and deactivating the spell.

Again, she reveled in the confused tilt of their blackened, stretched skulls. She turned to Verdia again, raising an eyebrow and letting how much she was trying not to smirk show.

He seemed upset for some reason she couldn't _possibly _fathom.

"Hit her!" he shouted.

Both of them spread out, surrounding her. She just sighed, and whispered, "Reinforcement spell: Strength" and "Reinforcement spell: Agility" as both tried to sandwich her.

She twisted around and ducked, allowing them both to nearly hit each other and blocking the slightly more accurate sword-wielder's blow.

Still, she appeared the epitome of calm as both struggled to strike her. Verdia seemed stupefied, and Tanya decided, if he wanted entertainment, she would have to hit back too.

She jumped out from between them, slicing through the head of the sword-wielder and shooting a single shot through the head of the other. She smirked as they collapsed-

Only, they didn't. One was missing a chunk of it head and helmet, and the other did have a hole through its head, but both were still attempting to attack her.

She blinked in confusion. Both seemed relatively okay.

She backed away again, but the one with the sword anticipated it and jumped forward, forcing Tanya to deflect his blow the body of her rifle. She glared as her thoughts, once again, focused on her first life's popular media regarding reanimated corpses.

They were undead, which meant she would have to get more destructive or more creative if she wanted to knock them out. Slicing off limbs wouldn't kill or incapacitate them all that much.

She dodged back from the mace-wielding knight blow and focused on the sword-wielder. They were missing part of their head and still functioning fine, and so she sighed.

She jumped back from both of them, and while they tried to chase after her, she didn't give them much of a chance.

"Napalm!"

In an instant, the entirety of the area in front of her was drowned in flames. She waited, for a moment, and then cut off the spell to see the results.

She smiled as the last of the magical flame petered out without mana to fuel it. Instead of two magically reanimated corpses, there was only charred earth and some pieces of twisted metal where they had once been.

She turned to the other two, scratching her head. "Sorry about your friends. Maybe you should avenge them?"

They immediately turned to Verdia. "Hell no!" cried one, while the other was shaking its head emphatically. Tanya blinked owlishly.

Verdia, whose attention had been totally focused on her, spun towards them. His body thrusted his head towards them. "The Hell do you mean, 'Hell no'!? You don't get to refuse orders!"

They simply stared at him blankly. One stepped out of the circle, and the other followed him. Tanya gave the Dullahan a skeptical look – what kind of General couldn't control his subordinates? – and he sighed and shook his head. "Fine. _I_ will fight you."

She gulped and began to assess him more completely. He was now wielding a sword that looked similar to Mitsurugi's in size – where had he been keeping _that?_ – and his head was exuding that menacing red light again.. The other undead behind him, standing above corpses menacingly, turned to look. Presumably, they were interested in what might occur.

Tanya shook her head and lowered her rifle. "Hey, I came here to talk. If you want to fight, I'm afraid I'll need to leave," she warned and winced in pain. The contract clearly wanted her to fight as well.

Verdia cursed under his breath. He wanted a good fight; he'd had nothing to do, with only his minions and Ragcraft around. Reading, doing his job, and keeping things tidy were nice, but he wanted a good fight.

More importantly, if this girl had a gun that worked…

Well, guns weren't exactly honorable or noble, but they were very good at what they did. Either side could decimate the other if they got ahold of it, and he wanted to know how much damage it could do to his armor.

Verdia pointed his longsword and prepared to make a speech, when both of them were interrupted.

"What are you _doing_, Verdia!?"

A figure emerged from the small door at the side of the large gate Tanya had knocked at. Both turned, and Tanya presumed that this was the single living being in the castle. Blond, curling hair that managed to reach his shoulders, sharp blue eyes, and aristocratic clothing, he seemed to exude snobbishness.

Tanya was unimpressed, but the Dullahan – named Verdia, apparently – seemed rather embarrassed. "Err… this adventurer assaulted the castle, and I was just about to duel her."

The blond human looked rather unimpressed, shaking his head. "No. Just kill her and get rid of her; we don't need weak distractions," he snarled, throwing a token glance at Tanya.

The Dullahan, looking slightly apologetic, corrected himself. "Actually, she said she wishes to learn about the Demon King's army. I was testing her, and-"

Now, the man turned to her, an eyebrow raised.

She nodded slowly, and the man began berating Verdia again. "Why are you fighting her!? We're not exactly _inundated _with useful pawns, much less humans!"

Tanya felt odd being compared to a pawn – verbally, at least. She was sure that Being X considered her that much – not that she cared what he thought – and the General Staff was probably nice enough to consider her a knight, but the General Staff never said it, at least.

Smiling, he gestured towards the door Tanya and Verdia had come through. "Please go inside, and ask for directions to the study. We'll be with you in a moment."

Tanya smiled and cursed him internally for barring her from whatever interesting conversation they were about to have.

The last glimpse she got of them was of Verdia and the man about to argue, both of them attempting to appear taller than they were. She asked the doorman – who seemed to lack a rather large chunk of his chest – for directions, and, after a few minutes of walking through the place, she found it. She sat down on one of the couches.

Neither of them showed up, however. She was left waiting for five, then ten minutes, and she sighed, stood up, and began to peruse the books in the study.

Despite everyone's insistence that an undead like Verdia must be turning the castle into some sort of hell, it didn't seem like he was particularly _evil_. He wasn't massacring Axel, even though he probably could if she didn't fight him, with how comparably weak everyone was.

She began to scan some of the books on the wall. Most of them seemed to be the fare of this world: books about monsters, the royal family, Hero Candidates, various towns, Shakespeare, philosophy…

Wait. She went back through the list, forehead wrinkled. Shakespeare?

She looked back across the tomes she'd been surveying, and found that a book titled 'The collective works of William Shakespeare, Volume 1' sat on the shelf, looking innocent and completely out of place.

She stared at it for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders. Someone had managed to bring a copy of that with them, apparently, or they had just copied his name. This world continued to surprise her.

She grinned. This world also gave her good ideas. She didn't know where she'd find a book to sell to the world as her own, but she'd make a _lot _of money if she did.

Or, if nothing else, she'd get a bit of money. All of it, however, would be worth it, since she wasn't having to put in hundreds of hours writing something.

Suddenly, the door behind her burst open, and Tanya hurried to sit back down. Both Verdia and the human looked quite cross with each other, but they seemed to have worked out some bargain.

Verdia crashed into the couch opposite of her own, while the human surveyed a selection of scrolls. He pulled one out, and laid it down on the table.

Ragcraft cleared his throat. "As is standard, a non-disclosure contract is-"

Verdia swiped away the piece of paper Tanya had begun to survey. "Unnecessary. Seeing as this is not a standard meeting, using the standard material would be folly. We'll discuss such things afterward."

The human bristled at the break in procedure, and Tanya raised an eyebrow. From what the human had said, they didn't get many people offering to join them; that they had a standard procedure seemed a bit odd if that were the case.

Verdia didn't seem to be willing to budge, however, and the human looked nervous. Finally, the stalemate was broken, and the human sat in the third seat perpendicular to Tanya's and Verdia's, giving off one last huff of annoyance.

"Fine. You seem intent on dictating this meeting, so I'll let you."

The Dullahan seemed quite happy with himself, if the chuckle coming from his helmet was anything to go by. He set his head down on the table, and placed a hand on his chest plate.

"As you are no doubt aware, I am Verdia: The Demon King's Dullahan, and one of the eight Generals under his employ," he said in a grandiose fashion, sinking lightly into the seat opposite of her and staring at her intently.

Tanya didn't feel all that scared by the stare. She'd had worse in both of her last two lives. "I am Tanya von Degurechaff, Adventurer of Axel," she said simply, deciding that he probably wouldn't care all that much about her titles.

She turned her head to the human, who, at the Dullahan's prompting, muttered, "I am Ragcraft, and I think this is a waste of time."

Verdia shook his head. "No. As you said, we need resources, and slaughtering all of Axel for corpses is out of the question."

Tanya perked up. "Why?"

He turned his head to her, the tilt of his wrist conveying amusement. "Well, aren't you rather cavalier about the lives of your fellows…"

She shrugged. "I'm just curious. You probably could, and any reason that you haven't is probably something I should know about," she said.

The Dullahan sighed. "A treaty we made with a powerful individual means that we can't attack any non-combatants, which means… most of the town."

Tanya's curious expression became quite a bit more fixed. They didn't like the destruction of non-combatants, huh…?

Tanya kept her memories of what she'd done at Arenne buried deep within her mind. She had a feeling whoever had made this kind of contract would not appreciate what she had done, even if she had followed the letter of the law.

Verdia cleared his throat, and Tanya fought the urge to giggle at what was clearly a reflexive action, considering he didn't have a throat. "Now, I would normally be much too busy attempting to get undead to rise, but you have intrigued me, _Hero Candidate_."

Tanya froze, and Ragcraft shot out of his seat. "How-"

Verdia cut off his question. "I am an undead. More than that, I am a _high leveled_ undead, and I have abilities that aid in the occasional hunger I feel for the living."

Both of his listeners said nothing. "Your soul can't lie about its origin; you've been blessed by the Gods."

She gave him a single nod – he could think of them as gods if he wanted – and the human next to her began to speak up. "But she looks nothing like one! If anything, she's some sort of noble that's closely related to the noble family. They have all sorts of Divine Relics kicking around in their treasury."

Verdia shook his head resolutely, not an ounce of a tremor present. "No. I know a Hero Candidate when I see one."

Then Verdia stood, taking a scroll from the wall. He laid it out on the table, and moved his head so that it was staring intently at Ragcraft. He huffed, but he produced a quill from within his clothing.

Verdia took it, and began to write rapidly. Tanya hadn't been prepared for her secret to be figured out so easily, but she was honestly more shocked to see what Verdia writing.

She couldn't read it yet, since they were sitting opposite of each other, but she could recognize the characters' shapes easily enough.

They were _Japanese_.

She looked up, but the voice from the head that had been placed on the table interrupted her thoughts. "Here. This is just a preliminary contract; I'm no good at these things, and you could probably figure out a way to get out of it if you wanted."

He turned the paper upside down, and edged it across the table for Tanya to read. She picked over each word, looking for ways to get out of it. What she read confirmed the question she had been about to ask.

Verdia was, without a doubt, a Reincarnate, just like the ten people she'd deprived of their weapons. Just like that sword wielder she'd talked to during her first days in Axel. Just like herself and Viktoriya.

Well, not like her and Viktoriya; he was like all of the others, though. This contract proved it.

It asked that she keep her knowledge of her weapon and its capabilities a secret. It asked that she not introduce electricity, any weapons invented after the industrial revolution, guns, tanks, planes, or anything that could massively aid either side to anyone she thought my try and reproduce it.

Besides that, she saw no reason she should comply. She looked at the Dullahan again, and she saw that Verdia was rapidly writing on another piece of paper. He passed it to her, and she scanned it, nodding as she went through what she would get.

As long as she didn't leak any of the more important information she was given, she'd get some history on Belzerg, information on each of the Demon King's Generals, and told a direction to look if she wanted to learn more. She looked up as she read the last paragraph, to see that Verdia had picked up his head again and was grasping it.

"You're giving me pretty permanent information for such a small promise. I could even fight you," she pointed out. Ragcraft, who had been staring at the first page of the contract in confusion, suddenly screeched.

"What does she mean, 'she can fight you?' Just make a clause that says we can renegotiate it when we want, summon her to a location, and then kill her when she comes with a simple and effective trap!"

Both of the room's other occupants looked at Ragcraft, one an annoyed sideways glance and the other an amused grin that reached her eyes.

Verdia sighed. "_Yes_, it is temporary, but I am purposefully leaving holes for you to exploit. You said you wanted to learn, and I assume if you've come this far with the _other_ contract you're under, you're considering a change of sides."

It wasn't phrased as a question, but Tanya nodded regardless.

Verdia pointed to the pieces of paper in her hands with the quill, tilting his head a bit. "If you do want to do something listed on that piece of paper, you'll restrain _yourself _from doing something that might sour relations, as long as you might change sides."

Tanya looked down again, and admitted that he was probably right. She wasn't sure what situation would force her into needing to go to the Demon King and give up the promise of a free wish, but she was sure it could happen.

Like if Belzerg was about to collapse, or if Being X did something… rash.

She eyed the pen in his outstretched hand as he offered it to her.

A few strokes later, and Tanya sighed. Kicking the decision as to whether she would switch sides down the line wasn't exactly smart, but she needed more information. Plus, she wanted to at least consult Viktoriya on which way she wanted to go.

Just… _deciding _without her felt a bit… distasteful, especially since Tanya couldn't order Viktoriya to follow her if she didn't want to. Tanya would have to get her input if she wanted to keep Viktoriya around, which she did.

She couldn't see his face, but the way he straightened out, it seemed he was relieved. "Fine. You may explore the castle while I assemble the information the contract outlines."

She stood, eyeing the angry Ragcraft and the tired Verdia one last time. She then turned on her heel and left the room, quickly walking through the castle.

She frowned. The smell of rotting bodies and the undead was beginning to remind her a bit too much of the war in her last life and what had brought her to Dresdun and fighting the Bloody Valkyrie and-

She distracted herself by pushing the doors in front of her open, and came to the courtyard, and grimaced as she looked at the dozens of undead. She saw one of the Dullahan's armored knights standing above a group of them, shouting, screaming, and generally attempting to be intimidating.

That intimidation was reduced from only mildly off-putting to completely ineffective when Tanya watched them bend down and begin to shout at a partially decomposed body.

Morbidly curious as to why they were shouting at a body, she walked over. She loudly cleared her throat, and the knight swiveled around, staring down at her.

Their furious gaze weakened as they realized who she was. "Oh, it's just you. Curious, I suppose?"

Tanya nodded, and he gestured to the bodies lazily. "We've been told to try and encourage the undead to rise. While our presence can help weak undead to rise, Verdia claims that more effective forces can be raised. He isn't entirely sure how, but he told us to… _experiment_."

Tanya nodded idly. She tore her gaze away from the corpses, looking at the knight. She was hesitant to help them, but Verdia had mentioned that, if she was logical, she would try and build a cordial relationship with the side she might decide to join. This probably counted.

"Well, undead are created because they have grudges, right? Have you been appealing to what they might still resent others for?"

The knight's contorted skull twisted around towards her, and Tanya began to explain. "Well, if you want to appeal to people, their backgrounds definitely determine what their grudges will be. A peasant and an adventurer will be angry about different things."

She gazed across the small group of bodies this knight was attempting to cajole into rising. "There seems to be a mix of people here, based on what's left of their clothing. Sort everyone into groups, and then appeal to what they might have been angry about."

The knight still seemed a bit confused, but he seemed to be enthusiastic, if his orders to the rest of the knights and zombies standing around were anything to go by.

Mostly, they just sorted everyone based on what was left of their clothing, but Tanya blanched when more than a few of them opened up the bodies to poke around in their stomachs, to look at their diet.

They didn't lack creativity like Tanya had thought a bunch of corpses would.

Soon, the activity stopped, and three main groups had formed. Former adventurers, peasants, and the poor. A fourth pile was in the corner, with people that were too rotted for anything to be determined.

Tanya muttered "Wind Breath," and sighed happily and the smells assaulting her nostrils drifted away from her on a gust of magically created air.

The knight she had been talking to, identifiable form all of the other knights by how he was slightly less decayed, stalked over to her, less mad than before. "Would you speak to them? We're not exactly made to speak eloquently."

She looked at him skeptically, but they gestured to their uncovered throat. Tanya winced sympathetically as she saw the rotting flesh and assumed that his vocal cords weren't in any better condition than his rotting exterior was.

She walked towards the pile of the poor; she had been poor during her years at that orphanage, and pinning the blame for their grudge on greedy nobles and the Eris Cult, which literally prided itself on Luck and money, would be startlingly easy.

She cleared her throat, and gestured towards the grouping. Over forty bodies were laid out, lined up in a large square formation.

"The poor and destitute. You have languished in that graveyard, waiting for your Cult to purify you, to send you up to heaven. Despite your poverty, you hoped that they would do this, as is their duty."

She began to pace in front of the group of bodies, feeling rather self-conscious to not be able to gauge if her audience was receptive to her speech.

She was coming up with this on the fly, and she could edit what she was going to say next just as fast. Knowing how to change the way she worded things relied on feedback, and she didn't have any.

"They have forsaken you. Forgotten you. Decided that you were too poor to bother with, and that you would be better served as target practice for their Priests. Do not feel as if you have failed, however; your poverty, your inability to pay for your souls' release, was their fault."

She stopped, staring out into the distance. "Yes! The clergy, the Cults: they taxed you, demanded too much from the people least able to pay. You wept, begged that you be allowed to continue to try and pay them back later."

At least, Tanya hoped they did. She didn't know what the tax codes were like in this world.

Maybe Darkness would know? She seemed to know a lot about that sort of thing.

"They ignored you. The clergy decided you weren't worth the effort to care about personally."

She paused for a moment, turning around again and gazing at the undead who had arrayed behind her. All of them weren't moving at all; she couldn't even hear the ragged moaning that the zombies let out.

"And your 'protectors?' Where were the nobles? Where was the King?"

A smaller pause, and then she began shouting. "Ignoring you! Pursuing a war they haven't been able to win since your conception! Or even helping the clergy rob you with their taxes!"

"Rise!" she shouted, staring intently at the bodies and hoping that she wasn't just spouting hot air. "Do you care about yourself? Do you care about the people you left behind? Do you desire to save them from the very same poverty that claimed you?"

"Rise! See the clergy, see the nobles, and see the king. Remember every slight done to you because they desired your wealth!"

"Rise! Take revenge on the people and the nation that decided that those unable to afford their help should just be forgotten once they died! Remind them that you exist! That, even in death, you and your fellows should be taken care of!"

She finished, panting lightly. She might have been annoyed at how much her words resembled the communist rhetoric of the proletariat's rise against the bourgeoisie, but even she knew how effective they were at motivating the oppressed into fighting for their country, however misguided their attempts at making a competent or healthy economic system turned out to be.

She waited a moment, waiting for as much as a twitch from the bodies. A rustle of rotting cloth. A gurgle of undead flesh. Even the flicker of an eyelid.

Then, she saw it. One by one, bodies began to do as she hoped. They twitched and, slowly, began to rise from the ground, lurching about slightly, but standing all the same.

She turned around and found that her vision of the clapping crowd of undead she heard was obscured by metal. She looked to her right, and found herself staring into the lightly shining eyes of Verdia.

"Thank you, Degurechaff."

Without another word, he placed a large leather bag into her arms, and brought his head as close to her own as he could without touching his helmet to her face. "A book on the history of Belzerg, as well as a number of papers with information on each of the Demon Generals. I bid you good day, _Reincarnate._"

He whispered the last word, and Tanya tried to give him a smile. It probably looked more panicked than she – probably – felt, but she didn't really mind.

The profound interest shining in his finally visible features made her very wary. If she wasn't careful, she might be conscripted into becoming a professional orator.

-OxOxO-

Tanya strolled back to Axel, wondering if she would be able to make a quick stop at the Succubi's shop before she left. Or maybe Wiz's shop.

Both groups definitely knew a thing or two about the Demon Generals. Or, they probably knew more than she did.

If they could confirm some of the information she had been given, Tanya would at least have a bit of peace of mind.

As she rounded the corner of the path out of the forest that surrounded Verdia's castle, she bumped into someone. Tanya was sent backwards from crashing into the tough surface, and she landed on her backside.

Quickly, she shot up, words of apology at the tip of her tongue. Then she froze as she registered the identity of the person she had crashed into.

Darkness.

Tanya's mouth puckered slightly, and she looked behind the Crusader to see that Viktoriya looked very nervous, if the way her eyes were shifting rapidly between the two of them was to be believed.

Darkness spoke first. "'Helping out a charity,' huh? I can't believe I fell for that…"

Tanya shrugged and gave her best attempt at a reassuring smile. The Crusader's listless gaze didn't seem to appreciate it.

"Cheer up, Darkness! I was just… taking care of another Tranquility Girl!" she said. Darkness looked inquisitive, and Tanya began to explain.

"The guild told me there was another one around here that they wanted taken care of. I just did that. I didn't think you could take it, so I asked Viktoriya to make sure you didn't interrupt me."

Darkness nodded slowly, and Tanya gave a sigh of relief. With that, she began to march towards town. Viktoriya followed, and Darkness soon caught up to them. "Hey, I could have watched, at least. I'm not sure that you two are telling the truth about them being evil, but I wouldn't have interfered."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Yes, you would have. You would have jumped in front of me and tried to stop the quest and to play it off as your 'solemn duty as a Crusader to protect the innocent,' when in actuality you would just be hoping that I'd have to force you to leave her alone and manhandle you a bit," she said with a negligent wave of her hand.

Darkness let out a grunt, and Tanya shook her head. She turned her head to Darkness, who was catching back up again. "Anyway, what were you two doing out here?"

Tanya watched as Darkness's face lit up, and saw Viktoriya stiffen from the corner of her eye.

"Right! We investigated the graveyard, and found…" she trailed off, and Tanya looked at her questioningly.

Darkness flicked her eyes towards the back of Viktoriya. She'd made them go all the way to the lake, look around for hours, and only then start travelling over here.

Darkness wasn't the smartest noble around, but it was impossible to ignore the seed of doubt that Chris had directed her towards.

She's told her that Viktoriya was suspicious. She hadn't believed her completely, but the girl had taken time to distract her from finding out more about this quest.

If Tanya was to be believed, she'd done it to keep her away from this area, where a Tranquility Girl was supposed to be.

Darkness's forehead creased. Why would one of those be around here? No monsters or adventurers would dare tread so close to one of the Demon King's Generals without being desperate, and it didn't seem like there was much water around here regardless.

She tried to sound casual. "We found some tracks from a cart that lead to this road from the graveyard. We were about to see where they led."

Tanya nodded. "We'll report it to the guild, and ask them what we should do. Following them seems logical, but if we were to head towards Verdia's castle, we might get killed," she explained calmly.

Darkness nodded, and Tanya spun back around, smiling at Viktoriya. She sighed tiredly, and Tanya asked what was wrong in their language.

"_Oh, it was tiring to try and keep her away from your dealings. But I managed. How did your talks with Verdia go, anyway?_"

"_Everything is good so far. The Dullahan's contract was very interesting and rewarding, I'll have to show you_-"

Tanya's sentence was abruptly cut off by something slamming into Viktoriya. Tanya paused, for a moment, to watch as she slammed into the ground.

Tanya heard something crack loudly.

Tanya watched as Darkness rose to her knees, holding Viktoriya in a bear hug. She struggled for a moment but then she cried out as Darkness squeezed.

Her gun was already in her hands, trained on Darkness's head. The Eris Cultist was smirking, still squeezing Viktoriya. "I'd put down your staff, Tanya. Your master might not survive the pressure," she said, a light blush touching her cheeks as Viktoriya struggled violently.

The urge to activate her reinforcement spells and violently mutilate the person daring to touch Viktoriya faded, and she lowered her gun. "Darkness. What the _hell _do you think you're doing!?"

She smirked. "I'm getting answers. Something happened to you, and this person was the beginning of it. Now, throw away that weapon."

Tanya grit her teeth, but an idea came to her, and she smirked. Making an effort to look concerned, she began to build up mana.

Finally, she snarled, and tossed it away, slowly holding up her hands. "Fine. I'm unarmed, and – SLEEP!"

Darkness had let her guard down, and was totally unprepared. Both women sank the rest of the way to the ground, flush against the ground.

Tanya lunged towards Viktoriya, and pulled her away from Darkness. A moment of indecision followed, where she wondered how hurt she was, until she lightly hit herself in the head. She didn't need to know, really.

"Heal."

She poured mana into the spell, and watched as her pained expression faded into one of contentment. Tanya sighed happily, and then set her on the grass near the road. A burst of Flight magic sent Tanya towards her rifle, and she was standing over Viktoriya, gun in hand, a moment later.

The sound of ringing steel sounded behind her, and Tanya turned around, anger stretched across her face and directed towards the panting Crusader.

"I'll ask again, Darkness. What's the big idea?"

She glared at the still-sleeping Viktoriya. "She's the problem. Or, your conversation was. I don't understand your language, but," she said as she grinned triumphantly, "I recognized a few words. You said 'Verdia' and 'Dullahan,' so obviously, you've made contact with the General in the castle."

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** And there we have it! Darkness has gotten too suspicious, and the problem of language gets addressed.

As I pointed out in an earlier Author's Note, the usage of NEET by everyone makes no sense, if no one has an education system besides the nobility and the Crimson Demons.

Obviously, the Reincarnates introduced it. The language evolved, with the sounds that the Reincarnates know spells 'NEET' changing into an insult directed at the generally lazy.

Verdia is a name, and the Dullahan was a figure of Irish myth long before it was popularized in fantasy media. Both would stand out a lot to someone trying to listen in on a conversation they can't understand.

Anyway, Tanya gets headed towards simply switching sides and washing her hands of Being X behind the safety of the barrier, and we get more backstory behind Verdia.

**A/N 2: **Responses to Reviews on here:

**Mechamorph:** Thank you very much for the ideas. In the backlog, Kazuma and Tanya have met, and trying to write him is… interesting, to say the least.

I haven't exactly figured out what to do with Chris in the long run, though a frank talk with Kazuma might convince her.

Also, it's funny that you should mention Lucifer… but saying anything more would be spoiling it.

**TerraBull: **Although Viktoriya doesn't have her power anymore – Tanya had to save her life as it was removed, remember? – chapter 13 reveals what it was right before their fight with the Reincarnates.

**Final-Fan: **This website is… limited compared to AO3, where there is a more complete description in the tags. The main focuses of the story are Romance and Humor, but if I could include more here, Hurt/Comfort, Adventure, and Angst would be the next ones up. Actually… I might change the Romance to Hurt/Comfort, at least until they realize their affection for each other.

Also, they don't lose all of their power. In the sixth KonoSuba LN – remember the body-switcher? – they don't lose all of their power, even if their original owner is dead. They aren't nearly as powerful, obviously, but they have a bit left. That's also how Visha still remembers to make the Type 97.

**leon solitario:** I assume you're asking about the Circlet not helping her during her initial kidnapping, and to that… she isn't exactly used to it, and she knew that the Type 95 will focus her mind and help her stave of spells, even if that focus becomes fixated on maiming others and praising god.

**Sketch-yTimes:** It's fine, no problem.

**vanhellsing9000: **Eris will be forced to give up for a time – I won't say by who. As for Wiz… I'll be straight up and say she's much more interested in pursuing her dream of running a _successful _store. Still hasn't happened yet.

**cj1of4:** Megumin isn't in Axel yet, she doesn't get there until Kazuma does, which won't be happening for a while.


	17. Problems

**A/N 1: **By the way, I decided on posting the Omakes in a separate story. It's titled 'Charming Omakes,' and while the first one has little to do with Tanya, more will come that involves her.

-OxOxO-

Tanya, gun held in an iron-grip by her side, went back to her conversation. She then began to berate herself.

She might have gotten perfect knowledge of whatever language this place used – because she _still _hadn't gotten a straight answer as to what this place was called from anyone she asked – but her knowledge of Germanian was incomplete.

She had no idea what the word for 'Dullahan' was, or if there even _was_ such a word.

She'd just used this world's equivalent.

She shook her head and kept her aim steady, trying not to show her panic. "How do you know I've made a contract?"

Darkness, blade pointed at Tanya, smirked. "I didn't. I said you've made 'contact.' You just told me that. Plus, Tranquility Girls wouldn't choose to come out and attract the attention of the guild while a general of the Demon King is here. "

Tanya's eye twitched, and-

She rolled her eyes and began to _violently _berate herself under her breath for thinking of Darkness as nothing but a masochistic Crusader and for panicking so much as to give away information. She turned away and sighed to herself.

"Darkness is clearly smarter than I gave her credit for…" she muttered. She resisted the urge to sigh again. Tanya needed to calm down.

Darkness squawked. "Hey, don't turn away from me! I'm being serious! You can't just ignore me because I haven't been able to hit anything."

Tanya resisted the urge to scoff at that – of course it did – but she shook her head. She deconstructed what was happening, and what might happen.

She would either convince Darkness, or she wouldn't. One option seemed nearly unbelievable, which meant…

She breathed in, and she waved a negligent hand and she ignored her words. "Fine. What do you expect this to do?"

Darkness tilted her head, and Tanya explained. "Why confront me?"

Darkness lowered her blade an inch and Tanya smirked internally, careful to keep a defeated and disgruntled expression on her face. Getting her to talk would give Tanya time to think. She wasn't the best at coming up with on-the-fly plans, but she could always go with the patented 'fly away' tactic.

"To free you. This woman has made you behave suspiciously. You've been making deals with Demon Generals, you get weirdly defensive whenever anyone says anything bad about her," she said.

"Plus, she's obviously evil. She killed seven Tranquility Girls, and even if others think that you pressed her into doing it, I have figured out the truth," she said, dropping her voice.

Tanya searched the eyes of the Crusader opposing her, and Tanya saw that she wasn't joking. "You have no proof, and you can't do anything anyway."

Tanya admitted to herself that she was really starting to dislike Darkness's smirk, especially with how persistent it was. "I don't need proof. She will be behind bars once I give them the word and explain that she's been controlling one noble and that the heir to the Dustiness family wants her there!"

Tanya stared at her incomprehensibly. "_Dustiness_ family? Do you own a bunch of old artifacts that you never clean or something?"

She looked dumbstruck for some reason. Tanya couldn't imagine why that would-

"We – both you and I – are _members of the nobility_."

Tanya blinked once, doing a double-take to make sure Darkness hadn't suddenly burst out laughing, and found that Darkness looked just as serious as before, only now there was a hint of desperation.

Tanya waited, for another moment, for Darkness to double over laughing. And when she didn't…

"HAA!" Tanya blurted out. Darkness only grew more confused, and Tanya snorted uncontrollably.

Tanya doubled over laughing. She disregarded Darkness's blade, sure that she wouldn't be striking Tanya with the look of indignation that she managed to catch before she sank to one knee.

As Tanya continued to laugh, Darkness took one hand off of her blade, thrusting a hand inside of her armor. She dragged out the small necklace she had worn since she was a child.

Shaped like a stylized shield, the outside of it shone in the light of the day. Six lines jutted out from the centerpiece, a pair of wings. They formed what some members of her family called a heart and that others called an arrowhead, depending on whose writings she was consulting.

All of it was made of pure gold, and anyone with even a passing familiarity to it would recognize it for what it was: the crest of the Dustiness family.

Tanya looked up, and saw that Darkness was holding out a necklace. "This necklace bears the crest of the Dustiness family, grand nobles and close friends of the king. I, Lalatina Ford Dustiness, have worn it since I could walk."

Tanya stopped laughing for a moment, before she doubled over again. "That- That name! _Lalatina?_ What kind of name is that?" Darkness went red, but before she could try again, Tanya calmed down a bit.

Letting out the occasional giggle, she wiped a tear from her eye as she managed to stand and speak. "Alright, Darkness. You… seem to think _you're _a noble, and you think _I'm _one too. I'll ignore how untrue that is, and listen to whatever hilarious explanation you have."

How she had come to the conclusion that either of them were nobles in this world was beyond her, but this would be good, regardless of her reasons. Tanya felt she could almost forgive Darkness for attempting to harm Viktoriya if this was humorous enough.

Instead of the righteous zeal and triumph she thought she'd be feeling, Darkness felt indignant.

"You look just like a noble! From the eyes and hair to your chin, you look like a noble," she said.

Tanya blinked. "It's kind of odd that you've noticed the shape of my chin. Also, by that logic, Luna and Dust are also nobles because _they _have blond hair too. I haven't seen many people with that color of hair, but I assumed no one wanted their hair to look bland, when you can get _polka dots_ colored onto your hair."

Darkness faltered for a moment, but she carried on, even if she was a bit quieter. "You have three names. No peasant would dare take on three names."

Tanya paused as she remembered the 'von' that had been added to her name after the War College. She winced. That… kind of did make her a noble, didn't it?

"You have some sort of amulet," she continued, her voice rising slightly now that Tanya hadn't immediately shot her down. "You almost never take it off, except for baths. Just like mine!"

Tanya grimaced. She must have mistaken the stupid Type 95 or the Type 97 for something it wasn't. She suppressed a groan.

Being X continued to cause trouble for her with his curse, even if he hadn't intended it.

Darkness began grinning as she noticed the troubled expression on Tanya's face. She had to be fighting Serebryakov's control.

Darkness nodded to herself. She needed to keep going. Maybe Tanya would break out of whatever it was on her own?

"And Tanya, you're powerful. You can cast more Detonations in a day than any mage I've even heard of, except for a number of Demon Generals. You _must _be a noble."

Tanya tilted her head. "Why does being powerful mean I'm a noble?"

Darkness sighed. It seemed she wasn't making as much progress as she thought. "All nobles are powerful. Whether physically, magically, or mentally, all nobles are better than anyone. The power you have surpasses even the prowess granted to me by my bloodline. You're on par with some of the weaker rulers Belzerg has had in the past, with that mysterious staff and how much mana you have."

She tried to desperately appeal to the person she had known before that Serebryakov had rolled around, staring into Tanya's eyes.

Tanya was stumped. Darkness didn't strike her as the kind of girl who would do this to play an elaborate prank on her, and she certainly seemed to have convinced herself that Tanya was a noble.

Scowling, Tanya pinched the bridge of her nose. "Say I was to entertain your fantasy that I'm some kind of noble. What do you think would happen?"

Darkness's expression fell a bit, but she began to explain what would happen now. "Well, you'll let me take Serebryakov into custody, and-"

"No."

Darkness seemed shocked. "What do you mean? You're a noble. You must see that she's-"

"Better than I am."

Darkness was silenced, and Tanya decided she'd need to tell her a bit about her past.

"You are right," she admitted softly, "that I am a noble. However," she said, glaring at Darkness until the triumphant look on her face died, "I _earned _my title. I was dropped off at an orphanage at a young age, and I grew up there for a few years. I learned the language by three, and joined the army around eight or nine."

Darkness stayed silent, waiting for more. "I fought a war for years, went to college, and graduated with a high enough score to get given a noble title, and _nothing _else. No land or privileges were granted to me, besides the 'von' in my name."

"Throughout the war, it has been _that _woman," she said, gesturing towards with her gun, "that has helped keep me sane enough to keep fighting. A desire to… flee from the fighting and become a paper-pusher behind lines certainly motivated me for a large portion of the beginning of it, but Viktoriya and the others I met helped show me that _surviving_ is not living."

She shook her head, ignoring the dismayed expression on Darkness's face. "I strongly advise that you stop trying to convince me that Viktoriya is to blame for my behavior."

Darkness looked conflicted, and Tanya began to speak again. "You knew me for what, five, six weeks? I've known Viktoriya for years. I know who I would choose if I must, but Darkness, _I don't want to choose._"

She held out a hand. "Come on. I can explain a bit more, if you'll just stop."

Sweat had been forming on Darkness's forehead, and Tanya sighed as she watched Darkness grip the sword in her hand tightly, and then take it up with both again. "No! Chris told me how suspicious she was. But…"

Darkness looked panicked. "If this _is_ you, then I'll have to take you in anyway."

The panic drained from her face, replaced with a nervous calm. "If your family has done something like ally with the Demon King, or if you've so much as talked to a General, I'll have to take you in. But-"

"Dehydrate."

A sickly orange light shot from the slightly raised tip of her gun, crashing into Darkness and sending her sprawling.

She didn't like that spell; it felt more than just a bit inhumane… but at least it wasn't her most inhumane one.

Tanya shook her head as an image of Darkness, foaming at the mouth as eyes bulged. No, this spell was not the most inhumane one the Empire had developed _by far_.

She picked up Viktoriya on her shoulder, and began to walk slowly towards Darkness. She was writhing on the ground, resisting it. Instead of a dried husk, like a piece of stretched leather, she looked surprisingly healthy for how much power Tanya had put into that.

Tanya had expected to be surprised. She's said something about the 'power of her bloodline,' and with how fast she'd woken from her slumber, Tanya hadn't really thought she'd be killed.

"Goodbye, Darkness."

She sent a quick Heal towards the girl as she took off sprinting. A cloud of dust followed her, and soon, she rose into the sky. Darkness couldn't see them, and she very much doubted she was in any position to try to.

As she readjusted her hold on Viktoriya, she hoped that Darkness would come around eventually. Her final words had sounded like she still thought she was part of this country's nobility.

If Darkness wasn't listening to her, and she thought Tanya was a threat…

Until the Crusader believed her, leaving Axel might be necessary.

-OxOxO-

Chris strolled into the guild leisurely. She had been training with those Reincarnates all of yesterday, so she thought today, she'd earn a bit of money and donate it to the Eris Cult.

She looked around, intent on finding Darkness and the other two at the usual table, but she was mystified when she found it empty.

She cast her gaze around the guild, and almost gasped. Darkness was at the bar, surrounded by empty glasses. All of them had alcohol in them, and none of it looked like it was the same stuff.

She crept up behind the blonde, and nervously tapped her on the shoulder. "Darkness…?"

Darkness swung her body around, and Chris had to fight to keep both of them standing as the Crusader threw herself onto her. "Chhhriiiissssss…"

She patted the Crusader on the back, and put her back on the stool. She turned to an amused looking bartender. "Has she paid?"

He nodded stiffly, and she put herself under the Crusader's arm.

They walked, lurching out of the guild and into a nearby alley. "Geez, you're getting heavy."

Darkness, who had been muttering about leaving all that alcohol behind, suddenly began to bawl.

"I'm not! My muscles aren't made of adamantite!" she whined, and Chris finally could take no more, and both of them sank to the ground. Chris took a moment to catch her breath, trying to ignore Darkness's wailing.

"What happened? You're a Crusader, right? How much could you have drank to overpower your resistances?"

Darkness ignored her question, and Chris sighed and leaned against the wall, supposing that Darkness would speak after she had a cry.

Twenty minutes later, Darkness had finally been reduced to sniffling. Chris turned to her, an eyebrow raised. "Do you want to talk about it, or do you want to keep crying?"

Darkness sent a shamefaced stare in her direction. "I'll talk about it."

Chris nodded, sitting up straight and leaning away from the wall. Slowly, Darkness began to talk.

"I… found out some things about Tanya. She's… not what I thought she was."

Chris nodded sadly, making sure to keep the euphoric joy she felt off of her face.

Oh, Darkness was torn up about it now, but she would look back on this fondly when she realized just how horrible that devil was.

She nodded sympathetically. "Was it Serebryakov?" she asked, making sure to keep up the fantasy she had spun. Darkness sniffled a bit, before hesitantly shaking her head.

"I… I don't know. Tanya's done some things that I don't think could be accomplished while under another's dominion, but I don't want to believe she could do them on her own…"

Chris nodded along, fighting to keep a grin off of her face. Darkness would have to accept the Atheist for who she was, soon enough. It would just take a bit more evidence.

And she knew _just _how.

"Darkness, I think I might know a way to break her out of whatever's controlling her, if that is the case," she said softly, and Darkness's eyes filled with hope.

As Chris explained her plan, she felt a warmth begin to build up inside her. It was so nice to help her followers and accomplish her own goals at the same time.

-OxOxO-

Two figures moved about. One would have preferred to be hooded, but the other pointed out that they might stick out more by looking suspicious. So, both tried to look normal, as if one of them didn't have a contract with one of the Demon King's Generals.

They traveled quietly, slipping into the backdoor of the place they'd been frequenting most often. If the customers in the front realized that both of them were in the building, a concerning amount of people would pay to see them dressed like the people who handed out the paper forms that nearly littered the place.

As it was, Tanya was sure that more people out there thought of her or Viktoriya dressed up like Succubi – or in even less – than she would like – a resounding zero.

She couldn't police people for their thoughts, though, so she'd just take solace in the knowledge that she was one of two women who was in on the secret of the shop.

She sighed in relief as she got into the shop. In the few days since their encounter, Darkness hadn't spread word of Tanya's deal – as far as Tanya could tell – but she was still paranoid about it. Every wayward glance in her direction set her on edge.

Both walked through the hallway and into the Succubi's locker room, and placed her heavy cloak inside. Viktoriya put her own jacket in the one to her right, and both walked through the hallway and into a back room that the adventurers outside were too horny to even think about, much less contemplate its existence.

Tanya greeted one of the Succubus, and she smiled. The charity was beginning to take shape.

A line had formed and Tanya sat down at the desk. It was like the ones outside, except older. They'd probably replaced it with all the money they had been earning.

"Tanya, what kind of books should we use for the school?"

Tanya thought, for a moment. With all of the money she'd donated, they'd decided to splurge a bit on what they could start by doing. Tanya had, during their discussion during her first meeting them, suggested they start up a school so they could portray themselves better.

They had taken the idea and ran with it, and were close to starting something. They'd already asked the matron of the local orphanage if they could use their building, and once Tanya had shown up, they'd bent over backwards.

"Find… a selection of books, try to figure out which is the most accurate by comparing them, and buy that one," she finally said.

She wasn't very familiar with what this world had, and letting them do the work would probably get them what they wanted – the ability to represent themselves to the impressionable youth – much better than Tanya could by guessing.

That Succubus retreated, and as the next began to question her, Tanya thought back to her encounter with the matron of the orphanage.

Now that Darkness had it laid the power of the nobility before her, she realized that a lot of the respect and fear she'd been getting – both from that woman and from… everyone, really – was probably because they thought she was some sort of noble.

It was annoying to realize that, comparatively, she'd been able to get where she was because of an intrinsic bias in her favor, instead of just through her skills.

Of course, she wasn't going to shout to the world that she _wasn't_ a noble, since she'd already used her perceived position to get the charity recognized as an entity, legally.

Predictably, the church had opposed it, since the Succubi would be giving out handouts for nothing instead of helping the poor in return for piety, but Tanya had pushed through their complaints with gusto.

Tanya smirked as she told Loli Succubus that she could use her relatively childish looks to try and convince people to donate more to them. That this was hurting the Eris Cult's membership made her feel satisfied.

For an hour, she helped solve problems while Viktoriya rushed to fill out paperwork with a pair of Succubi at her side. The faithful woman had been skeptical of the 'literal Demons,' to use her words, but once Tanya had explained that they helped Axel by distracting their patrons from finding more violent ways to spend their time, she'd seemed relatively fine with the idea.

No doubt, Viktoriya was more okay with it since none of the Succubi were wearing their 'work clothing' and instead wearing sensible clothing that anyone in Axel could be seen wearing. They blended in easily when they walked around in these clothes, and the…

Tanya grimaced. The Mithril Foundation was becoming well known, despite how new it was.

When they had asked for a name, Tanya had decided that using her detestable – horrible disgusting terrifying fear-inducing – nickname on something other than her would be a good idea. No one in this world knew of that name, and since Tanya would never let anyone call her that name if she had the power to, no one would _ever _know.

The line was almost gone. Tanya sighed; she would usually stay here for a few hours, answering questions and helping, but today, only ten Succubi were helping here.

Yesterday, they had explained that they needed to conserve energy, since adventurers weren't making enough money to even visit their shop. She said she understood, but she wondered how much longer the town could survive without monsters.

Tanya was jolted out of her musings by a request.

Tanya knit her brows. "You want me to _what_?"

The blonde-haired bombshell of a succubus cringed away. "Well, some of the parents in the area have expressed a desire to have their children join the orphanage's school, but they want their children to be escorted through Axel. We're not especially powerful, so…"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "There's enough crime for that?"

The Succubus shook her head. "Ah… not exactly. They're worried that they might be caught outside when the Demon King's General finally decides to attack, and they want assurances."

Tanya sighed at the question and began to think and wish she could just tell them to figure it out on their own.

No matter what she did, the Succubi tried to get Tanya more involved with the charity. She might have suspected they wanted to do something convoluted, like bring the charity down and tank her fame with it, if Tanya wasn't convinced of how genuine their thanks was for taking care of those Tranquility Girls.

About to refuse, Tanya tried to think of anyone else that could do the job. Dust was in jail, would demand a salary, and no one with a brain would trust their children around him. Most other adventurers would demand a salary, Luna was always busy, Darkness was…

She smirked as she remembered someone she could ask. "I told you, I might need to leave the town at any moment, but I think I might know someone who could help."

Tanya began to explain, and the Succubi nodded as Tanya and Viktoriya left to visit Wiz.

-OxOxO-

Wiz greeted them happily as they walked in, and they returned the greeting.

Wiz rushed behind her counter, ducking down and bringing up a rack of five potions. "Your explosive potions are ready, Tanya!"

She smiled, but she moved them aside. She wanted to ask some questions before she began asking favors of her. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something."

She looked curious, and Tanya smirked. "How's life as a Demon General?"

Her pupils shrank back, and she began to stutter out a reply. "I… I don't…"

Tanya waved her off. "Don't try and deny it. I spoke to Verdia and Ragcraft four days ago. Said something about being annoyed and working around you, but they gave me this-"

Wiz had frozen, her gaze furious. "What do you mean, 'working around me?'"

Tanya shrugged noncommittally, turning around and pacing towards the shop's window. "Well, I was asking about all the bodies they have, and they told me you had tried to stop them. The pair of adventurers and the noble that went missing were apparently working with them, or something."

She turned back around, and her eyes shrank as she saw Wiz get angry. The air was cooling, and a very intimidating, wasteful light – likely caused by unformed mana – was coming from her. Viktoriya walked towards Tanya, one hand on her rifle.

"Uh… Wiz? Are you okay?"

The cool air, slowly, began to recede, and the light around her faded. "Yes," she bit out.

"What's so bad about them using the bodies?" she asked. Wiz sent a furious glare at her, but it softened as it saw the genuine confusion on her face.

"Tanya… how…"

She just shook her head. "Normal undead seek out Priests in battle because they seem more like the thing they oppose, and because they desire to be purified. Only undead with a particularly strong resolve can resist, but most swarm Priests in an attempt to seek salvation."

Tanya's eyes widened.

She'd helped chained dozens of souls to a life they'd seek release from.

Probably. Her speech to them about raging against the Priests might have cured that particular aspect of their being…

Tanya winced. Yet another thing she could be tried for in a court – or that would cause any of the likely dozens of plucky hero types to try and murder her – should she get caught. She doubted, though, that that would happen.

If she couldn't save herself – however unlikely that was – Viktoriya would, just like…

She shook away her memories desperately, distracting herself by smiling at Wiz. "Well. I suppose I probably shouldn't ask, but could you do something for us?"

With a curious and cautious tilt of Wiz's head, Tanya cleared her throat and launched into her explanation.

"The Mithril Foundation is a charity that wants to improve the poorest people's lives. Recently, they've run into a problem," she said.

"They've set up a school for the orphans at the edge of town, and are planning to begin schooling them. Parents of children in town have expressed some desire to have their children learn from them, for free, instead of having to hire tutors or allowing their children to go uneducated. They want someone to escort the children to the orphanage."

"Unfortunately," Tanya said, letting out an annoyed sigh, "I can't do it. I'm planning to travel outside of Axel soon, but I thought that maybe you'd want to do it?"

Wiz's face had lit up from the beginning. "Of course I'll…"

She stopped, an apologetic frown on her face. "I mean, I'd love to. But from what you said, Verdia and Ragcraft will probably try and steal more bodies as soon as they can. I need to start patrolling as much as I can, and I can't leave the shop unattended with how low sales have been."

Tanya cursed internally, wondering what she'd do now, when Viktoriya spoke up. "Well, what if we bought some of your stuff to make up for the drop in sales?"

Immediately, Wiz's face lit up as she trotted over to a wall of her shop, while Tanya's emotions bickered about what a bad idea this was. She wanted to get Wiz to do this, but buying a piece of defective junk didn't seem to be a good idea.

She brought them a selection of potions. "You seem to be interested in potions, with how many of those explosive ones you buy, so I present to you: the Forbidden Potion Series of potions!"

Tanya gave the woman a smile, but the shopkeeper didn't seem reassured. It wasn't that Tanya wasn't interested; it was that she had a very specific idea in mind when she had begun buying the Explosive potions, and she had no idea what she'd do with what was likely junk.

"Could you tell us about them?" she asked, trying to seem interested.

Her acting worked well enough, and Wiz nodded, apparently encouraged. She brought out a simple looking black bottle. "This potion will raise your levels!"

Tanya looked interested, and then narrowed her eyes at the Lich. She hadn't bought much from Wiz, but there had to be some sort of side effect. Almost anything that granted instant power, like her relics, had some sort of drawback.

She gave them a small smile. "It also reduces your mana to zero?"

Both of them shook their heads simultaneously, and Wiz nodded. "Of course not, both of you have lots of mana. You probably don't want to alter your fighting style. In that case, how about this one?" she asked, holding up a potion bottle that looked to be the same color of human skin.

_Ba-bum._

Tanya and Viktoriya backed away as it throbbed in Wiz's hand, and Wiz shook her head at the wary look they both sent her. "Don't be put off by its appearance! It will greatly increase your Magic-Power, and has the slight effect of also killing all of your hair follicles."

Wiz handed it to Tanya, and she set it aside, much too unsettled by how it felt like glass and looked like a tube covered in skin. She would buy that if Wiz had nothing else – sacrificing all of her hair for more power was interesting, but she didn't really need more of it right now.

Well, she could always purchase the thing and then never use it, right?

Wiz pointed to another one, which was tiny. "This potion will reset your level to zero!"

And another. "Viktoriya," she said, motioning towards the one shaped like the classic caricature of a heart, "despite your age, you still haven't been seen despite your availability and attractiveness. This potion will attract the opposite gender, at the cost of making you smell like a goblin."

Tanya's nose scrunched up at the thought of someone smelling like a goblin – they were somehow able to smell worse than the members of the 203rd after days on the ground in the East – and then she went over the rest of the woman's words.

"Hey!" she shouted, indignant on Viktoriya's behalf, "don't insult Viktoriya. She'll find someone she likes eventually. No one in this town is worthy of her anyway, and…"

Her eyes narrowed. "If it was so good, then _you_ would have used it by now, wouldn't you?"

As Wiz's face began to grow incredibly sad, Tanya thought about the subject of Visha and marriage and-

She shook her head. Tanya knew _she _wasn't going to be bedding Visha anytime soon – the girl had been raised in 1900s Europe, which meant she was definitely not homosexual – so Tanya would do her best to help her, whenever she wanted to find someone.

Wiz backed away slightly, and Viktoriya, politely, placed it back in the rack. "No thanks."

Wiz was about to point to another one – this one looked mostly normal, but the label on it had a picture of a puppet with its head removed. She didn't even want to know what that was about. "Why are these called 'Forbidden' anyway?"

Wiz tapped a finger against her cheek. "Well, the person who sold them and the rights to them said they're all very good. The only reason they're bad is because most people won't want them… and they're all illegal to make."

Tanya sighed. It seemed like all of these potions appealed to very select groups of people, which wasn't very good for business. If you wanted to sell something, you would try and get as many people to buy it as possible.

She picked up the level reducing one – if Darkness found out about it, she'd buy it so she'd get a good time from anything and everything, including _grass_.

Wiz looked sort of disappointed as Tanya set it down on the counter, so Tanya pointed to a tall, skinny, bronze-colored bottle. "What's that one?"

Wiz looked at it, and shook her head. "This one is… pretty useless. If you drink it, you'll attract monsters to you for the rest of your life. I don't know of a way to remove it, so you'd be stuck as monster bait forever."

Tanya picked it up. Darkness might like it to drink it, but Tanya wasn't dealing with monsters forever, whenever they reconciled. Tanya might not have been on any quests that required her to sleep in the wilderness, but she wasn't going to defend the camp all night because the Crusader wanted to get hit.

She looked at it, eye studying it idly. It attracts monsters, huh?

A small smile played on her face as another idea came to her. "Hey Wiz. How powerful is this attraction?"

She shrugged. "I don't know exactly, but that's only because it exceeds all other measures of how powerful something can be when warding off or attracting monsters. Why?"

Tanya let the small smile on her face grow. "I've got an idea on how to increase sales. Want to hear how?"

Wiz blinked. "You aren't really going to take over from the Demon King when you kill him, are you? You look really scary right now."

"Yeah~," Viktorita sighed. Tanya missed her former adjutant's forlorn sigh as she continued to grin at the potion and plan. She knew _just_ how to fix a great many of her problems at once.

-OxOxO-

"All adventurers, report to the guild! We have an emergency quest!"

Dust grumbled as he heard the speakers sound again. That was the third time in five minutes they'd sounded.

He looked back into his cell from where he was standing on a chair he'd been given, staring out of his window. It wasn't like he had much to do anyway.

It wasn't like this place was horrible; sure, the food wasn't up to its usual quality, and the hay in his room hadn't been changed out since he'd got there, and his time in the recreation center had been restricted, but it was better than being outside of it, with no money to buy food or to pay for a room.

He was getting bored though, and none of the female police who watched him were very fun.

They'd promised to beat him within an inch of his life if he harassed them, and after he'd tried doing it anyway and gotten beaten, he hadn't tried again.

Tanya had delivered on her promise that he would be watched by the female police officers, and he hadn't figured out a way to get out yet. Maybe this would work?

He stepped down from the chair, and banged on the door. A small slit at the bottom allowed food to be pushed in, and otherwise, the door was completely flush with the surfaces surrounding it.

Not that he'd try and break out. He'd get put in here for much longer, and he'd rather sit through the month quietly. The sound of clanking armor reached his door, and a voice sounded from the other side.

"What do you want, delinquent?"

He tried to sound agitated. "Didn't you hear? They want all adventurers, and that means I get to leave."

He heard the pause, and he allowed his hopes to rise. Then her snicker destroyed his hopes. "They alert us about these things in advance, you know. They needed police help this time, and they told us that you can stay in here, unless…"

His hopes rose again. "Unless?"

Her tone hurried, the knight began to explain. "If you do what they want, you'll get five free drinks, regardless of size, every night."

His eyes popped out of his head. "You'll receive an allowance from them, and they'll be indebted to you for years to come."

Dust pressed himself into the door. Those sounded too good to be true. "What do I have to do? I know I'll get out of here in a few weeks, but getting those terms seems like a dream come true!"

She then explained what he would have to do, and then Dust's hopes fell.

No way would he do that.

He told her as much, and she sighed as well. "Yeah, knowing you, you'd never be that self-sacrificing. You'd be more popular if you were willing to put your life on the line, you know."

He chuckled a bit. "I'm not coming out of here."

He heard her click her tongue, and Dust smirked at having detected her attempt at reverse physiology. He heard her steps fade away, and went back over to his chair, looking out the window again.

How they thought they'd convince any rational person to become super monster bait for the rest of their lives, he didn't know.

-OxOxO-

Tanya stared around the room. People – from the most bland looking humans, to people who claimed to be elves and dwarves who seemed to be just a bit taller or shorter than average, to the 'beastmen' that gathered in one of the dingier corners of the guild – were dressed in as little as a scarf around their neck and a few strips of cloth covering anything that might be considered risqué to as much as full plate armor, stared towards the front of the guild, where Luna was sitting in front of the door, or looked around the room, bored.

Wiz sat next to Luna, chatting about something. Tanya couldn't make out what it was over the din of the conversations around her, but she guessed it had to do with either the potions or some other adventurer-related thing.

Tanya had spent most of the rest of yesterday getting the Succubi to Wiz's shop and then helping Wiz direct them to make the five racks of ten potions next to Luna.

She might have cared about getting permission to make the illegal potions, but the Succubi were well-known among the police, who would understood that they wouldn't be able to prosecute the Succubi for their crime without implicating nearly half of Axel in their ring of sin.

As soon as an hour had passed since Luna had sounded the alarm, she stood from where she'd been seated next to Wiz and a bunch of other workers at the guild. "Everyone! We're going to be telling you what you need to do!"

The conversation that had been going on quieted, and Tanya and Viktoriya rose, walking towards the bar area. No one was there, and anything that resembled a glass or cup or alcohol had been removed.

Both of them stared out and watched as Luna cleared her throat. "Everyone. You all know what the problem plaguing Axel is: the General of the Demon King, Verdia!"

Terrified murmurs rounded the room, and Tanya took the time to seek out familiar faces in the crowd. She saw that Lynn, Taylor, and Keith were seated relatively close to Luna. Darkness was looking determinedly away from Tanya , and Chris sat by the Crusader's side, glancing towards Tanya occasionally.

The Reincarnates she had divested of their weapons were scattered into three groups. Four of them sat near the front door, while another pair sat close to her own position. She could make out one last head of black hair close to the counters where people talked to the receptionists, which had been shut behind wooden paneling that was placed there every night when Luna left.

Tanya was sure that she had taken care of ten of them since she'd had her nearly fatal encounter with the Shapeshifter and the Lancer, which meant some had either moved on, or they'd died.

Luna's speaking cut off her thoughts before they could continue to a place she didn't want to contemplate. "Simply put, we couldn't beat Verdia if we tried. However, something must be done about how few quests we can assign, yes?"

Luna had been shocked at Tanya's proposal, but she'd heartily endorsed it.

Another murmur, this one of agreement, went up. No one had much money, and almost all of them had taken out loans from the guild. The whole system – and indeed, a large portion of the town – was only functioning because the capital was sending them money, according to Luna.

That money was only coming in because Axel provided an excellent source of new adventurers, with how the monsters weren't wiped out wholesale. If new adventurers didn't begin joining the main forces in the capital and along the cities fighting the Demon King, however, those funds would be cut off.

"Thankfully, Wiz has found a solution," she said, gesturing to the 'woman' behind her. The Lich waved a little, and many adventurers returned her greeting… _energetically_. She didn't seem off put by the wolf whistles, though.

Tanya stood straight from where she'd been leaning against the bar, slowly walking through the crowd. She was floating on half an inch of air, to ensure her steps were silent.

Luna gestured to the potions on the table, holding up one. Everyone stared towards the skinny, tall, bronze-colored bottle Tanya had been shown yesterday. "Using her knowledge, as well as funding and help from the Mithril Foundation, she made this potion, and the ones on the table, that attract monsters."

The guild was quiet for a moment as people digested her words. Then, applause began, followed by cheering and calls of hallelujah to Eris. People rose from their seats, clapping and cheering. They were moving towards the table, eager to earn money by taking out some monsters.

Tanya made no noise, quietly moving around tables and people as she made her way towards her target. They wouldn't be celebrating in a moment.

"However, there is a drawback," Luna continued, motioning for crowd to quiet. It did so, and only a few hushed conversations continued among the standing adventurers.

Tanya began to gather mana in her Type 97. "In order to activate, someone must drink the potion. And monsters will be attracted to whoever drinks it for the rest of their lives."

All of the quiet commentary ceased. No one was especially interested in sacrificing themselves, except for one person.

And, as Darkness began to raise a shaking hand, blushing furiously, eyes pinpoints as she imagined how much she could be ravaged with something like that and her Decoy, Tanya stopped her fantasies.

"Sleep. Reinforcement spell: Strength."

The woman slumped over, and Tanya held onto her by her shoulders. Chris looked alarmed, but Tanya shook her head, warning her off.

The Thief looked indecisive, for a moment, until an odd smile overcame her face and she turned back towards Luna, who was still brandishing the bottle.

Tanya had secured Darkness's immunity with Luna.

Tanya had also pointed out that Darkness would likely get herself killed. Luna acted confused, and then she'd thought Tanya was _lying_ when she'd told her about the Crusader's fetish.

Tanya shook her head. Apparently, no one else had ever caught her being a masochist yet. Memories of her first quest with the woman reminded her that everyone thought she was a model knight, charging off into danger and soaking up damage.

Luna had, after Tanya's explanation and a single plea to believe her, agreed that Darkness would only be considered a last resort. Tanya wasn't sure if Luna understood that Darkness really was a masochist, but she didn't have the energy to try and convince her of that.

She sat down at a table, placing Darkness in the seat next to her, and watched as Luna looked around. Everyone, too busy eyeing the exit and windows of the guild, remained quiet to the plea Luna was making with her eyes.

Luna drew their attention back to her. "Please! You'll be compensated with free drinks and an allowance, in addition to whatever work you do! We'll be indebted to you for years! You'll get a large amount of cash!"

Still, no one spoke up. Luna sighed, and she snapped her fingers.

Suddenly, the windows of the reception counter burst open, and police began to pour out. From the rafters, unseen by all, more police officers began to drop down, hanging onto pieces of rope that had been placed there. A flurry of motion passed, where they positioned themselves around every window and door. The rest of the guild staff had come in through the front doors, helping the police officers shut them.

Before anyone could blink, the room was locked up tight. The adventurers around her were beginning to panic, while Viktoriya slipped into the seat across from her. A young voice jumped out of the crowd.

"Why?"

Luna shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, but Axel is in real dire straits. If we don't start bringing in monsters soon, the nobles will soon become unreasonable. They might force you all to fight Verdia with the aid of their guards, just to see if someone could do it."

The adventurers were getting antsy. If Dust had been there, he might have done something stupid, like provide everyone with the idea that they should just destroy all of the potions.

Thankfully, there wasn't anyone moronic enough to suggest something like that, so the adventurers waited for a minute. Conversation began to break out, mostly from younger adventurers.

They asked the older adventurers to be spared.

None of them looked particularly inclined to be merciful.

Tanya sighed. Fine, she'd use the last card they had. They could keep the adventurers in here for as long as they wanted, but they'd never get anyone to volunteer by starving them.

So she'd try something else that even Luna didn't know about.

"Male adventurers. Please come this way."

She said this two more times, and they began to come towards her. She walked to a corner of the guild, which 'conveniently' had no policewomen near it.

She turned to them. She could spot Keith and Taylor, and the new kid that had asked Luna 'why' was there too. She didn't see any of the Reincarnates, however.

She cleared her throat, and then began. "What do you all think the shortage has been doing to Axel?"

Most of them shrugged noncommittally, but Taylor stepped forward. "It's been bad for the people, right? We can't provide monster parts, and we can't spend our money getting our things repaired. They've been going out of business and having to move."

The other adventurers nodded slowly, some of them remarking about the quests for helping people move to nearby villages or even farther away, like other cities and the capital.

Tanya stared around the rough grouping of people, casting one last glance at the females scattered around the rest of the guild. She then turned her gaze back to them. "What do you think will happen to businesses if Adventurers don't do business?"

No one answered, and Tanya pressed forward. "Axel is unique; its police are lenient, the guild is lenient, everything is more relaxed because everyone here is supposed to be a new adventurer. If Axel get wiped off of the map because no one can do business, however…"

"A business that some of you enjoy will soon be forced to disappear. Forever." She finished her last sentence with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. None of them understood, for a moment.

Then, they began to put things together. A man in full bronze-plate armor gasped. Keith began to choke on his own spit. A bronzed man with horns on his helmet whimpered. A few of them didn't realize the truth, but Tanya knew that enough of them had.

They probably wondered how she'd found out about the Succubi's shop, but none of them were dumb enough to say that out loud.

Some of the more… 'innocent' among them might seek to turn them into the police, and uncover the whole operation.

Smirking, she held up a slip of paper. "This is a coupon. The first five people that drink the potion will be able to go to the wonderful shop of their dreams, and partake in their services for five years."

They stared at her incomprehensibly. "For free."

All of them paused for a moment, and then they made a mad dash towards the front, fighting to be the first there, visions of just how many dreams they'd be have dancing inches in front of their faces.

They were too late, however. To Tanya's wonder, someone was already there, sipping on one of the five racks of potions.

Her long black hair dipped passed her shoulders, and most of her clothing was as black as her hair. A black cloak, a black dress, even her staff was a solid black, with the only spot of color coming from the top of her staff, which held a simple, blue orb.

Tanya might have described her as physically beautiful, but the miasma of disrespect and general apathy she gave off was almost visible.

She smiled at them. "Hello! I've already finished off one of the racks; you'd better decide which of you will get the other four before I take those too!"

Tanya watched as the male adventurers who so greatly desired her tickets devolve into fighting, clawing at each other's throats.

For her part, Tanya was just staring at the Reincarnate.

…Hadn't she given that staff to Chris?

-OxOxO-

"Maybe I should look into poisons…" she muttered under her breath.

They were heading to a vast field just outside of Axel. Everyone who had been trapped in the guild had been let go the moment the last of the potions had been consumed, and they had decided to head out, to see if this would work.

Tanya was walking with Viktoriya. Darkness was still asleep, and Chris had volunteered to stay behind at the guild.

Tanya had smiled at her and thanked her, privately wondering how Chris was arming the Reincarnates.

She didn't particularly care about the _why_. Some of the 'Divine' Relics still held a bit of latent power. Tanya had wanted Chris's skills, however, and she had thought they would be sold to the General Store and never seen again.

Back in the guild, when Tanya had looked around Chris, she had switched her train of thought when she'd noticed that a number of the other Reincarnates were _also_ staying behind. Thoughts of how best to skewer the Thief had instead began popping up in her head, like daisies in the spring.

Tanya was silent for only a moment longer – to make it away from the sight of the gates – before she turned to Viktoriya. "_Chris is a possible threat. I'll tell you more when we get back._"

The woman blinked, digesting the information. She nodded unerringly, and had stared ahead, walking along with the rest of the adventurers.

The five who'd drank the potions – the Reincarnate, the bronze-plated adventurer, a heavily bearded man with heavy armor on his arms and not much else, an older fellow with streaks of gray running through his short hair, and a small, unassuming Thief – were in the center, being guarded by the rest of them.

No monsters had jumped out yet, but they'd heard rustling in the taller grasses as they'd walked to the field. Nothing had come out yet, but many were finally hopeful.

Another thirty minutes of walking placed the five of them squarely in the center of the field. Everyone else was standing far away or had concealed themselves, waiting with bated breath for the monsters. Tanya and Viktoriya, under the cover of Tanya's Lurk skill, had taken off into the air. Just in case.

Then, something happened. The ground began to shake, quake, and rumble. Tanya and Viktoriya, concealed by Tanya's Lurk, looked around themselves, Observation spells shining brightly.

Soon, from the distant forest, figures began to gather near the tree line. Then, the grasses surrounding the plain began to quiver. Portions of the ground, bumpy and uneven, began to disappear as slimy surfaces revealed themselves.

Everything seemed to pause for a moment, before it all began barreling as one towards the five adventurers in the middle.

Tanya could see all manner of beast – One-hit-Kill bears, Slimes, Squirrels, Frogs, insects, Worms, Rabbits, Wolves, and even a goblin or two. And that was what she could name.

Just as they had revealed themselves, the Adventurers did too. Thieves dropped their Lurks, and they met the beasts head on. Soon, pockets of adventurers were being surrounded by monsters.

However, Tanya wasn't worried. All of the adventurers, from what she would see, were greatly enjoying their time, happy to finally be able to fight after weeks of inactivity.

Everyone was cheering, or they were shouting the spells and skills. Except for exactly seven people.

Two of them were, of course, herself and Viktoriya. The four males who'd drank the potion were watching the others who were fighting with envy, while the Reincarnate was laying on the ground, her hat covering her eyes.

This tactic of lying in wait and using the monsters' fixation on the five of them to kill the things while they were distracted would only work if none of them moved away.

The whole thing was based on the predictability of the monsters movements, and Tanya could honestly say she was impressed by everyone's collective ingenuity. She hadn't even contributed that much.

Slowly, Tanya floated down from the sky, softly landing next to the Reincarnate. She dropped her Lurk, and waited for them to notice her.

When none of them did, she cleared her throat. The four males made shocked sounds, but the girl just smiled.

"I suppose you're her to ask me about this?" she asked, shaking her scepter above her head. Tanya nodded, and she sat up.

"Buzz off, bozos," she shouted, and the other four backed up. She stepped closer to Tanya and Viktoriya, and before she could ask what she was doing, she threw out a Fireball.

It touched down in only a few seconds, clearing an area and ensuring that they weren't about to have a conversation on top of a monster. Aya turned to them as she walked backwards towards the spot she'd cleared.

"I don't like bugs," she said. Tanya blinked, and then followed her with a scowl at the waste of mana. Viktoriya trailed behind as the woman in front of them…

Tanya blinked at the sight of a shining orange barrier.

Slowly, the other four, who had been watching them closely, clicked their tongues at her and turned their backs, mumbling. Tanya felt the urge to leave the woman alone too, but she fought it when she realized that it was the barrier attempting to mess with her head.

Mess with her head…

"Hey." The girl's word broke Tanya out of her trance, and she stared at her.

The girl smiled. "It's not a force field like I was promised, but it works well enough that, should things get messy, the other four will die before I do," she said, smirking and looking knowingly at Tanya, expecting some kind of a reaction.

Tanya nodded. "A good plan. Can I buy it?" she asked, keeping a straight face and trying not to smirk.

The girl sighed. "Jeez, you're not very fun, are you? But that's fine, I wouldn't expect you to be, not with the sob story you have for a past."

Tanya bristled at the reduction of the horrors she'd been through, but the woman didn't care. She sat back down on the ground, patting the rough circle that had been cleared with her Fireball spell. Tanya sat and, after a moment, Viktoriya followed.

The woman took off her outer cloak, and considering the heat of the sun, Tanya couldn't blame her. She gestured to her scepter. "I got this back from the silver-haired Thief in your party. Don't trust her."

Tanya glared at the ground, and the woman chuckled.

Tanya looked up, and the girl spoke, mostly to herself. "Yeah, I'm glad I backed out of that deal."

Tanya sent her a questioning eyebrow, and the woman shrugged. "Four of them – and that Chris girl – think that they can take you on. They _really_ want you dead, for whatever reason. Myself and two others thought differently, and we've decided that fighting you isn't worth the trouble."

Tanya nodded. "A wise decision, Miss…"

She smiled. "Just call me Aya."

"Aya, then. The other two who sided with you are…"

She smiled, handing out the information freely. "Shizuka, the one with the wand, and Takashi. He's-"

"The one who had the skill," Tanya finished for her. He had been the one she'd managed to save, and she'd taken care to remember his name.

Aya nodded, and Tanya asked her last question. "Why tell me all of this? You don't have any obligation to me."

Aya frowned briefly, and it surprised Tanya that the woman could care enough about something to frown about it. "My death wasn't a nice one. I was thankful to be given another chance, but I wasn't going to fight in a war I knew nothing about just because they told me to. I wanted safety, more than anything else, but I was also interested in seeing something new."

She sighed and looked into Tanya's eyes. "You could have taken away that second chance, robbed me of everything I had, and left me to die. You could have even killed me yourself. Instead, you gave me money, allowed me to carry on, when I could," she said, gesturing to her scepter with a nod, "become a threat again. Regardless of whatever else you've done and promised, you allowed me to live."

She let her hat fall back onto her face. "Plus, you found this potion. Thanks to that, I got what I wanted: a life free from actual danger with tons of people that'll fall over themselves to help me. By giving you this information, I don't feel indebted to you, and you won't feel like you can boss me around because you spared me."

With that, she settled down, using her cloak as a pillow and curling up on the ground. Tanya stood up, gesturing to Viktoriya. It was time to help out.

They could take care of the treachery later when they got back.

-OxOxO-

He tried to get away. He knew that he probably shouldn't be out here – he'd recently come in from his backwater village. He had been the only adventurer there for many years, defending the village from monsters when the guild in Axel couldn't be called upon in time.

Once here, he'd been praised as a natural and taken an advanced class. Then, not a week into arriving here, the beautiful woman at the front of the guild had been surprised at how strong he was. He just wanted to prove himself to her and everyone else that said he was strong.

Now he realized just how outclassed he was.

He turned around, and gulped as he stared down his enemy. Fur as black as night and heavily built, the Rookie Killer's yellow, feline eyes seemed to stare into his very soul. He'd tried fighting a group of goblins, and had been able to take out a few with his two-handed blade.

It seemed to be wary of the adventurers around it, but it seemed to notice that they were busy with others.

He grimaced. Of course it knew that. Rookie Killers were some of the smartest monsters around, despite their inability to talk like more dimwitted monsters, like Goblins.

Sword shaking, he raised his blade. If he was to die, he'd do it fighting.

It seemed to wait a moment, before it moved. He could hardly keep track of it, but he was able to see that it had raised its paw high, aiming to slash down on him. He raised his own sword, praying that he'd be spared-

"Sharpen Blade."

Suddenly, the beast was gone. Only a whoosh of air told him that the thing hadn't simply disappeared. He looked around himself, and gasped in awe.

A woman had run her blade through the beast's head, her oddly shaped spear pointing through its left eye. The thing didn't seem to have even been able to react to the woman's attack.

She turned around. "Are you alright?"

He didn't respond. He was too taken aback.

She had short blonde hair that stopped just above her shoulders – though some of it also hung lower – and a green cloak that seemed to swirl around her. She had on gray gloves that concealed her hand and forearm, and she was clutching the odd spear in them.

She asked again. "That cut looks pretty nasty. Are you okay?"

He shook his head, and touched his nose.

Wet.

He lifted his fingers in front of his face, and noted he was bleeding. "I- I don't feel it…"

The woman sighed, and said, "Heal."

He felt the wound closing, and he marveled as he touched his face again. He could feel that a scar had been left, but not much else.

The woman stood up straight, looking around herself. Just as it seemed like she'd be leaving, he blurted out, "Who are you?"

The woman turned to him. "Tanya von Degurechaff. And you?"

"Rex."

She nodded. "Well Rex, I'd suggest that you should get yourself a party. Having people you can trust help you in fights like these is important."

With that, Tanya left, leaving a star-struck man to contemplate what he was doing with himself. He began to look around and spotted another pair of people – one tall male with dark blue hair and a female with some armor and a spear – and hastily made his way over to them, thoughts focused on the woman who'd saved him instead of his surroundings.

-OxOxO-

Verdia looked out at the legions of undead.

He shook his head. Well, legions was a bit of a hyperbole.

He had a few hundred undead under his employ now, and thanks to Degurechaff, he'd managed to get quite a few undead of superior quality.

When he just stood around and attempted to bully them into rising again, the best he got were simple Zombies, Undead Knights, and, with the occasionally angry Mage or Priest, a Zombie Maker.

With her instructions on how to appeal to their grudges, however, they hadn't spawned a single Zombie. All of them had become Knights, Zombie Makers, and even a highly coveted Undead Mage had risen.

An Undead Mage was smarter than many low-tier undead, and Verdia had been wanting one for quite some time. They didn't compare to beings like himself or Wiz, but they were powerful enough to resist a Priest's attempts to exorcise them.

Despite the good success, Verdia couldn't help but be annoyed at the Reincarnate. He'd been hoping to stall his attack on the town by saying they didn't have enough forces, but with these undead, he could take out the town in no time.

Plus, he wouldn't have to attack it and kill a bunch of people that couldn't really even be called opponents. The town, from Ragcraft's reports, was on a steady decline. They wouldn't have been able to be considered a town in a few months, with the damage his presence was doing to their economy.

Suddenly, the faint sound of burrowing reached his ears, and Ragcraft, in his Giant Worm form, popped out of the ground, shook a bit of dirt off of himself, and then began to stalk towards Verdia, wearing his human form again.

He sighed tiredly, but he gestured to the seat next to him. Ragcraft threw himself into it.

"We have no more bodies."

Verdia felt an eye twitch. "Why not?" he asked, keeping his voice level. He could guess, but it was best to-

"Wiz. She figured out our plan, and was at the graveyard when I showed up. And get this: she said that the corpses are technically 'non-combatants' and that she would abide by our taking them anymore."

Verdia chuckled. That was an audacious claim, but Wiz wasn't interested in what they thought or the letter of their contract with her.

If they touched them, she'd try and kill them.

Verdia looked at his forces, numbering over six hundred, and noted that he didn't think he could take her, not even with the undead around him.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to-"

Ragcraft cut him off with a smirk. "No. I slipped in and retrieved a letter from our king. We're to both report back, and you're to explain why you made that deal with Degurechaff. And before we leave, you're to begin an attack. Don't use all of your forces, but he's ordered you to remind them of how fearful they _should_ be feeling with a Demon General so close by."

Ragcraft stood still, glaring triumphantly, and Verdia sighed. The reminder of how he was technically failing in his mission by not finding either the Double Blessed Reincarnate or by destroying the town irked him. He sighed. He supposed he might as well attack it.

If this Double Blessed Reincarnate were there, they would have to come out and fight him. If they weren't he'd be fine.

Maybe… a comparison to Norse? They were supposedly very technologically advanced, and claiming that Degurechaff might be able to do more damage in the long term than even the Mobile Fortress Destroyer might get him to see his view.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 2: **Finally, things are coming to a head. Tanya has to abandon Darkness, and she realizes Chris really doesn't like her for whatever reason. Verdia is beginning to come to Axel, and it looks like Chris might try something soon.

Another mystery gets brought up – Tanya refers to an inhumane spell worse than forcibly dehydrating someone. It's probably pretty easy to guess what it is, so why don't you leave your guesses in the reviews?

In other news, Rex, another one-off character – this time from the Megumin Spinoff – gets introduced. Aya, an OC Reincarnate, gets a bit of time. Luna, Wiz, Dust… honestly, almost everyone gets a bit of time in this chapter. Really happy about that.

The next chapter will come out some time next week, but if you want it early…

If this story gets 500 follows or favorites by Wednesday next week, I'll give you the next chapter early. If I get 500 of both by then, you get the next _two _by then. Sound like a good deal?

**A/N 3:** Replies to reviews on this website:

**cj1of4: **Tanya will help Wiz out right before she decides to leave Axel for a while.

**DNWorks: **If she joins him, Tanya would probably kill people if given the order – she was a soldier and had no problem with it in the Empire – but she would also probably try and end things in a less wasteful way than simply killing everyone. She has had to deal with quite a lot of death, and if she can find some wiggle room in her orders, she'll exploit it.

**SurplusTime:** Thank you for the support! As for your questions… yeah, his quiver being on his back was a 'this is fantasy so of course that's how it works' moment, I'll change it.

Darkness _does_ have a high magic resistance, but as Megumin's mother shows in the 5th LN or in the KonoSuba movie (presumably, I haven't seen it yet) that resistance can be overpowered. Darkness's quick recovery is this resistance in action.

**OmegaRaguel:** You are correct, and the change has been made.


	18. Skirmish

Around her, four people were seated.

This was greatly different than the usual.

There were no other adventurers around them, or wait staff, or even police officers or guards. The only observer that was likely to be looking in would be a rat or two.

There was also no great view of the interior of the guild. No skeleton could be seen hanging from the low, squat ceiling above them. No plants dotted the interior of this small room, and no windows could be seen around the room.

The only thing that was similar to the guild was the good lighting, but even that was different, considering it came from the candle-lit lamp at the center of the table instead of the popular and efficient mana-fueled lights.

Of course, all of this was familiar and expected of the group that had decided to hog the backroom of a local eatery for the fifth time that week. Chris hadn't wanted this conversation to be overheard, especially not with what was going on in this town.

The Atheist was being hailed as a hero. She'd found those potions, and she'd given them to the guild, and she'd helped people when they were fighting, and she took the time to talk to everyone.

The town thought that she could do no wrong, and they'd even begun supporting that girl's _charity_.

Oh, there weren't any connections that she could find, but it was named _Mithril_ and had no connections to a religion. She scowled down at the table.

No one else could be that pompous.

Charities, when they _did _pop up, were always connected to a noble trying to do something for their own gain, or to the church attempting to garner more followers.

Since the thing had no connections to anyone – as far as anyone could tell conclusively tell – it was the real deal.

It didn't want to do anything but help people.

She clenched her fist. As if that _Demon _would do anyone to help others without some plan for her own gain.

A sound outside of the room alerted the occupants to another that was coming to join them. The door slowly opened, and Darkness walked in. She looked hesitant to enter, but Chris could see the resolve shining in her disciple's eyes. Chris smirked, and then turned to the other four.

They were different; with the funds she had – sorrowfully – stolen from the lock box in her own church, she'd been able to keep providing for her students.

They were all decked out in relatively high-level gear, garbed in fitted clothing that matched each of them to a tee. Each of them were also holding onto various relics.

Rin, the only Mage among them, was holding onto the three relics that channeled mana: The Typhoon Staff, which he'd been reincarnated with, Evan's Book of Spells, and the staff of someone they didn't know.

It had a distinctive fire and ice motif, but none of them knew where it came from. They'd written it off; they didn't care, as long as it helped.

Kei, the Thief among the Reincarnates, had two: his Knives of the Fortieth Thief, and a huge sword that hung by his side. Like the staff, none of them knew who had owned it, and they had once again chalked it up to a former Reincarnate that Degurechaff had killed.

Hiroshi was also holding onto two relics: his own Extendable Spear, and a much hardier looking lance. It looked like it had once been pure white, but it seemed to be stained red on one end.

While the stain was concerning, it was also useful, so they ignored the blood and planned on what they'd be using it for instead.

The last two relics had been handed out appropriately. Jin had taken back his Never-Miss Bow, and Chris had decided to wield Saki's sword. She didn't _technically _have access to the skills necessary to wield swords, but it was short enough that she could use it as a dagger and face no negative effects.

They had spent a week training. A week making sure that they could win this encounter.

Chris knew that, in a one-on-one fight, or even a five-on-one fight, they wouldn't win, not without preparation, planning, and Luck, all of which they now had in spades.

That was what they'd been doing. Preparing, training, and making sure to level up their skills. Now, with Darkness's help, they'd be able to win.

Darkness sat down. "Thank you all for helping me get to the bottom of this. With your help, I'm sure we'll be able to talk sense into Tanya and-"

Kei choked, and Rin and Jin both looked at Darkness skeptically. Seeing as their Spearman looked to be trying to say something he shouldn't, Chris jumped across the table to silence Hiroshi, and then turned to Darkness, fighting to keep a nervous expression from her face.

"No problem, Darkness! We have a plan, and you'll help us complete it, alright?"

Darkness stared at them, and shook her head slowly. Chris explained Darkness's part in the plan.

"You'll be distracting Viktoriya. She's probably eager to trick more people, so if you present yourself as being willing to listen to her explanation, I'm sure she'll wander off with you. After that, we'll surround Tanya and gets some answers from her."

Darkness nodded, a ghost of a smile gracing her lips. "Alright! I'll help out!"

Chris, after giving her a bit more of the plan, as well as the all-important potion that would help in their endeavor, urged her to give them information on Tanya. She nodded, and rushed off to a nearby room, looking for something to write all of the locations Tanya frequented.

Chris turned around as soon as the door shut, to face four angry looking adventurers. "What was that about?" Kei asked.

Chris rolled her eyes. "Darkness doesn't know what we're _really _doing, but we need her, just like how we're going to need all five of us to pull this off. We definitely won't win with both there; we can take out Serebryakov afterward."

One by one, they nodded, and then they began to go over the plan again. It would require precise timing, and screwing up anything would most likely result in their deaths.

Well, in _their _deaths. Not hers. Chris was sure she'd be fine, with how much of her was still in Heaven. Degurechaff would have realized she was a Goddess by now if she still had a lot of it.

-OxOxO-

Tanya and Viktoriya walked towards the Blacksmith's. It was time for them to part ways, at least for now.

She knew she'd have to visit again eventually; their Computation Jewels would still need maintenance occasionally, and she was sure that she'd be able to recreate another gun with some more work – maybe the first Sioux's submachine gun?

However, she had to say goodbye for now. She'd take anything she'd left in there and leave it with the Succubi, and she would wish him the best of luck and hope he did the same.

Chris was gunning for her, Darkness was unlikely to help Tanya, and Tanya had no doubt the Thief might try and attack her at any time with the help of whichever Reincarnates were stupid enough to join her.

She reached the shop, and went in. The windows were clouded again, and Tanya had the vague desire to find a Mage and learn Create Water, just so he wouldn't be able to keep them dirtied up with her around.

As it was, she sent a Wind Breath towards them, blowing some of the dust away. She looked inside, and saw that he was standing in the back, working at his forge. The bell above the door rang, and he looked towards her.

A nostalgic look crossed his face. "Ah, Tanya. How nice to see you again."

She shrugged. "Yeah, sorry about my absence. As it is, I'm thinking of leaving Axel soon, so I thought I should get rid of all my stuff…"

He waved a hand. "Nonsense! You can leave the stuff here. I don't know what it is for, but some of it's been helpful in making some more intricate weapons." he said, gesturing towards some of the tools she had invented in order to make her gun, as well as the more mechanical portions of the Type 97s.

Tanya shook her head. Maybe she'd introduce helpful things like this to this world later, but for now, she couldn't risk this stuff getting out. Not after her second contract. "Sorry. I really shouldn't leave this stuff laying around…"

She walked into the back, and began picking things up. The latest batch of 'gunpowder' laid sealed up, and all her tools looked to be in pristine condition. She picked it all up, handing off some to Viktoriya.

It seemed the Blacksmith was staring. "That's a lot of stuff to carry."

Tanya heard Viktoriya respond. "Not really. We've got… buffing spells, so it's not that bad."

Tanya picked up the last of it – a bunch of metal she'd left lying around - and saw that Viktoriya was holding a large number of metal parts, tools, as well as the gunpowder case above her head with one arm.

Tanya swept passed the Blacksmith, pausing as she reached the door. She turned around.

"Thank you, for everything…" she trailed off, and then she began to laugh.

Honestly, the way they had met well over a month ago had startled her so much that she'd forgotten a basic tenet of introducing yourself to someone. It wasn't even some small thing, either.

He looked confused, and she answered his unasked question. "I never even found out your name. What is it?"

He smirked. "You know, no adventurers really care. They just demand that I make them things, or they call me by my profession. Nice to see that you're flustered about taking so long, at least."

Before she could say anything else, he said, "The name's Bill Smith."

Tanya blinked. That seemed… very appropriate for a Blacksmith, and she supposed that people were often named after what they looked like or what their profession was. It was a common enough occurrence back in the Empire, even a lot of the Aerial Mages she commanded had a von in their names.

She nodded. "Then thank you, Bill." With that, she left the shop, carrying her things with one arm and waving the other.

Viktoriya thanked him as well, and then they walked out the door.

Tanya sighed as they walked. She still needed to make arrangements with a caravan of some kind in order to travel to a different town – perhaps the Capital that Luna had mentioned was requesting more forces from Axel? – but things were almost wrapped up.

Viktoriya, meanwhile, was idly wondering if the capital had any coffee. The stuff here was so bad that even _she_ couldn't make anything out of it – and she had been able to do a _lot_ with the terrible stuff the General Staff often foisted onto them – and she wanted to have something good around when she broached the delicate subject of 'talking about the war' with Tanya.

Both continued to contemplate their latest schemes when Tanya bumped into someone. She was stopped, the things in her hands crashed to the ground, and Viktoriya bumped into Tanya, dropping her own things.

The person made to apologize. "Sorry, I-"

They stopped, and they became as stiff as Tanya and Viktoriya already were when they realized who it was. They hadn't ever looked down at the stuff

It was Darkness. Her sword, apparently clutched in her hands instead of in the scabbard at her side, had gone flying.

She stumbled over to the items she'd sent flying, gathered them up, and roughly pushed them into Viktoriya's hands. She bent down to grab her sword, and, as she made to leave, Tanya grabbed her. "Darkness-"

She shook off Tanya easily. "No, Tanya. You were the one who used magic on me, right? To stop me from volunteering to save the town and get ravaged by monsters? I hadn't thought you'd stoop to that level, to deprive me of pleasure, but-"

Tanya shook her head. "I was saving you. That potion is going to attract monsters, and it lasts forever, as far as Wiz can tell. When the capital sends in some Hero Candidates to chase Verdia off, they'll fade into the background with no future to speak of."

Darkness's anger seemed to fade. "You mean… you were looking out for me?"

Tanya scoffed. "Of course. What do you think I am, some Sunday morning cartoon villain who revels in the suffering of others? I have reasons for what I do. You didn't let me explain before you seemed like you might try and accost me."

Darkness looked embarrassed and perplexed, and Tanya could feel the inquiring gaze of Viktoriya at her odd turn of phrase, but Darkness sighed regardless, as if she were about to continue.

Tanya didn't let her. She was having to relocate thanks to her, after all, so she'd get in a bit of petty revenge. "Honestly, that you would assume I charge off into a meeting with a Demon King's General with no plan is brain dead. That's your job, after all, _Lalatina._"

She began to blush, and Tanya smirked as the Crusader began to blush from embarrassment instead of her usual shame and pleasure.

She'd finally found a way to punish the girl without also getting her off.

Tanya's thoughts were interrupted by the Crusader's next words. "Then, you had a reason to make a contract with Verdia?"

Tanya sent her a glare, and then looked around. There weren't any people out today – odd for a Tuesday, but more regular when you realized that trade hadn't picked up quite yet. It was getting better, but on a street this far into Axel, it wasn't unexpected.

She grit her teeth. "Yes, I have reasons for doing so. I managed to get information on each of the Generals. Nothing _too _important, but valuable for someone like me, who doesn't have access to whatever you nobles have that constitutes as your information network."

Darkness looked somewhat upset – Tanya would be too, if she ever jumped to false conclusions about other people and her surroundings. Eventually, she shook her head. "Fine. I can accept that you had your reasons, and I can't exactly ask you to give up your life fighting for no reason, but…"

She hesitated, and then turned to Viktoriya. "Serebryakov. Can I talk to you," she asked, glancing at Tanya and adding, "alone?"

Tanya felt a bitter, angry – it had to be angry, because she was _not_ afraid of a monster she hadn't seen in nearly four months, she _wasn't_ – ball of emotions well up inside her, but before she let it show, she pushed it down.

Viktoriya was nice to have around – an understatement that would only grow more understated if she ever got a hold of some coffee beans – but Tanya wouldn't get to have her around for ever. She would eventually find someone she wanted to settle down with.

Tanya couldn't lean on the girl for support forever. Eventually, their interests would diverge. Tanya would have to deal with her messy emotions and life on her own.

Viktoriya sent an inquiring glance at Tanya, and she responded as kindly as she could with her emotions swirling, "Make your own decision."

The woman let her gaze linger on Tanya for a moment, and then she smiled, nodding.

"Sure thing, Darkness!"

Viktoriya offered the things she was carrying to Tanya, who took them without complaint. With that, the two walked off, leaving Tanya standing in the middle of the street as they walked down an alley. She gazed around.

There really was no one here? The shops, restaurants, and businesses all seemed to be locked up tight.

Her eyebrows furrowed. She looked up, and noted that it was nearly midday. It wasn't a holiday, and it wasn't Sunday…

And yet, Darkness had managed to run into Viktoriya. She was clumsy, sure – she couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with her sword, even if she was _inside _it – but even she could spot the two of them walking down the street.

She strolled towards a light post, and set down the pieces of metal and tools in her hands. Silently, she poured mana into the Type 97 and began to activate her Observation spells.

Nothing. None of the shops had anyone in them, and the nearest people were Darkness and Viktoriya.

Tanya cursed herself for not testing the Lurk skill with her Observation spells, but she could guess that they were using it.

That left her to try and figure out their location. They were hidden from her sight, and their mana was also be hidden. There were other ways to find them, since the skill only made the imperceptible.

They still existed physically.

Tanya sighed, and resolved to start carrying around more items. Some sort of smokescreen would help-

The idea to use _that_ spell briefly drifted through her mind, but she shook it out. Even if she could direct it with Wind Breath, Viktoriya might get caught in it, and extreme pain, if not death, was guaranteed if you got caught by _that_ spell.

She shook her head and sat down against the front of a fruit store, leaning her head back against it. They might try and do something rash if she looked defenseless.

Still, nothing came. Tanya had no doubt the attack would come if she started to head towards Viktoriya, but she wanted to upper hand, and surprising them would definitely give her that.

She looked down at the ground, and saw the loose cobblestone that paved nearly every road in Axel. She smirked, and began to pry one up.

She was sure that Chris and, if Aya was to be believed, the other four Reincarnates were wondering what she was doing. But they couldn't ask each other, or the Lurk would come crashing down.

She held a pile of them and shouted "Reinforcement spell: Strength." Then, she began to crush the stones to dust with her bare hands. This would probably intimidate them at least, even if her next plan didn't work.

She was sure it would, but it was always nice to have backups in mind.

She whispered, "Smith," and the process took only a few seconds. She surveyed what she'd created, and what she had to work with.

A pile of dust, a bunch of metal, a box of gunpowder, as well as her rifle, pistol, _two_ Computation Jewels, and her Circlet of Greatness.

She smirked. Against only five people, none of which had a bullet or gun between them, she was sure her victory would be laughably easy.

She frowned and shook her head. Getting cocky, especially with people who had Divine Relics, would mean they could surprise her.

She didn't like surprises, especially when they were from her enemies.

She sent one last look at the pile of dust on the ground in front of her, stood up straight, moved her things from the Blacksmith shop behind her, and took a deep breath.

She activated her Passive Shield, and she shouted, "WIND BREATH!"

The pile of dust scattered practically detonated, sending particles of crushed rock and sand across the alley. She was protected, her things were protected, but the storefronts weren't. The window of each and every building were caked in dust if they weren't broken, and Tanya was sure that dust had most certainly blown into the windows that had.

Most assuredly, the cart that had been hidden from her view, where she could see several dust-covered figures materializing, certainly hadn't been protected.

The coughing figures shortly stopped coughing, and Tanya sighed tiredly. Chris's trademark silver hair was clearly visible, even under the cover of dust. She could recognize the others as some of the ones as well, even if she didn't know their names.

They were Reincarnates. She could see that the three that had given her the most trouble in her taking of their weapons were there, as was that Mage that had helped her out the last time they'd tried this.

One she did know by name, however. She smirked at the glaring figure. "Kei, right? How are your legs? I've shot them so much that they must be tired from carrying around so much dead weight all day."

He glared, but he said nothing. Tanya couldn't see much of his face due to his stereotypical, ninja-like clothing, but the blades in his hands were fairly recognizable. Tanya turned to Chris. She opened her mouth, tempted to ask her why she'd done this.

Then she remembered the last time she had been mouthy with an enemy, and she shook her head.

Then, she reconsidered. It wasn't like Tanya _wanted_ to fight, and if she could convince the others to stop, she might be able to use them as a shield, if things went badly.

"So, you all have decided that attacking someone with a rifle is a good idea, when all you have is magic and Medieval weapons? What makes you think you can win?"

For a moment, they were all quiet. Then, Kei spoke up. "I'm sure you're aware of it, but taking during a fight is a very stupid idea."

Tanya smiled widely and shrugged. They didn't have to know-

"Besides, stalling for time won't help you. That bitch of yours is sleeping deeply, along with the Crusader," said Chris.

Tanya grimaced at that. Well, maybe they already knew. She continued to stand stock still, waiting for one of them to either move on her or start talking.

The man with the bow stepped forward. "My family would have been much better off if the Japanese were _not_ bombed by the Americans at the end of the Second World War. I just wanted to take the place of some alternate version of myself."

She stared at him for a moment. Then she looked at the others, wondering if they really thought he was right in the head. Disconcertingly, none of them batted an eye at his words.

"I really don't want to know anymore…" she muttered as a hand drifted towards her rifle.

She looked at the Mage, hoping he wasn't criminally insane or something. He just shrugged. "Eh… maybe it sounds like I'm aiming a bit high, but being the Pope was a lifelong dream of mine. Getting placed in that position would be pretty convenient."

She looked to Kei, sure that he'd be just as… odd. "Oh, nothing like that for me. I wanted to see if they've got any openings in Heaven though. Eternal life and worship sound pretty nice."

Sure, Tanya's wish wasn't exactly the most… humble one to exist, but she had had over sixteen years to fuel the fantasies of what she'd do to that self-proclaimed god if she had the chance. None of these kids looked to be older than twenty five.

Shaking her head to get back on track, Tanya looked to Chris. "What do _you_ want?"

Chris was, at this point, a bit of a conundrum. Was she a Reincarnate Tanya had missed on accident? Was she some self-righteous adherent to Heaven…

But no, then she wouldn't have known about Tanya, and Tanya was fairly sure that the Reincarnations were fairly consistent – no more than one a day, always before noon and mostly in the morning.

Tanya scowled. If she wasn't a Reincarnate, though…

Tanya's eyes widened as she gave the girl a hard stare. It _couldn't _be…

Tanya's thought process was interrupted by the man with the spear. "Jeez, you guys want such extravagant stuff. All I want is the ability to get away with pedophilia."

Tanya's thoughts did not resume after he finished her sentence, and she stared hard at him. He smirked as he scratched at his beard.

"Hey, stop staring at me like that. I can only get so hard-"

_Twitch._

Tanya took off from the ground, but none of them flinched.

Tanya nodded; the contract she'd taken from the first reincarnate had outlined her powers. They must have a vague idea of what she could do.

She studied them as they began to surround her, taking special care to note the movements 'Chris.' Most of them seemed to be better outfitted than even her – she could see metal or leather armor covering almost every inch of each of them.

The archer was left in front of her, covered by Chris and Kei.

Tanya took her gun from her back, building up a spell.

The Mage – dressed in greens and yellows, with a hood on his head and rings on fingers that clenched a staff in one hand and a book in the other – shouted. "She's charging!"

Chris and Kei both held out a hand. Tanya made her choice, and pointed her gun at the three of them, choosing to shoot an Artillery Shot and to apologize for the damage later.

Her safety was paramount. Collateral damage was acceptable.

Twin cries of "Steal" erupted from the pair in front of her, and Tanya gasped as she felt her spells collapse with the removal of the Type 97.

She didn't have to look down her shirt to guess what had happened. Both the Thieves were holding onto her Computation Jewels. She snarled, and continued charging. No jewels meant she was disadvantaged, but-

Both of them jumped out of the way, and Tanya growled. She pushed the built-up mana into a Reinforcement spell, pushing herself to reach them.

"Jin, now!"

The archer – dressed in the leather's typical of any Robin Hood lookalike – released his arrow, shouting "Please, Goddess Eris!"

Tanya felt her entire body spasm at the stupid, pathetic cry for help, and she aimed her gun again.

She deployed a weak Active Barrier, and smirked as she felt a spell wash over it. Someone had attacked her from behind. She'd get to them after she took care of the person in front of her.

Jin's arrow twirled through the air.

This projectile had been part of their plan, which amounted to having the Thieves steal her precious weapons.

After that, she'd be defenseless. They'd all attack at once and finish her as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, they hadn't counted on the value of either of her Computation Jewels being as high as it was. Jin was currently hoping he might slip it passed her shield somehow, with the help of the blessing of the Axis Cult that Chris assured them would work.

He wouldn't have been able to. The arrow, had it impacted a shield that had no problem eating up punishment from guns, would have bounced off.

But that blessing still worked.

It twirled through the air and impacted the only portion of Tanya not protected by an Active Barrier.

Tanya lurched as she felt a force slam into her gun. Dumbfounded, she looked at her rifle, slack jawed in awe at what had happened.

His arrow had…

It had sneaked into the _barrel of her gun_ and jammed itself inside. Tanya looked up from what had happened, to realize that her opponents had also stopped to stare.

Tanya eyed Chris and Kei, and she burst off to the side with what weak Reinforcements she could use without the Computation Jewels.

Viktoriya was likely incapacitated, if she hadn't already come to help. That meant she needed to finish this to get back to her, which meant she needed a Computation Jewel. She focused on Kei.

The ninja-like male brought up his blades to oppose her. Tanya smirked, and raised her gun, thankful that she had worked with Dust so much. As he began to thrust his blades forward, Tanya sneaked a boot under his guard and into his midsection.

The Thief doubled over, groaning, and Tanya pulled back her rifle, intending to skewer him. Then, the whizzing of something sliding through the air told her to move.

She jumped over the Thief, and watched as a spear had narrowly missed her. She looked up and found that the man with a staff – clad in knight's armor – was brandishing a spear in one hand and a lance in the other.

She almost spat out a derisive comment about the impracticality of trying to hold two weapons like that, when she recognized the one in his off hand.

It was that weapon she'd been nearly killed with, still stained with blood. Her blood.

Her blood…

She shook her head. _NO!_ Now was not the time to have a flashback and PTSD and-

Tanya glanced behind the man as she felt sweat begin to build on her body, and saw that the others were approaching. The thought of running crossed her mind, but the thought of Viktoriya, wherever she was, stopped her.

Her stare grew pointed. She dropped her dysfunctional rifle and shoved her hand towards her belt, brandishing her pistol.

She wasn't leaving Viktoriya.

The man's eyes widened behind his helmet, but Tanya didn't wait for him to recover from the shock of seeing a second gun. His words from earlier brought images to her mind.

Red and yellow and extravagant hallways and not being able to stand and a sharp, bitter smell and hopelessness and weakness and _failure_ and-

_BANG! BANG BANG BANG!_

One, two, three, and a final fourth shot left her gun, and while the first ricocheted off his armor, the next two sneaked between the weaker portions of the shining metal, while the last blasted through his exposed nose.

One down. Four to go.

She looked down at Kei – who seemed to be recovering admirably, for someone who hadn't been in a war – and pushed mana into her Active Barrier as he attempted to knife her from his kneeling position. They didn't penetrate, but they did make an ear-splitting screech.

All of them winced for a moment, but Tanya recovered fastest. She deactivated the barrier and watched as Kei tripped forward without the force of the barrier to block his attack. Tanya smirked, and aimed her pistol.

Shots entered his body, again and again and again and-

Until Tanya realized her gun was out of bullets. She jumped back, watching as the three remaining fighters eyed her warily.

Tanya shoved a hand into her bandolier, and retrieved a clip of bullets. Chris extended a hand. "Steal!"

Tanya grunted as she watched her pistol appear in the Thief's hands. She put the clip back into her bandolier and picked up her rifle. Fine, then. It seemed she'd need to use her-

"Steal!"

Again, two voices rang out. Tanya grit her teeth as she felt the hat on top of her head, along with the Circlet of Greatness, disappear. She looked down, to see that her rifle was clutched in the hands of Kei.

He was chuckling like he wasn't full of holes. How-

Tanya looked at him again, and realized that he had another weapon in his off hand. A sword, from the _first _reincarnate she'd killed. The one that blocked pain.

She sent a violent kick at his back, sending the sword flying. He cried out, but instead of pain, it was an order. "Use Steal!"

Eyes wide, Tanya bent down and tore something away from the almost-corpse. Before Tanya could get her rifle back, it was gone, clutched in Chris's hands. The Ranger, the Mage, and Chris all looked relieved.

Tanya looked at her hand, and chuckled. She'd torn the Type 95 away from Kei instead of her rifle.

Typical.

"Are you watching even now, Being X?" she asked the air. She watched as they all stiffened.

They shook off whatever shock they might have felt at knowing a 'god' was watching them, and they looked cocky.

She didn't care.

Tanya grit her teeth, and she picked up a dagger that Kei had been using. She plunged it into his back, noting that he didn't even seem to be mad about finally getting killed.

Two down. Three to go.

They looked less cocky, but the superiority returned when Tanya reached into her glove and retrieved a small knife,

It was small; smaller than the short sword Chris was wielding, and only two times as big as the slim, long arrowheads the archer used.

Chris had the gall to _laugh _at her. "What do you think you can do with those? You haven't put any points into using daggers or knives."

More memories assaulted her. A woman was flying above her, staring down at Tanya's empty hands and aiming a rifle at her face.

Tanya snarled at the gall. The Superiority.

Tanya gripped the small knife by the blade, and she threw it towards them. Discouragingly, it flew passed them, into the cart behind them.

The Mage chuckled once. "You missed us, you stupid-"

The Ranger spun on him, glaring angrily. "What did I say about flags? Don't _say _stupid shit like-"

_BOOOOM!_

Before he could finish his thought, the knife impacted the cart they'd been hiding in, and the whole thing went up in flames.

All of them spun around, and Tanya sent another dagger towards them, a grin on her face and a laugh bubbling up from her throat. She was finally getting to use the explosive knives she'd made!

This one landed to the left of the Mage, and it detonated, engulfing him in flames. The other two were sent in opposite directions.

Three down. Two to go.

Tanya took a moment to bask in the quickly dying flames – it was starting to get cold out – and then she turned her attention towards Chris.

Tanya moved quickly. Tanya brandished her Type 95, and she began to spout the words that she hated and relied on in equal measure.

"**Oh god, grant this disciple the power to destroy those that would worship any other than thee!"**

She felt her exhaustion fade away, and she flew over to Chris, picking up her Type 97 and her rifle.

She looked down at the Type 95, and she felt an eye twitch as she looked between it and the Type 97.

Why… why hadn't Tanya gotten rid of it? Hadn't Tanya wanted to toss it in a ditch on the Eastern Front? Hadn't Tanya only kept it around because the General Staff would get mad?

Why, because it was the only shot she had here, of course. What other reason would she have?

Tanya blinked wearily, and she deactivated the Type 95 and carefully placed it in a pocket. She looked down.

Chris was writhing from the fire and flames that were so close to her, and Tanya kicked her in the side. As she recovered, Tanya placed a knife on top the writhing girl's thigh.

Tanya stilled the writhing Thief by smacking her on the side of the head, and she smiled cruelly. "Don't move; these things are pressure sensitive, and I bet you _really _don't want to activate it, unless you want to be reunited with your precious god so much."

She stilled, her eyes widening, and Tanya walked to the Ranger. He was also writhing on the ground. Tanya sighed.

"I said I'd kill you if you became a threat."

The Ranger seemed to understand the situation he was in, but before he could beg, she plunged her gun's blade into his neck. She looked around, ignoring the blood that came gushing out and how his body was still struggling.

Four down. One to go.

All of the Reincarnates' weapons had landed within the range of the supplies from the Blacksmith's. All nine of them. Tanya smiled at her good fortune, and turned away, towards Chris.

She saw that Chris was fighting the pain in her twisted ankle trying to balance the knife on her thigh. Just as she calmed enough to try and reach it, Tanya lunged over and sank her blade into her hand.

The girl screamed, but Tanya looked on furiously.

"I know who you are."

Chris froze for a second. Her anger and hate fled as panic replaced it. How could she have _possibly_-

She grinned. "Mary Sioux."

Chris stared, her shock draining away, and Tanya continued. "It's been a few months since I beat you last, and here you are, following me around. It's almost like _I'm_ your god instead of Being X."

Chris blinked. It was about all she could do as the girl standing above her laughed. "Oh, it's quite obvious. You aren't a Reincarnate – I would have sensed you after I came here, and you would have moved on from this town if you came before I got here."

She shook her head. "How didn't I realize it? Being X hasn't ever helped me out, so his 'advice' that he wouldn't be sending down anymore Reincarnates was to throw me off long enough to smuggle you in."

Tanya continued to stare down at her. "Who else would be this enraged with me? Who else would have the dedication?"

Tanya shook her head. "Well, whatever. I win again, I guess. I don't really care – he'll obviously send you down later. I just want to know one thing: how involved was Darkness?"

The hateful thought to poison The Atheist's relationship and to cause The Atheist even more pain crossed her mind, but the urge died as she imagined how she might brutalize Darkness if she thought the Crusader was complicit.

She turned her head away. "No. We tricked her. She thought we were going to get rid of whatever influences she thought were on you. We gave her a potion to give to Viktoriya to knock her out, but it activates the moment it opens. They're passed out in that alley."

Tanya gripped the girls face, leaned in until they were inches apart, and stared into her eyes.

Yes, this was Sioux. No one else was this passionately hateful of Tanya, besides Being X and the first Sioux.

Chris stared at Tanya, searching for an inch of compassion or something that might allow her to escape anything at all-

She found nothing in the girl's steely gaze.

The girl's gaze…

The _girl's_ gaze…

That… _was _an idea. But…

Chris felt revulsion build up in her stomach, but she fought to keep it off of her face. She couldn't give it away. No matter how much she hated the idea, the _action_, it was her one chance.

Tanya inhaled and shook her head. 'Chris' was too angry to tell anything but the truth, then. Darkness was probably fine, and if they made up, Tanya probably wouldn't have to flee.

Tanya began to rise, and Chris saw her chance to get away slip away slowly.

Before she could think about it anymore and become too disgusted in herself to act, she moved, pushing her body from the ground, fighting through the pain of her still impaled-hand and the soreness she felt in the rest of her body, trying to keep her lunch down, and closed the gap between them to what it had been moments ago.

Chris saw the beginnings of shock building up on the girl's face, but Chris pushed passed the three inch barrier of air that had separated them.

She locked lips with Degurechaff.

She kissing her.

_Hard_.

Tanya dropped her spells, relaxed her grip on her rifle. This was…

Different. Interesting. Her face was turning red, and memories of her first life and the wonders of not having to constantly debate about her own sexuality that she'd tried to repress shot to the forefront.

Everything from when she'd first lost her virginity to just two days prior to her first death.

Just as she gathered her thoughts again and quashed the memories, Chris had already moved.

Her free hand gripped the dagger on her thigh, and threw it towards the pile of junk Tanya had set down.

Chris pulled away, face green but a triumphant smirk still dominating it. "You really shouldn't label explosives so obviously, Atheist."

_KABOOOOOM!_

A rocking explosion, fifty times as hot as any of the earlier ones, propelled Tanya off of Chris, her side full of shrapnel. Tanya felt her vision blacken for what might have been a second, and she shot Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spells through her system.

Immediately, Tanya shot up, and surveyed her surroundings.

A hole had taken the place of her supplies, engulfing the surrounding four shops. Tanya cast a furious gaze around herself, and began to curse herself out as she realized that _Mary was gone_.

She took a deep breath, and she gathered mana in the Type 97. "HEAL!"

She didn't feel the holes in her side disappear – Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spells had removed most of the feeling there – but she had to assume they were gone. She looked around, trying to take stock of the situation.

Four dead, variably burnt bodies surrounded her. All of the relics had been engulfed in the explosion. She had nothing to show for this stupid, _stupid _encounter besides some wounds.

Tanya stalked towards the alley she'd seen Viktoriya disappear into. No, she knew that Darkness wasn't _intrinsically_ against her, just wary of her motives. She could deal with that.

Tanya sat down next to the two of them, and growled as she saw the blue potion bottle which was slowly billowing a light-blue smoke. She threw up a few Oxygen Conversion spells to ward off its effects.

She knew who target number three on her list of enemies was now.

Number two was, for the time being, the Demon King, and number one was obvious. She settled down, ready to wait all day for them to wake up.

She needed to review her battles with the Bloody Valkyrie.

-OxOxO-

Tanya stared into the broken eyes. Gerrard usually looked haggard on a good day, and right now, he just looked _defeated_. Still, she wasn't budging.

She wasn't going to say a word. She was just… too tired. That battle had been draining, and she could feel a pain in her side, now that the Reinforcement spells were fading. The fear that she might have sealed shrapnel inside of her in her rush to fix herself had come to mind, and it wasn't leaving.

Viktoriya would need to check that, and-

Gerrard slammed on the table, jolting her out of her thoughts. "Just tell us, Tanya! Who were they? Were they trying to kill you?"

Tanya answered that question. "Yes. All of them were trying to kill me."

Then, the other occupant interjected. "Who cast that strong Heal? Was it you? Did you choose to take up the Priest or Archpriest class? Why were you fighting on the street that had been cleared by people dreaming of Eris telling them of a great calamity?"

Tanya leveled a glare at them, and tried to lean forward threateningly. The grimace of pain from moving her side ruined some of it, but the Priest she had met back during the festival, Ashley, backed down.

Of course Tanya was one of the only person that hadn't heard of that stupid dream. No doubt, that so-called Goddess was following the orders of her superior.

Gerrard opened his mouth again, but before he could say anything, a voice began to echo through the building and the rest of the town. "All adventurers, please report to the guild! Emergency Quest! Please report to the guild!"

Tanya smirked, and the two people interrogating her scowled, but he waved her out. She took off, wincing at the pain in her side and activating her Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spells again.

She soon left the building, and was soon joined by both Viktoriya and Darkness. Both looked sheepish, and after the talking to she'd given both of them, she expected as much.

Viktoriya opened her mouth, but Tanya shook her head. "Not now. Just hand me my stuff, and we'll be off."

Viktoriya handed Tanya her rifle. She tried to fire, or to even cycle through to the next bullet, but nothing worked. She shook her head; that stupid Ranger had managed to accomplish something, at least.

She was sure he would take solace in inconveniencing her, regardless of whether he was in heaven or being reincarnated again.

Before she left, she remembered something. She ran back in, and towards Gerrard, who was speaking to his forces about patrolling the town. "Release Dust and any other delinquents you have."

He groaned and grabbed at his face, but he waved one of his subordinates off. A minute later, they came back with a downtrodden looking Dust following behind.

"I don't want to go! It's way better in here than being outside with no work to do!"

Tanya grabbed him by his forearm, and marched out of the police station. All four of them headed off towards the guild. They met up with several other adventurers on the way, but changed direction at the next announcement.

"Report to the front gates! All adventurers, report to the front gates now!"

Tanya muttered angrily under her breath about conflicting orders, but she did so anyway. Dust tried to twist out of her grip, but she didn't give him an inch.

Soon enough, they got there, panting.

All of them quickly straightened themselves at the sight of what was before them. Massing outside of the gates, a massive force was gathering.

Rotting, decaying flesh, turning purple, white, or green. These were the majority of the faces Tanya could see in the crowd of Zombies. Behind and among them, however, she could see faces that stood out.

Undead Knights, armored in a familiar shining white, stood among the Zombies, blackened skin pulled taut over their skulls. She couldn't see what weapons they had, but she guessed that they had the same assortment of swords, clubs, and spears that she had seen during her last visit to Verdia.

She could spot things she didn't recognize, too; corpses that looked freshly dead, that occasionally gestured to the Zombies in their immediate vicinity.

Tanya scowled, fighting down the tired whimper that threatened to escape her throat. None of the others around her, besides the ever-faithful Viktoriya, seemed hopeful.

She sighed. It seemed she'd have to pull this off nearly on her own, if the way everyone else was too stunned to do something was anything to go by.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** And so, the Goddess Eris tried to fight against The Atheist it went…

Better than one might expect, honestly. They managed to hurt her and force her to use her hidden daggers, and-

Oh, did you forget about them? Are you wondering why they explode?

Well, you should remember Tanya is paranoid about a whole lot – mostly Being X-related – and that she has created gunpowder. She might as well use it in more… creative ways, right?

Speaking of Tanya and her items, she sure does rely on her items quite a lot, and she hasn't really considered what fighting other adventurers might entail. Her poor Luck means that they can take her most valuable possessions rather easily, most of which allow her to do magic easily.

Unfortunately, things aren't done for yet. They've got some invaders to deal with.

In other news, Tanya's having more flashbacks to some horrible occurrence, and she thinks Chris is Mary Sioux. Too bad she's wrong. Ehehehe.

Anyway, I'll be posting the next chapter quite soon – the folks at AO3 met their goal quickly, thanks to GremlinJack, and I promised to post two chapters early.

**A/N 2: **Bill is, of course, short for Billiam.


	19. A Great Calamity

Tanya's eye twitched, and then she began stalking forward.

She would be tempted to say that Mary had planned this, but…

She blinked. Even if she had seemed incredibly angry about the undead – which was undoubtedly due to her obsession with Being X – she hated Tanya more. Though how she could have planned this…

Tanya shook her head. Now was not the time.

She heard the muttering of the other adventurers behind her, but she paid them no mind. She looked up to the top of the wall, where she could see two sentries stood, petrified. "Hey! How do we get up there?"

Both of them looked confused, and then they looked down at her. They pointed down, towards a small door in the side of the wall near the entrance. Tanya began to stalk towards it. "Viktoriya! Begin organizing them by job."

Tanya marched up the stairs, only slightly discomforted by her side and the glaring afternoon light that floated through the small windows.

She couldn't feel anything, but she noticed that there was _definitely _something inside her, if her inability to bend very far was anything to go by.

She reached the top, and glared at the two sentries. "What are you doing? Close the gate!"

They looked at her like she'd said something odd. "How will the adventurers get out to fight, then?"

Tanya raised a single eyebrow as her lips twisted into an even nastier frown. They flinched, and they began to slowly back away from her, like she was some animal.

Well, the pain in her side seemed to be as good as any reason to act just a _little_ bit angry. Tanya lifted up her rifle, and began to wave it around haphazardly. "Lower the gate. We need a defensible position for fighting that many. Why would we fight them if we don't have to? Make them spend the resources conducting a siege."

The one on the left seemed like he wanted to continue to argue, but she just pointed her rifle at him, letting her blade rest a few inches from his face.

"R- Right away, ma'am!" they shouted in unison. Instead of heading towards the conspicuous looking cranks that dominated the back half of the rectangular room, they instead walked towards what looked like an archaic control panel. Both of them pushed a pair of buttons in unison, and Tanya sighed.

She could have just done that.

The floor began to shake slightly, and Tanya reveled in the loud thud the gate made as it hit the ground. She knew that the thing wouldn't stop any strong undead, but it was better than nothing.

She walked out of the room, onto the top of the wall. She gazed down at the group of undead. There were at least a couple hundred, and Tanya could see an ominous absence of light at the center of the thing, out of which more undead crawled.

She looked inwards, towards Axel. Viktoriya had finished, it seemed. She'd arrayed everyone into loose groups.

A Voice Amplification spell saw her shouting at the top of her lungs. Her voice echoed around the area.

"VIKTORIYA. HAVE THE MAGES, RANGERS, AND PRIESTS COME UP HERE! EVERYONE ELSE NEEDS TO GET READ!"

She glared at the two lost looking guards. "Well? Get me a chair! It's tiring enough fighting off the pain in my side."

Again, the two simpletons paused to stare at her dumbly, and she took a deep breath.

"If you don't get me a chair, I'll use your _broken bodies_ instead," she ground out. Both of them rushed back inside, and gave her a simple, wooden chair as ordered.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Mages, Rangers, and Priests coming up on her side. From what little she could see of the interior, she made out that they were all coming over here.

She nodded. They would need to be coordinated, and they could do what she planned, as long as that was true.

Viktoriya saluted her, and Tanya stared down the Mages. None of them could meet her gaze, nervously staring at the undead outside the gate or back towards the stairway they'd just abandoned.

Tanya shook her head, yearning to have the 203rd under her command. They could cut down a couple hundred corpses in moments – or at least force them to retreat.

Sitting, she began to relay her orders. "If we don't stop them here, the undead could roam through Axel and kill everyone," she said, fully aware of the deal the Demon King had with Wiz.

Verdia's notes had been enlightening, and he – along with the rest of the Demon King's army – couldn't kill anyone that didn't attack them first.

Her words were not intended to be truthful. The lies were intended to motivate the adventurers into protecting Axel. "They could cause massive damage to everything and anyone they find. Any buildings you cherish could be wiped away in an instant. You aren't the best, nor are you what I would ask for."

More than a few of them glared at her for her comment or gasped as they remembered _that_ shop. Tanya shook her head. "But we _can_ do this. We just need to conserve our resources, be patient, and remain _united_. Can you all do that much for me?"

A Mage stepped forward, and then a second one did too. It was Aya, with another Reincarnate behind her. "No problem. Just tell us what to do."

The small, arrogant smile on her face didn't reach her eyes, but her declaration prompted others into joining for her, and soon, all of them were cheering.

Another stepped forward. "I love this town! It's been good to me, and there is much we should preserve! We can't back down, not when they could destroy what we love!"

The others cheered him on, and many of them were making courageous declarations of how they'd protect Axel.

Tanya ignored them, fully aware that at least half of the males had visions of scantily clad Succubi plastered all over the insides of their mind like bad wallpaper in an even worse apartment.

She looked over the wall. She saw that the adventurers below, the close-quarter fighters, were all cheering, and Darkness was standing in front of them.

Tanya smirked. "Alright. This is what we'll do."

-OxOxO-

The Undead Mage scowled. Verdia had ordered that he lead the attack so he could gain some experience.

Personally, he wasn't so sure about doing something like this; he felt that he was more suited to research, or maybe just casting spells. Leadership seemed… daunting.

Still, Verdia had insisted, and Ragcraft had supported him, so here he was, summoning Undead from the castle and from what he could find in the earth in front of the walls. There wasn't much, but there was enough to create a few reinforcements.

The Undead Mage shook his head, and said, softly, "We're advancing."

According to the books on strategy Verdia had provided him, as well as a bit of personal instruction, adventurers would usually mass outside the gates, present themselves as willing targets, and then send their strongest fighter forward to save them all.

It was… annoying to see that they were deviating from the norm, but he supposed they might not have someone that strong, or they were holding out hope that they would receive support from outside the town.

The order to march forward slowly reached the front of the group, and as the Undead Mage stepped forward, those around him stepped with him. Soon, hundreds of bodies marched forward, almost in unison.

Then, he heard it. Shouts coming from the top of the battlements. He prepared himself, to send a spell ten times stronger than anything they could make back at them.

Then he relaxed and let a raspy chuckle escape his lungs.

A laugh to his left mirrored his own. "They're doing a bit of gardening?" the knight closest to him asked rhetorically.

He smirked, suppressing the urge to converse only through the orders Verdia had given him to look professional.

Though Verdia had chosen most of his guards, he had chosen _this one_ as his personal guard in particular, although the Undead Mage couldn't have told anyone, including Verdia, why.

Regardless, the knight was right; he could faintly hear shouting, and while he might need to be wary of spells ordinarily, the fact that each and every spell was aimed at the ground in front of the gate, instead of at his forces, almost made him laugh.

"It seems they think they can slow us down! Continue forward." On they marched, watching as the spells poured down onto the ground in front of the gate. Soon, they were nearly at the gate, until-

He frowned with what was left of his lips. There seemed to be a problem. Scowling – why were they taking so long? They had more than enough Undead Knights to tear through the gate – he pushed through the crowd, and came to a stop.

Not voluntarily, either. He looked down to his feet, and saw that they had become stuck. He looked to the other Undead around him, and cursed; it seemed that they had been caught in some sort of trick.

His own feet and legs were knee-deep in thick, oozing mud. When he tried to move them away, his every effort was stymied by the mud, which wasn't letting go.

He grimaced; the undead in front of him were struggling to move forward, but their heavy weaponry was holding them down. The Zombie Makers and Zombies could still struggle forward, but none of them seemed to be making much progress.

He looked up towards the walls, arching his head up. His eyes widened fractionally as he realized that the Mages were now chanting dangerous spells. Then this had been their plan…

He scowled as Rangers also began to line up in preparation to rain arrows down on them, but one person in particular inspired… _fear._

He studied them, and he realized that it was not the person, but the odd, spear-like object that they were holding.

He blinked in confusion, for a moment. Some unknown feeling or wisp of a memory, perhaps.

He shook his head; he still needed to attack. He eyed the side of the wall, and nodded. His other forces would start there.

"Go around, towards the left, and begin building a ladder!"

The ones that could, those behind him that weren't stuck, immediately sprinted to the left of the mud patch, towards the wall. The Undead Knights ahead of him still attempted to struggle, but they made little progress.

Instead, the Zombies stumbled passed them, followed closely by their Zombie Makers. He smirked as he heard the cries of shock from those inside as his minions did his bidding.

Unlike the flimsy living, undead were immune to the low amount of pain they would experience from stacking up on top of each other, like rungs of a ladder.

He could hear shocked shouting slowly drifting down from the top of the wall. He smirked. Zombies and Undead Knights didn't suffer from something as impure as 'physical pain,' which was why you didn't hole up in a castle when you knew undead were coming: they were superhuman, and could do things like stack up against the side of your walls and climb over.

Obviously, no one in there was experienced enough to know this. His attack would be easy, then.

He turned back to his trapped forces, a spell tapping at the edges of his mind. That could work.

-OxOxO-

Tanya gaped at the undead. That was… unexpected.

And ridiculous.

The Mages and Rangers, who had been jubilant at stopping the invaders dead in their tracks, were now despairing, shouting about doom.

Tanya tapped Viktoriya's arm, and the girl set Tanya's chair back down on the ground. Tanya wracked her hair, for a moment – why did she always have to come up with these things on the fly?

Tanya shook her head. She needed to at least appear confident – morale was important, after all.

She smirked, and shrugged her shoulders. "Gravity hasn't stopped working, has it? Just destroy the Undead at the bottom."

Viktoriya nodded, and immediately went to the edge. The others didn't seem to be nearly as confident.

"We don't have the firepower," one Mage said pitifully. Tanya turned to Aya, and she nodded, confirming the words of the others.

"Most Mages don't have the firepower that you two seem to. The Rangers can't do much either, besides hope for a lucky hit…" she said, trailing off while pointing towards the Priests.

None of them had yet to join in on the battle. All of them were off to one side, playing cards. All of them had refused on the grounds that they weren't allowed to join in unless they were paid.

When Tanya had told them the guild would compensate them, they had still refused. She breathed in deeply, and rose from her chair. The pain in her side hurt, but not as much as the familiar anger she felt towards religion.

Oh, Tanya knew that, if given the option, she would probably leave a battle or stay out of a fight. However, Tanya had tried to assure them that they could win, and the Priests said that they didn't doubt that.

They just refused to work without compensation.

Tanya glared down at their leader. "Alright. I'll pay you all one Eris. That means your been compensated, right? You can fight then?"

They laughed, and a female Priest that Tanya recognized jumped forward. "Sorry, Tanya! The doctrine of the Eris Cult says we need fair compensation for our work," Ashley, the Priest who'd taught her Heal, said.

_Twitch._

Most of them stared above her head, at the movement of her _ahoge_ under her hat, but Ashley just turned her nose up at the girl, leering up from her seated position at her. "We won't be cowed! We want your money! Or, you can join the Church. With that Heal you cast, you could be an excellent Priest."

Before Tanya could think of a proper response that wasn't angry yelling or bodily harm delivered upon the woman, an explosion rocked the wall, and Tanya grinned. She turned around, to see that the others were staring at Viktoriya, amazed. Others seemed to be staring over the wall.

Tanya turned back to them. "I think we'll be fine. It seems we won't need your help."

They shrugged, and went back to their cards. Tanya gave them one last glare, and then stumbled back to her chair. Supporting her weight on it, she leaned over the side, smirking at what she saw.

A chunk of the gray, bland walls had been destroyed, but a portion of the invaders had been decimated. A few of the Knights were still clinging to the walls, but even they were still subject to physics, and getting struck by an arrow was enough force for most of them to lose their grip and fall back down to the ground.

Tanya nodded, and made a note to start carrying around a bit of emergency Manatite; she could have ended this a while ago if she'd just had that. As it was, she would be rested enough soon and have the mana to end things nicely.

She smirked down at the enemy commander, a pale, ashen faced corpse clothed in purple-black garments. She didn't recognize what type of undead he was, but she was fairly sure that she could take them on in a few minutes. She just needed a bit longer to recover.

-OxOxO-

The Undead Mage finally pried his feet from the mud. He looked over his shoulder and saw that a few Undead Knights had made it, and not many others. He turned his attention to the wall, and gaped.

A small portion of the wall showed a bit of damage – chipped blocks, blackened surfaces, and even a bit of the stone itself had vanished. The most shocking thing was that all of his undead ladders had been blown away.

Over a hundred undead had been destroyed in the attempt to climb the wall, and they hadn't managed to kill a _single _person. All of them were calmly firing down, picking off any stragglers that had been left clinging to the wall by the explosive spell.

He spun, holding up a hand and chanting angrily. Mana built up in his arm, and just before it would have burst, he funneled it into the decayed tree limb he was using as a staff.

"FIREBALL!"

From its tip, a ball of fire bloomed, expanded, and crashed into the gate.

The wall, the ground, and the air itself shook. He smirked as the gate's blackened iron twisted from the impact and heat, and he laughed as a few of the adventurers fell off the top, tumbling to the ground below.

If the crunch from their impact wasn't enough, the screams he heard confirmed that they were _very _dead.

He watched as the undead that had been contained by the mud break out of it, walking on the earth they had been trapped in – now hardened by the . They marched forward, and he cried out another order.

"Towards the gate!"

Those at the foot of the wall began lumbering towards the opened gate. They were still shot at occasionally from the top, but he couldn't care less. They couldn't take them on with just arrows and spells.

Then, his hopes were dashed. Massive chanting could be heard from the top. Chanting that made what had once been his heart quiver.

"Heal!"

The Undead began to wither away, for a moment, and then their attacks became renewed. They climbed into the destroyed gate, and clashed with the adventurers inside. He could see one person of note – a Crusader by the look of her. Otherwise, none of them seemed to be particularly strong.

He turned his gaze to the top, and ordered the knights at his side to follow him inside. They'd mop up the ones at the bottom, and then-

Another spell rocked the ground, and the Undead Mage gaped. A massive crater had struck the ground. Bodies – both his own undead and the defenders – had been sent flying about, and only a few of his hardier Knights still walked about.

His entire invasion force – two hundred undead – had been reduced to his best forces and those still surrounding him.

He snarled and stopped underneath the gate, hidden from the view of those above.

The knights around him protected him from the occasional adventurer as he summoned up yet more forces, taking the time to direct his Zombie Makers – both those currently inhabiting a body and those that had lost theirs – to the freshly made corpses that populated the inside of the walls.

-OxOxO-

Tanya rushed down the stairs, cursing herself the whole way down. She'd made a deal with those Priests – she had promised them each ten thousand Eris, or the equivalent in some sort of good or service, and given them a promise for more once they'd gotten back to the guild.

Now, she was trying not to trip as she made her way down. Viktoriya had gone first, followed by the Priests, who were protecting the Rangers who'd survived. The Mages were following after Tanya, and most of them sounded annoyed to be stuck behind the wounded person.

She couldn't care less. As soon as she got out there, she was going to work out her frustration from letting Mary get away and from having to participate in a _medieval siege_, of all things, on the undead.

She came to the door, and pushed it open. Something – probably a body, but she didn't turn around to look – had blocked the door, but she'd shoved it aside. She watched the bedlam.

The last light of the setting sun cast the entire area in shadows, and the angry shouting of more undead that continued to pour from the now-destroyed gate echoed around the crater she'd made and the surrounding houses.

The Warriors and Crusaders that had been standing against them were beginning to falter. She spotted the Priests casting Heal, or purifying bodies, and the Rangers had formed something of a firing line behind Viktoriya. She cast her gaze around, and barked orders to the Mages.

"Concentrate your spells on the gate. Make sure you hit whatever you're aiming for. We don't have mana to waste."

Tanya stalked off, throwing a glance behind her back to see Aya and the demure Reincarnate behind her casting spells. She turned around again, and locked eyes with a Zombie Maker and a number of Zombies around it.

It didn't look very different from a normal person, except for the way its neck was twisted at an unnatural angle and how most of its hair seemed to be turning an oily, thick black. Tanya drew her rifle, ready to fight.

It hesitated, and then turned away, chasing after someone else. The Zombie's lingered, but they followed their master. Tanya felt her stomach sink a bit, but she forced down the feeling, marching over to where a group of people was doing nothing.

One of them pointed behind her, but Tanya simply activated her Reinforcement spells and jetted over, avoiding the attack. She turned around, sliced through the thing's head, and turned to them.

She gave them a once over, and sighed.

Thieves, all of them. She turned her body – her neck was feeling a bit stiff from all of the mana she'd been pushing through her system – to the one in front.

A Thief with cat-like ears – Tanya hadn't asked, and she wasn't going to – stood in the front. The 'Beastmen,' as they were called, were probably the creation of some dick-for-brains Reincarnate who had gotten too horny.

She shook her head in an attempt to focus through the pain. "Why aren't you fighting? If you won't fight because of some inane set of rules like those gutless Priests, I will make you do fight, compensation or not."

They stuttered. "We- Well, we're Thieves, and so we're not supposed to do direct fighting…"

Tanya gripped her rifle, imagining it was a vital organ of one of these idiots. "Then don't! Use Bind, or Lurk, or whatever the hell you want to! Be sneaky, like your job _suggests _that you are, and take them out! Or just restrain them! We don't have time to be sitting back twiddling our thumbs while we wait for someone else to do the dirty work for us!"

She heard something behind her groan, and she swung her rifle around, decapitating another zombie without looking. She surveyed the battlefield again, calming down a bit as those behind her slowly trickled away, joining other fighters who seemed to be flagging.

Pieces of people were strewn about, but the defenders did seemed to be winning. With the Mages firing at the gate, everything inside was almost gone. She gazed at the gate.

She ran towards the Mages, utilizing a small Flight spell to reach them quickly. She tapped Aya on the shoulder, and when the girl turned, Tanya swiped her staff out of her hands.

Ignoring her angry outburst, she shouted. "Explosive Vaporization."

The spell left the top of the staff, hurling towards the gate at an agonizingly visible pace, instead of the near-instantaneous speed of a bullet. The ensuing explosion destroyed the rest of the gate, and Tanya could see that the stone wall above it began to crack.

She waited, for a moment, and watched as the dust settled. Then, out of the cloud of dust, a concentrated group of undead emerged.

Tanya narrowed her eyes. The purple-cloaked undead was at the center of a formation of ten Undead Knights. The gnarled tree limb in his hand was just as black as the decayed skin on the faces of the undead around him, but the leader's skin seemed to be just as pale as its protectors' armor.

"To think that you could do so much damage to my forces… I commend you all!" he said, gesturing to the corpses around him. Most were starting to rot already – another effect of the undead? – but Tanya couldn't mistake the scent of fresh blood for anything else.

Tanya stared across at Viktoriya. She was standing next to Darkness and another Reincarnate – Takashi, Tanya remembered.

Tanya made a circular motion with her hand, and Viktoriya nodded. Tanya used Lurk, and took a deep breath. She'd need to use her Circlet, if this kept going on.

"You dare to go out, to find monsters, to do anything but cower and pray to your pathetic Goddesses while a Demon General is nearby? Brave, to be sure."

He paused.

"You are all also foolish and naïve."

As the fool talked as if he'd already won, Tanya crept behind his position. She didn't get very close – the Undead would sense her, regardless of her Lurk. She was close enough to see the designs on his cloak, though, not that she could make any sense of the squiggly lines.

"Since it seems you all have suffered, we will be taking our leave. If you leave this battlefield, we will simply collect our dead, and-"

That was enough for Tanya; she knew that letting them get their own dead _and_ the adventurers who had just died would mean they'd have taken no losses, besides the energy and time it took to come get them.

While she didn't want to piss off Verdia, she wasn't on his side yet. If he was willing to send forces here, then he should be willing to lose them.

She dropped her Lurk, and nodded; she couldn't see her, but Tanya was sure Viktoriya had seen. Just as the undead turned around at the call of the knights that had seen Tanya, she activated her spell.

"Artillery Shot!"

The orb travelled more slowly than her Explosive Vaporization, but they couldn't get out of the blast radius in time despite the extra time. As the orb of fiery yellow and white expanded, Tanya threw up an Active Barrier, watching as they were all decimated and thrown about.

Tanya almost smiled, but she shook her head. As the first Sioux had taught her – and the second had reminded her – they weren't dead until she could see their bodies, preferably without heads. She walked forward, Active Barrier in full force.

Then a fist flew out of the smoke, impacting her shield. Tanya could hear the bones break, but all she heard from the rapidly appearing figure was a grunt of frustration.

"What-"

Tanya didn't let him finish. She deactivated the barrier, grabbed ahold of the figure's outstretched arm, and spun him around her body, into what little was left of the gate. A wet thud confirmed that he'd probably broken something, but Tanya rushed over anyway. Undead were hardy creatures, and even Tanya could have survived that attack.

She was right. The thing was hunched over, coughing up blood, but still… going. Glaring, Tanya used her rifle to slice into its ankles.

It cried out at the action. They weren't removed, but they couldn't support its weight.

"What are you… doing?"

Tanya smirked, and activated her Lurk, making sure that it was covering the two of them. "Well, you're pretty strong, so Verdia might miss you."

Someone in her position was willing to switch, if Belzerg looked like it would lose, and pissing off one of the Generals of the opposing side wouldn't do her any wonders. "Teach me a skill, and I'll get you out. Preferably, one that raises undead."

He couldn't move, and at a hint of an attempt to do anything but show her a spell, she could lop off a couple of limbs. She wouldn't have an opportunity to learn magic like this again except for from Wiz, but Tanya was fairly sure that she might object to something like that.

Wiz was staying out of the fighting because she didn't want non-combatants harmed, after all. If she thought Tanya might misuse any spell she taught her – which she would, if push came to shove – then she'd withhold the information.

It glared up at her, and Tanya noted that, underneath the hood, it seemed to be male, if the faint stubble left on its face was anything to go by. Otherwise, the soft features didn't really lend it one way or the other. "Teach you a spell, huh?"

Tanya lowered her rifle again, and it flinched as she rested its blade against its cheek. It seemed it could fear death, then.

It smiled unhappily. "Fine. I know when I'm beat."

Using the wall to support himself, he inched up, crying out as he tried to support his weight with his arms. He held out a shaking hand towards the mound of bodies that was beginning to form from the efforts of those still living. Tanya looked at what was happening around them.

Darkness, Takashi, and Aya were looking around, apparently unused to seeing so much death, while everyone else was making the mound. The Priests were going through, body by body, and purifying them, sadly sighing with each confirmed death.

Tanya grimaced at the sight. This was another reason she wanted to be sure of which side she was joining. Sure, being on the winning side was good and all, but she was also sure that, if one in her position did want to join the Demon King, they would want to be sure said Demon King wouldn't abuse his victory to kill everyone.

Tanya turned back to the Undead Mage, only to realize that the ominous, red-black light that was dancing around him and the soft, harsh muttering under his breath definitely were not good.

A casting time this long had to be Advanced magic, and Tanya had no desire to learn something that powerful, when it raised the dead.

Cursing herself for her distraction – she was really getting tired now… – she used her rifle to lop off an outstretched forearm. He'd be-

But he _wasn't _incapacitated. He didn't waver, holding up his other arm as the lights grew in intensity and the mana continued to build.

"You killed my forces, and-" he began, but Tanya sliced off his other arm. He just watched it fall to the ground dispassionately, emitting a grunt. She wasn't waiting for this-

But it was too late. He attempted to gesture violently, but considering both of his arms ended in stumps, his hoarse shout that followed came off as panicked and just a little pathetic.

"_AMALGAMATION!"_

Still, it did the job. As Tanya again sliced down, her blade got caught halfway through his torso and a glass-breaking roar ripped through the air.

Belatedly, she realized she'd deactivated her Reinforcement spells to use Lurk.

He smirked. "You should deal with that," he said, gesturing towards the roaring sound behind her. She glared at him, and jerked her rifle away from him, tiredly turning towards the creature.

She heard something that sounded like 'teleport' come from behind her, but she had bigger fish to fry, like the bulbous, monstrous creature emerging from the pile of corpses.

She noticed several things immediately as it began to rise, to stumble out of the mound of unprocessed bodies. It wasn't hard to make out all of its features, even with the lack of sunlight. The lamps by the streets and the moon above did the job well enough.

It was tall – taller than her, and almost as tall as the house-height walls that protected Axel.

It smelled – Tanya couldn't exactly place the smell, but rotting flesh and spent cartridges seemed to be the most prevalent smells she could make out.

It wasn't even vaguely human shaped – it had six, thin limbs that scuttled around and seemed to be picking up more corpses.

And every single inch of it was made of body parts.

Torsos, most clad in armor or some sort of defensive covering, gripped each other with arms and legs to make up its body, while arms and skeletons made up its legs. The skeletons sometimes wore their former flesh like clothing, whipping it about while the bones clasped other corpses.

A razor-thin tail that whipped about and destroyed a house's wall seemed to be made of discarded blades and the arms that held them.

But all of that paled compared to its head.

Or rather… _heads_. At the front of its body, dozens of skulls and, when they had flesh, anguished faces rotated about, as if their spines were rotating instead of their necks. Tanya couldn't make it out, but she was sure that their eyes were either bloated with blood or spinning about wildly, searching for prey.

The whole thing was dripping. Blood, shit, and any other bodily fluids that could be named seemed to be draining away, spreading out and touching each and every corpse it could.

When it finally reached them, the bodies shot to their feet – if they had them – and flung themselves into… _it,_ being absorbed and torn apart in the whirling tornado of undead.

She saw that everybody – except for Takashi, Viktoriya, Aya, Darkness, and Shizuka – was screaming in terror and running away.

Even the Priests.

Tanya didn't blame them.

She very much desired to run.

She didn't have any superior that could court martial her, and she could grab Viktoriya in an instant.

They could leave.

No one would even blame them, and they'd probably even congratulate the two of them for living through the experience.

Then Tanya imagined Viktoriya's face when Tanya told her they were leaving, or imagined the Reincarnates that hadn't killed her dying or-

Tanya sighed, and she began to limp towards them, trying her best to use Aya's sceper as a crutch as she gathered her mana. Aya and Shizuka would probably fight for a bit, but even a 'Divine' Relic didn't really seem like it would measure up against this thing. They'd be killed in moments.

Viktoriya would fight it, and she would fight Tanya in order to keep fighting. The Russy girl despised stuff like this, and Tanya could imagine that she'd die in a blaze of glory, just like last time.

Darkness would probably leap towards it and enjoy every agonizing second her death took, relishing in whatever that thing would do to her and crying out in ecstasy as it tore her apart.

She looked at the Crusader, fully expecting her to be panting heavily with a flushed face and small, excited pupils. Instead, she only found half of what she'd expected.

The other half was instead determination, as if she actually wanted to do what she was supposed to as a Crusader.

Tanya nodded, honestly proud of her.

One of the people behind her made a noise of protest. "Tanya, what are you-"

It sounded familiar, but not too familiar.

Nothing seemed all too familiar anymore…

Oh well.

She shook her head, and heard another voice, Viktoriya's, plead with her to stop. She took in a deep breath, and began to flood both of her relics with mana, hoping – no, _praying_. She was god's tool, after all. Why wouldn't she pray – that she wouldn't do anything too embarrassing.

"**Oh god. Please, deliver to me the power to eviscerate this unholy terror that dare defy your will! Grant to this unworthy blasphemer your blessing, and watch as your enemies are destroyed!"**

Then, consciousness fading, Tanya let herself one last genuine smile as she heard the people behind her gasp in shock. She had gained a certain flair for the dramatic in her last life, with how few things actually _threatened _her, and this certainly fit nicely into the definition of _dramatic_.

-OxOxO-

Viktoriya fought to keep the smile off her face as Tanya began to float into the air, surrounded by a familiar golden glow.

A new glow, emanating from her officer's cap, joined the glow she had come to recognize as Tanya's… _gospel magic_.

"Ah…"

A wave of pure magical power rolled off of her, eliciting shouts from the others. Viktoriya just sighed.

As she began to fall back with the others, towards the nearby house that had been damaged as the monster had woken up, she reminded herself that Tanya despised doing this; she'd told her how she didn't even remember what she did whenever she gave herself over to that thing, and that the Circlet worsened things.

"Ha…"

Viktoriya, instead of the awe she'd looked at Tanya with in the past, only frowned and watched the battle carefully. Tanya would want to review what she did later, to at least pretend that she had full control of the body that she apparently despised.

"Ha… Hahaha…"

One of the others spoke. Darkness, judging by the voice. "How… even the Princess doesn't have this much power. Only Hero Candidates could do something like this…"

Viktoriya nodded. "She was the best soldier the Empire had. Ever."

"AHAHAHAHA!"

Then, she turned back to the fighting, watching.

Her cruel cackling echoed through the rough circle of destruction the earlier fighting had taken place in, shouting a string of words Viktoriya couldn't hear clearly and that she knew the meaning of anyway.

Prayers.

The sticky, clinging fire that had attached itself to the things back meant she intended to burn the thing with Napalm spells.

It screeched, and she zipped away from its tail, coming to its front. Its thin limbs, covered in weapons and bone, struck out quickly. She was faster, ducking around them.

Once, twice, it struck at her with its forelimbs, and then again with its tail.

She dodged it all.

Viktoriya winced as she saw one nearly impale her. She wasn't even using her Active Barriers.

Meanwhile, the fire on its back burnt. Its fast, lightning quick movements became more sluggish as it undulated, moving fresh bodies to its back to stamp out the fire.

"GRRAAAAAH!"

Viktoriya winced as the girl screeched incoherently.

The scepter near her – because she wasn't even holding onto it; it just floated next to her, following closely – rotated, pointing towards the thing.

The girl blew it back into the house it had partially destroyed, and what was left of the building crumbled to the ground. The monster screeched in anger, and she laughed back, spreading fire across it and then using several Artillery Shots.

It was decimated. Two legs were blown away, and most of the meaty, massive torso was burnt. Still, it rolled to its feet.

She began to clap as she laughed at it. She slowly flipped backwards through the air, laughing and clapping and-

Viktoriya blinked, and then she felt something stinging her eyes. She…

Viktoriya nodded resolutely, and took a clip out of the bandolier she had helped her purchase, loading another clip into her rifle.

One of the Reincarnates grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?!"

Viktoriya shook them off roughly, putting the clip back where it had come from. "Ending this."

Viktoriya heard nothing, but she assumed they had questions. "I can tell. She could vaporize the thing, if she wanted. Its legs are thin, and she could blow them off to immobilize it and then deliver a final blow to the head."

Choking sounds came from the most diminutive of the Reincarnates, while the tall woman named Aya gaped. "You mean… she's… _playing _with it?"

Viktoriya nodded once. "That's why she hates this. It takes away her mind, her rationality, and leaves only an enemy hating, god-loving replacement. That's what she's told me, at least."

The 203rd never knew, and just assumed she… really loved God.

Though… this was unlike her former superior, even when she had used the Type 95 in her last life.

She didn't always have the best… sense when she was doing less… _harrowing_ work, but she kept her head when she fought the Bloody Valkyrie. However, despite how much her tone and body language and outlook changed when she used it, she never…

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! COME ON, YOU FILTHY HEATHEN! MWHAHAHA!"

_Laughed._

They said nothing, and as the monster rose to its legs – the front two legs having reformed from the bodies inside it – Viktoriya aimed and shouted. "Artillery Shot!"

The bullet sailed through the air, arcing towards the thing, spinning. Viktoriya watched it, using her Reinforcement spells to watch it closely.

Then, she gasped. She was rushing to intercept it. To block the shot and keep fighting. She had _never-_

Viktoriya hurriedly pumped mana into a spell and shouted. "TANYA!"

The girl paused for a moment, and the bullet sailed passed, impacting the head. Blown apart, it stumbled around for a moment, before what little mana was left in it drained away, and the pile of bodies slowly collapsed.

Viktoriya watched, angry and scared, as the floating girl screamed, grabbed her scepter, and rocketed up and over the gates, probably to find something else to fight.

Viktoriya turned to the others who seemed to be even more terrified than before the monster had risen. "Come on. We have work to do."

They walked out of the house, looking timidly at the remains of the thing. Viktoriya activated her Observation spells, and looked around.

No one. No one had stayed around to get destroyed, meaning Tanya's acrobatics hadn't been seen by anyone but them. She sighed in relief, and turned to the Reincarnates. "You three, go to the guild and tell them what happened. We'll get started on the cleanup."

They nodded and began to walk away. Just as she turned away, she called out again.

They turned around. "Keep out any specifics. Just tell them that she killed the thing. If you tell anyone that we can fly…"

She glared at them, and Viktoriya heard Darkness begin to pant. She turned around, hoping that her threat would be enough to keep their skills a secret.

-OxOxO-

Verdia ground his teeth. "_YOU DID WHAT!?"_

The Undead Mage's shoulders shrunk. "I used the Amalgamation spell…"

Verdia turned towards the town that was basking in the light of the half-moon. "We have to go stop it. If non-combatants die-"

The mage scoffed. "So what? We'll get an entire city as an undead playground. What's bad about that?"

Verdia turned to the fool angrily. "We have a _contract_ with a Lich, who is something leagues above what you could _ever_ achieve! If any person not fighting dies, we'll have to fight her!"

He shrugged. "Can she fight us and that thing?"

"Yes."

The Undead Mage's face contorted, but Verdia just stared at him determinedly. "She could destroy it with an _Explosion_ spell, and, even with the armor the Demon King gave me, she'd still have more than enough energy to deal with us. Or, rather, just _you_."

"M- Me?"

Verdia nodded stiffly. "You unleashed an… _abomination _that hasn't seen the face of this land for good reason! They've turned entire cities, theirs and ours _included_, into waste lands. They can't be controlled by any but the most stubborn, willful Liches, and summoning one is tantamount to suicide if you can't Teleport."

Just as it seemed he couldn't sink farther, a golden streak began to make its way through the sky. Above the walls, and right towards them.

Verdia turned towards the Undead Mage. "Begin preparations to Teleport, with or without Ragcraft."

He nodded, and Verdia readied himself. Whatever spell this was, it was powerful. Maybe Wiz had decided to throw something more conventional at them, instead of her trademark ice spells?

Then, it began to slow down, and Verdia's eyes widened; it wasn't a spell, but a _person_.

And not just any person. Tanya von Degurechaff.

As she floated down, Verdia began to rapidly recalculate his assessment of her power. He couldn't just sense it; he could golden light pouring off her form.

She smiled at him.

Creepily.

Verdia knew that a smile that wide must hurt for a human, but it had the effect she was probably trying to convey. It made him nervous to see the face of a fellow Reincarnate look so very… _distorted_.

Then again, the Heavenly glow around her told him she might not even _be _human. He didn't have the skills to tell how much mana she had, but the way that he could hear the Undead Mage next to him shake told him more than enough.

"Very, Very, Verdia! I thought that you _might_ be the cause of this. Move or die!"

He tilted his head. That didn't sound like her. She'd been composed, profound, and, above all, _sane_ the last time he'd met her. This singsong, cracked voice didn't seem like that at all.

He tried to reason with her, to stall for a bit more time. "Degurechaff. I can explain-"

She shook her head. "Sorry, no is no. Undead spite god, that means they must be eliminated."

She paused, and tilted her head, eyes unfocused. "Why haven't I killed you?"

Verdia narrowed his eyes, incredulity blooming underneath his helmet. "You would presume to be able to kill a Demon General?"

"Ehehehe…"

Again, that creepy-ass smile contorted her face, and she dared to take her hands off of her weapon and let it float next to her. "Yes. An interesting challenge, especially after the last enemy I killed! No one will interrupt me this time, and I can play with you a lot longer than that 'Amalgamation!'"

Verdia paused. "You…destroyed it?"

She nodded, her grin becoming more normal but still stretched. "Yes. I made sure to burn it, and blow it up, and slice into it, and I would have figured out what it sounds like when a bunch of severed heads and skulls scream in _unison_ as I punish them for denying god and make them sing his holy name, if my faithful follower hadn't interrupted me."

Verdia opened his mouth to speak.

No noise exited however, and he realized he had no idea what to say after that, because _what the fuck_.

He cleared his nonexistent throat, still unsure of what to say, when the trees and bushes began to rustle, leading to a disheveled Ragcraft breaking through them.

"Sorry I'm late, it was a real pain to steal that much so quickly, but I…"

He paused as he saw the floating woman. He turned his head to Verdia, a concerned face marking his perfect features. "Is that…"

She giggled. "Ragcraft. How nice to see another nonhuman _heretic_ that should be burnt at the stake!"

He stared blankly at her, for a moment, and then he gaped at her.

He was a Doppelganger, after all; he prided his disguises. "What do you mean? My disguise is flawless, you shouldn't be-"

"You're not sweating nearly enough for someone I could eviscerate in an _instant_."

A veritable bucket of sweat began to pour from every inch of his exposed skin, and Verdia fought off the urge to face palm. He needed more information.

Before Verdia could try and talk the girl down and before Ragcraft could try and beg for his life, blue, glowing squares and a circle filled with a language Verdia couldn't understand popped into existence below him, Ragcraft, and the Undead Mage.

Before anyone could say another word, the girl – he hesitated to call her that, after this encounter – leaped towards them.

"NO! I must, must kill!"

Verdia grabbed her by the arm, wrenching her grip off of his armor.

With difficulty.

"How are you-?"

He meant to ask how she was so strong, but she just screamed at him as his grip tightened. Growling, Verdia tossed her out of the circle just as it activated.

In a flash, they were gone. Dazzling lights flashed passed his eyes, but they subsided, revealing they were back at the castle. A hundred of his best Undead were still there, unable to be summoned by such an inexperienced Undead.

Verdia still felt that they weren't enough between him and the possibly-crazy Reincarnate.

In a flash, the three moved. Ragcraft began barking orders to the undead that were milling about in the courtyard of the castle, and Verdia tried to make sense of what he'd seen.

She had acted completely different to their previous encounters. She hadn't been courteous, and all the tact she'd possessed had flown out of the window arm in arm with her sanity.

She'd even dared to say they should be burnt at the stake, which was terrifying in how ridiculous it was.

She thought she had the power to not only fight him, but weaken him enough to tie him up and then _burn_ him to ashes?

Preposterous…

And decidedly off-putting. He swept inside, heading for the study. He needed to clear out everything of importance before he left a token force to protect the castle. It was much too dangerous to try and fight her without more information.

Ragcraft, panting heavily, thrust a large bag into the waiting hands of a nearby skeleton. It was the money that the small bit of his espionage forces inside the city had been able to gather, along with whatever else he had taken under the guise of a noble.

Verdia turned to him as they half-ran through the castle.

"We're leaving. We leave twenty undead here and head back to the Demon King with the rest. We tell him we found the Double Blessed Hero Candidate, and we do _everything _in our power to get her on our side."

Ragcraft, for once in the time Verdia had known him, agreed without an argument. "No doubt. We should ask her what God she's devoted to. If they give her that much power, we should add them to the ranks of Wolbach and Regina, even if they haven't fallen from Heaven."

Verdia swept into the study, grabbing books and plans, and making sure to leave nothing. If she was actually hostile to them or on some blood-frenzied warpath, she'd come to the castle and raze it. Leaving anything for her to pick through would be exceedingly stupid.

As he did, the Undead Mage sitting outside on the ground stared down at his body.

He had no hands. His shoulder and body ached, telling him that the fresh air that was touching his insides meant he should be feeling pain and that he should be thinking about that. He couldn't.

That knight he felt drawn towards…

He let himself fall back to the ground, looking at his stumps and staring into the sky. He noted that didn't seem like it was a bad night. The clouds didn't seem too overcast, and it was honestly cool for the time of year.

That knight that had been at his side… they were gone.

Whoever they were.

Whoever they had been.

If he'd had hands, they would have clenched. Verdia had told him that Undead gained power and permanence through their grudges. As long as they held onto them, they could continue to persist through most any attempt at exorcism.

There was a secondary effect of that. Grudges meant remembering their past, or forming new angers towards current circumstances.

The Undea- no, _Evan, _sat up again, assured that he had a pretty good grudge to keep him going for however long it took him to figure out who that knight was and earn justice for them.

-OxOxO-

She spiraled towards the gate, grinding her teeth.

She stopped suddenly, and coughed. Blood came flying out, and she used a bit of magic to make the blood float in front of her face.

She saw bits of bone, and thanked god she had her spells up. She must have chipped a couple teeth.

More calmly, she floated back to the ground, and walked inside the gate, kicking the melted, twisted pieces of metal out of the way, sending them flying into a pile of rubble that might once have been a building. She gazed around, and saw that there didn't seem to be any people out.

There was still damage, but she accepted that. Body parts lay strewn about, a building or five were totaled, and it looked like one of her spells was still burning.

She gazed at the large mass of meat that was giving of the familiar scent of rotting flesh.

She smirked happily; that was what she loved to smell: dead heretics.

She tapped her chin, wondering where else she could find someone to kill in the name of god. The Thief was an option, but she'd not be any fun…

The Crusader wasn't any fun either. She was pathetic, and she served her god faithfully, even if it was heretical to serve any deity but god. What about…

She smirked and began to stroll through the carnage. The Lich might be fun.

Then she remembered another possible target. Viktoriya.

The Friend.

She let a harsh bark exit her body; friend? When had she grown so soft? She was the Devil of the Rhine.

But…

She furrowed her eyebrows angrily. No, she did have friends. They were important; they helped her, she helped them, and they gave her something else to fight for than just her own survival.

That was the only reason she'd been able to beat…

She gnashed her teeth again; the Bloody Valkyrie. That fight had been too close. She should have prayed more and harder, should have been able to win without the people that obeyed her.

She shook her head. No, she was just happy to have survived. She didn't want to do anything like that again. Why…

She smirked again, and began to jog towards the Lich's residence. Of course she'd love to fight like that again! Her faith had been tested, and she'd proven a more able follower of G-

_NO!_

Tanya violently shook her head, ripping away her mana from the relics. She threw her cap off, letting it land on the muddy, bloody ground. She cursed, ripping open her thin white shirt and ripping that stupid _thing_ off of her.

She took a deep breath. No, she wouldn't be ruled by those cursed pieces of jewelry. She wouldn't fight Wiz. Tanya wouldn't do that.

Slowly, her breathing evened out, and she shakily picked up both of her relics.

She tried to gather her thoughts. Viktoriya probably saw what Tanya had done, so she'd go to the guild first. Her memories were getting a bit fuzzy, and the longer she waited, the less she would remember.

Then… she had to leave. She was sure to get some sort of reward for whatever she'd done – there was a recollection of some sort of monstrous _thing_, but that was about it – and pay off whoever had seen her with the reward.

Darkness was still an unknown variable. She needed to distance herself from the Succubi and the charity so she didn't ruin their reputation. She had to decide if she would join the Demon King-

Tanya gasped as pain wracked her body, and then sank from her knees to the ground. Her side was aching, her teeth were screaming at her for daring to breathe, and Tanya was fairly sure several somethings were broken.

Tanya groaned, but she began to pour her last into a Voice Amplification spell. She needed Viktoriya to hear her, since she was rapidly losing consciousness.

She inhaled and screamed, "VISHA!"

She fought down the urge to shout more as the pain in her mouth tripled, and then let unconsciousness take her.

Viktoriya would defend her, regardless of whatever came.

-OxOxO-

She shouted, she raged, she even pleaded. Nothing worked.

The scowling, holy being, their ruler, before her moved not an inch before her cries.

"She's weak, weaker than ever! We can take her on! Just send me down, and-"

"No."

She stared at Him, and then turned around and stomped the ground. She was sure she was causing some sort of weather anomaly somewhere, but she couldn't care less.

"What do you mean? She is a possible threat! Just let me-"

"No."

Eris clenched her hands, fighting to calm herself down. It wasn't working very well. She opened her mouth again, but the God in front of her held up a hand.

"You presume that you have more justification for going down and personally killing her than I?"

'Yes. I had to kiss her. You haven't had to do anything _that _disgusting, have you?'

She wanted to say that. She really did.

Instead, she just retorted simply. "_I _can actually go down there."

He snarled at her, and she let her shoulders fall. "I would like nothing more to personally instruct The Atheist on why she should have begged for forgiveness for being _just that_, but the power it would take would literally cause the end of times, even in a more 'fanciful' world like this one."

"Besides," He groused, ignoring Eris's glare, "I probably couldn't leave Heaven. We have so many contracts binding us together that it's a miracle that Heaven only stopped functioning properly for a few _decades _when Wolbach and Regina left. If I left, it could simply cease to exist."

Eris nodded. She gave Him that. Things had become much more complicated since the days of yore.

He stopped pacing, and loomed over her. "Of course, the _Anniversary_ is closing in on us. You aren't trying to make Heaven even _more _unstable, are you?"

Her jaw dropped, and she prepared to rail against Him for even suggesting such a thing.

However, He'd apparently seen enough, and He just sighed. "No need, I'm sure you couldn't have faked that anger."

He smiled at her contemplative, storming expression, and He clapped a massive hand on her shoulder. "Now, next time you go down, you need to get relics."

"But I already-"

He cut her off. "No. You used those relics to try and stop The Atheist by funneling them into disloyal Reincarnates, and those that did wish to atone were killed. Give them to well established Reincarnates."

She frowned at His dismissal of work that had taken her so long to accomplish, but she nodded regardless.

For a moment, there was silence, and His words echoed through her head for a moment. Chris winced.

Those people had… not been nice in the slightest. She understood that they needed people who were loyal, but…

"Ah, sir… are you sure we can't send anyone down there who's more… _stable_?" she asked.

He blinked in confusion, and then He made a face that mirrored her own wince. "Ah…"

He shook His head. "Chris, while I would like to, there aren't exactly many people we can send down."

She raised an eyebrow, and He rolled His eyes. "Oh, how I wish that no one doubted me," He said, holding up a hand when she began to apologize. "No, your a dedicated worker, and you didn't insult me while asking, so I'll… pull back the curtain, as it were."

Just as she was about to ask who would insult Him – besides The Atheist, of course – He cracked his knuckles.

"Alright. There are three groups of people. Those that go to Heaven, those that go to Hell, and those that get Reincarnated until they do something horrible enough to go down or they opt into living in Heaven."

"Most people, when given the option, would rather not lose their identities, memories, and things that make them who they are, so they choose Heaven to avoid what is essentially an end beyond their deaths," He explained.

He made to continue, but He stopped, sighing. "Being Reincarnated in this world could result in another death, and mortals don't like that. That leaves a very, very narrow pool of people that are willing to face death again, even with the promise of a rule-free wish."

Eris nodded along, captivated. She… hadn't known that.

He grimaced. "I really shouldn't have let those last few people go down. Most of them didn't have enough Karma to go to Heaven, and that Hiroshi should probably gone to Hell, but I thought he'd be loyal…"

He shook His head. "Well, the past is in the past. Now, what are you going to do next time?"

She pouted. "I'll go get Divine Relics and give them to Reincarnates that are already there, if they can help."

He smiled widely at her. There were two very dangerous Divine Relics in the capital that needed to be contained, and she might as well begin looking for them.

As he turned around and busied himself with something, she smirked. She might make a few donations to the Eris Cult as well, when she pinched them from whichever corrupt noble was using them.

"What will you do about Degurechaff?" she asked.

He rolled His eyes. "If she is as weak as you say at some point after the Anniversary… we'll send in our newest angel to finish her off."

Eris almost said something she shouldn't have, like 'What in the fresh Hell do you mean,' but she managed to make her outburst into a cough. That angel was…

He nodded, oblivious. "Yes, she's come along quite nicely. More powerful than she ever was as a mortal, maybe once she finishes off The Atheist, she'll gain a few followers and I can use them to replace Wolbach and a few of the weaker Gods that ran off with her."

Eris blanched; He was giving that former mortal _more_ power?

Hesitantly, and with as much respect as she could muster – because the last person to loudly object to what He did had been shuffled to the lowest position available – she asked, "Is that a… _wise _decision?"

He waved her off. "Of course! I made her what she was! I made her what she is now: I gave her the ability to do what The Atheist can without the relic, I bestowed on her more power than any mortal had possessed in that world."

Eris didn't say anything, or remind Him of how she had _still_ managed to lose, despite what the Gods and Goddesses had given her, or how she now stayed by herself most of the time, flying about with her wings, or how she wasn't very good at doing anything the Gods asked her to, unless it had to do with violence.

"Now, I need to keep preparing. Go help Aqua with the Reincarnates; The Atheist should be leaving Axel soon enough, if the suggestion I planted in her mind while she was connected with us works. Then, we'll get more people there to fight the Demon King!"

Eris just bowed her head and left the vast area of clouds where He liked to spend his time, ideas already whirling through her mind.

He'd told her to give the Reincarnates that were loyal relics, right? She'd do just that.

Give them a few dreams, have the Divine Relic show up in their room or something. That would work.

And, once they were indebted to her, she'd suggest that they kill The Atheist! With two – or more! – Divine Relics, they'd make handy work of them, and eliminate a possible threat.

Eris smiled softly, and went back to her dimly lit desk, searching through sheaves of paper, looking for someone who would do the job on their word alone, no questions asked. There had to be at least a few of them that believed in Heaven's divinity enough to do that.

-OxOxO-

Revelry. Plain and simple, the loud shouting, cheering, jeering, and generally good atmosphere could be described with no other words.

Well, there were probably a few words that worked, but Tanya didn't care enough to try and think of them. In one hand, she nursed a single beer that was, if her eyes weren't damaged, only half finished, despite how tipsy Tanya was feeling.

In her other hand, the huge bags of her rewards were grasped. That thing she had killed – because the grainy recordings on Viktoriya's Type 97 showed her that she had killed some sort of terrifying _beast _that she barely remembered – was apparently some sort of disaster-level monster.

The Demon King hadn't used them in something like fifteen years, so the guild staff had delivered a thanks on behalf of the entire nation, and given her several _million _Eris as a reward.

She was burning through it at an alarming rate right now, paying for every single person's meal, drinks, and anything else they could think to buy.

The costs might have been smaller, but she wasn't just paying for the adventurers.

The towns guards, the clergy, and pretty much anyone that could get into the guild was having each and every thing the ordered paid for. It was like what she imagined a rave had been like, in her first life.

She was sort of upset about it, but she couldn't honestly blame them. Viktoriya's recording showed that the thing was truly terrifying, and she wasn't entirely sure that the town would have survived.

Plus…

Tanya looked around again, and nodded to herself, taking care not to spill her drink. There were far fewer people here. The only reason that as many of the guards and common folk could get in here was that many adventurers had died.

She took another sip, and mused that Wiz could have stopped the killing, but that she had her own beliefs and constraints. Even if she had wanted to – which Tanya didn't doubt she did – she couldn't act against Verdia until he attacked an innocent.

She looked around, trying to peer through the crowd of people. Viktoriya had left some time ago, for some reason. Tanya assumed it had to do with the Eris Cult and how not-dead she was.

Tanya closed her eyes, and sipped the rest of her drink down. It wasn't horrible, but it was too strong. She wouldn't be able to have another drink, if she wanted to keep control of her facilities.

Suddenly, the sound of someone slamming into the seat across from her interrupted her thinking. Tanya opened her eyes, and saw that Darkness was sitting across from her. She was staring at everything around them, except for Tanya's eyes.

She sighed, but Tanya sat up, and set her now empty glass down. It seemed it was time to talk.

"Darkness. Something I can help you with?"

The woman across from her side, opened her mouth, and then closed it again. She took a deep breath, and began to speak. "Tanya. What I did, what I accused you of… they _were_ justifiable."

Tanya raised an eyebrow, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "But… I didn't have all of the information, and I wasn't willing to consider what you said."

Tanya nodded, letting a small smile mark her face. Then Darkness's stare turned stony. "You made a deal with Verdia. I can't ignore that, but you did risk your life protecting the town, and I helped Chris and those other people hurt you. I admit that I don't understand what you did to get that much power, but Viktoriya claimed you hated it."

"I'll trust her, and I'll trust that you have a plan," she said.

For a moment, there was silence between the two of them. Tanya heard Dust loudly declaring that he'd beat anyone at any competition, whether it be manliness, picking up women, or _singing._

"I want some of the information you got from Verdia, however," Darkness said. Tanya's enjoyment of her surroundings faded as she frowned, but Darkness shook her head. "No. If you aren't a noble, you aren't well placed enough to use it. Just give some of it to me."

Tanya mulled over the proposition in her mind. Darkness didn't think she'd lost her to the Demon King or to mind control, and giving her something might cement the idea that Tanya was loyal to Belzerg in the Crusader's mind.

The answer, then, was obvious. Despite her reservations at manipulating her friend, Viktoriya's and her own safety were most important. Tanya nodded slowly.

"To start, you should be looking out for a fallen goddess by the name of Wolbach."

Darkness's eyes widened. "Right now, she and her minions are apparently searching Belzerg for 'her other half' and she is weak because of this. If she gets it, you'll have someone more powerful than a Lich to deal with."

Tanya had no qualms at selling out self-proclaimed gods anyway.

"Additionally, you only need to worry about seven of the generals. Wiz is a Demon General."

Darkness almost shot up, but Tanya violently shook her head. "_In name only_. She's a Lich, but she doesn't do anything besides maintain the barrier. We might need to kill her eventually, but you shouldn't think of her as a threat, unless you start killing non-combatants."

Darkness scoffed, but Tanya ignored her skepticism. Both sides in her own world had committed atrocities in the name of 'preserving the peace' and clamping down on dissent. She didn't doubt that both sides here would be doing the same, if they could have.

"What else… oh, they have some sort of 'Poison Slime' going on a secret mission. Verdia didn't know much, but he's in Belzerg somewhere."

"Finally, someone named 'Vanir' is becoming less affiliated with the Demon King. He's not going to be showing up on the battlefield much anymore."

Darkness's eyes lit up, and she did shoot up this time, giving Tanya a quick goodbye as she left. Tanya just waved at her. She'd say goodbye to her in the morning. For now, she would retire, try and find her in the morning, and then leave.

The posting on the quest billboard said that the capital was demanding more adventurers at lower levels to come to the front. They needed the help, and she would provide it.

They would level up, they'd become well known, and then they'd look around for recruits willing to join their party.

Tanya knew that only having two people in her party wasn't the smartest decision, and without Darkness and Chris, they needed someone else to at least watch their backs. Gaining a bit of reputation would help convince anyone that was wary of their jobs to join them regardless.

Besides, Being X wasn't sending anyone else while she was here, besides Mary. He'd made that clear during their last chat, and he hadn't sent anyone new down, besides his personal pet.

Their last chat…

Her blood boiled at the thought of that bastard using Viktoriya as his mouthpiece, but she calmed down quickly. If she killed the Demon King before the other Reincarnates, she'd get that wish.

That wish…

Tanya smiled dreamily. Oh, how would she use that wish?

She could think of several things immediately – death to Being X, going back to her last life to finish off the Cordiale, torture for Being X, going back to her first life to give them magic and make them even _less_ reliant on religion, making Being X relive her last life, a crate full of stuff from her last two lives that she could reproduce here and use to build some sort of business and rule the country through technology, making Being X into a Giant Toad – but all of them seemed too good to choose between.

She knew she wasn't getting more than one wish, and that she'd need to word it carefully so that he didn't turn it back on her. He wouldn't follow the spirit of what she wanted, especially if she wished for harm against him.

Of course, her getting that wish depended on her killing the Demon King, so her daydreaming was next to useless at this point. She needed to decide if she was against him, and then outpace all the other Reincarnates.

As she rose from her seat, she sighed. The other Reincarnates, that had come before her, were a potential problem. If they got wind of how she had deprived a bunch of their countrymen of their weapons, they might get angry.

They wouldn't find out, though. The attack of Verdia's forces had distracted everyone from her street fight, and she could go clean up any residual evidence on her way back to her inn.

She began to walk out of the guild, thoughts of Reincarnates, wishes, the Demon King's Generals, and how crazy her life was swirling through her head.

Tomorrow, she'd be heading towards the capital, towards greater things, regardless of whose side she would end up on.

It was time to leave Axel behind.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: In case you all are interested, I've posted a whole bunch of stories that aren't crossovers for Saga of Tanya the Evil. You should check them out.

I've also posted the Omake story, in case you all didn't see the A/N at the top of chapter 17. Check that out too.

**A/N 2:** So. Tanya is… just a little bit not okay right now.

I mean, it was kind of obvious something like this would happen to someone with the stuff she's had to go through, and that doesn't even take into account what happened during the month before they got killed that she hasn't talked about. I wonder what would happen if someone tried to force her to talk about it?

Oh wait, I don't have to wonder. I can just look ahead a few chapters. Too bad you guys can't. Hehe…

Ah well. The Anniversary is coming up, I wonder what that could be? If you've got any guesses, please, tell me – it'll be humorous to see what you come up with.

**A/N 3:** Replies to reviews on this website.

**Kweh Viola:** WHOA! Slavery was _not_ the direction I was thinking… uh… at all. Try for something _slightly_ less horrifying. As a hint… think along the lines of weapons of war.

**SoleReclaimer:** Yes, it was, and as I've addressed on AO3, I will have an inordinate amount of fun while she's oblivious and when it finally gets it spelled out to he.

Rex will get a bit more time, especially due to the manner in which he was heroically saved.

**Prometheus-42: **Well, you see, the reason that she didn't give the potion to an animal is because…

*Insert surprised Pikachu face here*

I am an idiot; the YouTube video titled 'Slow Clap' is permanently open on my computer; I should have my writing license revoked; _**FUCK!**_

While I might be able to bullshit something about potions not working for non-human things or a funny line about dosages, I completely missed this. Maybe she'll realize later on? Idk man… Idk…

**xBUBBA1995x:** I'm glad you're enjoying it so much, and make sure to stay warm.

As I've said before, Chris is… an interesting character, with her rabid hatred of demons and very… high opinion of heaven as a whole. REgardless, she's a good stand in for Sioux, especially since Tanya's gotten them confused.

**Father Chaos:** Thank you for the support and spotting the unnecessary repetition.

A heads up: commenting '...Vik?' is not especially telling of your possible question/praise/concern. I'm forced to assume it's a question about the spelling of Viktoriya's name. The spelling of many characters' and terminologies names – besides Tanya's – is inconsistent across the various forms of media, but the Russians spell the name this way, as does the majority of the stuff I've read, so that's what I'm going with.

Thank you very much for the support for the OCs. As a reward, I'll reveal that an OC becomes a teammate in three or four chapters.

While it is odd that they can't kill human things because of their job, they aren't exactly soldiers either. They aren't expected to kill human-like things that often, and the Tranquility Girls do technically have mitigating circumstances that make you think twice before destroying them.

Uh… I think your idea of Tanya's death is a bit off. The wiki says she's _born _in the eighties, and she dies in 2013.

**AnimeA55Kicker: **While Chris surely opposes such things – it's Aqua's cult that allows pedophiles in – she isn't exactly inundated with people she can use.

Besides, he's religious, if he got reincarnated to that world with a karma score that reflected his predilection, and the Church in our world doesn't have a lot of problems with that :D

**fwterrorista: **While that _would _be hilarious, Aqua makes sure to tell Viktoriya that The Atheist and the Demon King have to be killed.

Don't worry, though. Kazuma isn't going to die instantly.


	20. Invention and Packing Up

Tanya sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, and attempted to suppress her anger at the conniving hoard before her.

Last night, Tanya and Viktoriya had briefly discussed her battle with Chris before moving on to a detailed look at their defense of Axel and her fight with the… Amalgamation – a most apt name provided to them by both the Undead Mage that had cast it and a terrified Luna.

They'd talked about what Tanya could have done better and where she should probably improve, most of which involved getting more information on the tactics and magic in this world.

It was painful to admit it, but Tanya still didn't know what the limits of this world's spells were, and yesterday showed just how detrimental that could be.

What were the limits of Advanced magic? Could it do more, or was the spell she'd witnessed yesterday the limit? And, if _that_ horrible spell wasn't the limit, then _just what was worse?_

Tanya just didn't know, though a visit to Wiz might help in that regard.

After talking for a bit more on the subject of self-improvement, Tanya had realized she had completely forgotten that Viktoriya didn't have the Agility Reinforcement spell Tanya had picked up. Tanya had stressed the need to continue to find ways to hide the fact that their magic was different, and learning that version of the Reinforcement spell would help them keep up the idea that they were odd instead of unique to those that might be… _interested _in advancing magic.

If neither side had a version of personal flight of their own and they found out about Tanya and Viktoriya's method, they'd definitely want to figure out how to use them – many, many books in the War College discussed how revolutionary flight had been, and all of them included both planes and Aerial Mages. She had no doubt they would be just as important here.

They had both turned in to bed soon after that, and she had woken up the next day to an apologetic looking Viktoriya. She'd explained the situation, and Tanya was here, lacking her mantle, speaking to the confident crowd of conniving clergy in the guild, and valiantly attempting the urge to pull out her pistol and murder a couple of them.

Many adventurers were looking at their argument with interest, but no onlookers made to intervene.

"No. I don't care what you say, I'm not giving you all a million Eris."

Ashley stepped forward, putting on a burdened air. "But Lady Degurechaff, you owe us money. You told us that you'd give us ten thousand Eris, and that we would get more when we got back to the guild. Plus, we healed you, which means you owe us more. Finally, it's Sunday, and your insistence on not complying is taking away valuable time for churchgoers."

Tanya scowled at them, but most of the ones she could see seemed pretty happy with themselves. Before Tanya could tear that smug look from their faces, one of the ones next to Ashley shouted, "Just be happy we aren't going to charge you interest."

_Twitch._

That was the last straw. Smiling widely, she nodded enthusiastically. "I really would love to, but you see, I've already given you your payment. I said I'd give you all ten thousand Eris, _or _the equivalent in goods. You all spent much more than ten thousand partying last night, so I think we're even."

None of them stopped smirking, but Tanya could tell, from how all of them straightened their posture, that they'd been affected. "I distinctly remember you telling everyone they could eat and drink to their hearts' content, Tanya."

Tanya shook her head. "I privately told Luna that you all would only be getting free service because of a deal we had. Luna agreed. You have all _been paid_."

She wanted to add a happy 'and go fuck yourselves' at the end of that, but she didn't really think they'd be able to take it. More than one of them looked very distraught, as if they couldn't handle someone telling them 'no.'

The other half that weren't close to tears were getting angry. Ashley stepped forward, gesturing to the Priests behind her. Their muttering died down, and she leveled a condescendingly patient stare at her, one she remembered from her time in the orphanage.

Tanya did not like that stare.

"Tanya, that doesn't clear the debt the one next to you owes us."

Tanya glanced towards Viktoriya, who's head bowed down in shame. Tanya merely rolled her eyes. Viktoriya really needed to learn how to stand up for herself sometimes.

Tanya brought her attention back to Ashley. "Yes it does. You all spent much more than ten thousand Eris each."

Tanya had already confirmed it earlier with Luna last night. After Luna had become… visibly unwell at the mention of the word 'Amalgamation,' Tanya had moved quickly on to how much everyone was spending.

If they had spent the average, Tanya would still owe them money, but most of them would have spent well above the average, if they'd been paying.

Now, Ashley gave her a real glare. Then, as one, they all turned to Luna. "Receptionist. Why were we not told?"

She glanced at Tanya for a moment, but Tanya didn't respond to her – obvious – eye motions that indicated the receptionist thought Tanya should deal with it.

When Tanya didn't help her, she shrugged nervously, keeping up her ever-present smile. "I assumed you all knew of the deal. However, we can provide each of you ten thousand Eris, if you really _are_ that insistent on being paid."

They turned again towards Tanya, now visibly angry and fuming. "You would dare deny us money, after everything we did?"

Tanya scoffed. "You all turned tail and ran away the moment the Amalgamation came out. Instead of helping, you were probably running back to your churches, packing up everything that wasn't nailed down, and planning to leave."

Tanya smirked as she saw more than a few of them bend their heads and look down shamefully. Ashley just rolled her eyes. "We would have died fighting."

"Well, that's… expected, right?" Tanya asked rhetorically, raising her voice as she spoke. "Your goddess demands that you all fight Demons and the undead, right? If you abandon that tenant of your faith so easily… I wonder why you all were so adamant about being paid fairly. They obviously aren't that important to you."

The adventurers in the guild were beginning to form a crowd, and some of them were sending rather pointed looks at the assembled Priests. They looked rather nervous, but Ashley seemed to either not notice or not care enough to stop.

"Be quiet! If we don't get paid, we'll stop providing our services!"

The crowd, before conversing amiably, suddenly quieted greatly. The church was supposed to provide healing and relief for the needy, even if they did demand some prayers or confessions from those they helped.

Tanya just laughed at them. "Fine. _I'll _just cast Heal on everyone. For free."

It was a bluff. Tanya wasn't going to be sticking around longer than she had to, but she hadn't told anyone about her plans to leave, besides Viktoriya and Bill the Blacksmith.

Ashley demonstrated that fact by shrinking back at her threat. "You detest the poor so much that you'd abandon them?" she asked, trying for another feeble attack at her character.

Tanya was about to speak, but Viktoriya beat her to the punch. "The Mithril Foundation has actually begun providing poor relief in place of what you do, and they don't even ask for piety. They've also begun teaching the children. Why haven't _you _done those things?"

At that, Luna stepped forward. "Ah, that reminds me. The guild will be utilizing the Mithril Foundation for poor relief from now on, so we will be paying you half of our usual tithe for the foreseeable future."

Tanya blinked at the odd word, but then she began smirking even more. Tithes – the church's taxes, if she remembered correctly – were more than necessary in a world where they provided actual, magical services instead of just sermons.

It seemed that the Mithril Foundation had made at least some of those services obsolete, however.

Tanya began to smirk as the group broke out into hurried whispering. How _horrible_.

She would have to find _some_ way to cope with that fact.

She didn't think it would be _too _hard.

The Priests looked around them, and Tanya couldn't help but widely smile at that. It seemed Ashley wasn't done, however.

"**May Eris cur-"**

Whatever she was going to say was cut off by the Priest next to her. "We will accept your offer of ten thousand each _graciously_, Luna. Come, everyone. Let us collect our rewards."

With that, the crowd of Priests dispersed, and Tanya sighed. It seemed things would end without a fight, this time.

She turned around to see that Viktoriya was pouting a bit. She tilted her head. "What's wrong?"

She shrugged. "I don't know… is it wise to alienate them like this?"

That brought Tanya up short. Pushing people into corners often got them to act rashly, herself included.

Considering how powerful the church was as an institution in the histories of her last life, they probably had even more influence in a world where they could back up their claims of divine power by healing people.

Grumbling, she took a hold of the bag of Eris she'd brought with her – intending to give it to Luna as a parting gift – and stalked over to them. The Priests all seemed to be clamoring at the front desks, fighting to get to the front and get their rewards first.

She tapped one of the Priests on the edge of the group on the back. He turned around, and shrank back from her.

She wasted no time consoling him. "Here."

She shoved the bag into his hands, and then walked off.

"W- Wait!"

She turned around again, annoyed. He shrank back, but he spoke nonetheless. "Why? You were arguing against us so fiercely…"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "You all did do _some _work yesterday, and ten thousand each isn't… the most fair price. Just consider us actually even."

Considering that bag was filled with silver Eris, not copper, they better not want to try and take anymore from her.

With that, she waved Viktoriya over, intending to leave the guild. She was sure she had a question about _something _– Tanya was guessing it had to do with their future plans – judging by the way her gaze shot from Tanya to the ground more than once, but-

Then, someone ran into her.

What happened next was not cute and typical of such occurrences in fiction, where both of them bumped into each other and they dropped what they were holding.

Tanya was sent backwards, sprawled across the ground, and she was fairly sure the other person had also hit the ground hard, if the groans of pain were as bad as they sounded.

Viktoriya helped Tanya to her feet, and Tanya thanked her as she stood over the one who'd run into her.

With a scar over his nose and mossy hair that was cut close to his head, the adventurer was dressed in dark blue pants that resembled denim and a gray shirt.

He was rubbing his nose while his apparent companions consoled him.

He opened his eyes, and then took a look at Tanya, who had raised an eyebrow at the man. He blinked, and then shot to his feet, stammering. "I- I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

Tanya waved his apology away. "It's no problem. Just make sure you watch where you're going, alright?"

He nodded furiously, and, as Tanya turned away, he continued to speak. "Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Tanya sighed tiredly, but she turned back around. He was offering something, so she might as well take advantage of his offer…

Wait. She looked off into the distance. Last night seemed rather far off right now, but it had to do with using her wish to…

She smirked at him, and he cast his head downwards.

Right, she had thought about using that wish to bring modern stuff to this world and to rule it economically.

Doing something like that _now_ would obviously be harder than simply wishing for crates of stuff, but there was no reason she couldn't take the idea of making modern products in this world to earn boatloads of cash.

First, of course, came market research. What did people here want?

She turned her attention back to the man in front of her. She stared at him, trying to match his face with a name.

"Your name is… Rex, correct?" she asked. He nodded, eyes wide. She eyed him speculatively, an action that sent his gaze back to the ground while his companions snickered.

He'd probably have a bit of knowledge about what people wanted. She could always ask Luna, the other adventurers, and Wiz-

Actually, no. Asking Wiz would _not _be a good idea, if everything she said about her shop doing poorly was true.

"Well, I'll ask you a few questions about adventuring."

He shook his hands in front of him, and his two companions smiled at him, mirth present in their eyes. "No, please! I've only been an actual adventurer for a few weeks, and I only arrived in Axel recently…"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry. It's just about quests." She walked towards a table and sat down, watching him nervously do the same.

"Now, I don't go on overnight quests too often – I have things I need to do besides adventuring. I was just wondering what went into taking on such quests," she explained. If she was going to be making products for adventurers, she might want to know about their preferences.

He sighed, and began to talk animatedly. He'd gone on one recently, in fact, travelling a distance away to a nearby town to take care of some recently spotted goblins. Their supplies had gotten soggy in a recent downpour, and they'd had to go hungry, since their fire-starting supplies were ruined.

Tanya nodded slowly, a grin forming on her face. "Thank you, Rex. That's all I needed."

He looked confused, wondering how he'd been that helpful, but Tanya rose quickly. Viktoriya followed behind her.

Maybe they _would _stay in Axel an extra day or two.

-OxOxO-

Tanya stalked through the streets of Axel. There were very few people out and about. Back in the guild, the Priests _had _mentioned that it was Sunday today, and many people and adventurers, after much grumbling about them holding everything up, had followed them off to Church.

Now, she and Viktoriya had split up – her former adjutant was headed to the Blacksmith, to beg to be allowed to use his supplies again. Tanya would head there after her current task was complete, to make more cartridges and fix the rifle 'Chris' had damaged…

Tanya frowned. Yes, 'Chris.' Her real name was Mary Sioux and, to the regular, rank and file soldiers in the Empire, she was known as the Bloody Valkyrie.

She frowned. Tanya was sure she had a nickname among the Cordiale that was just as horribly ironic as Tanya's 'Mithril' had been.

Tanya scowled as she continued to think about that woman. She had no idea _why_ that bitch had chosen to be a _Thief_, of all things, instead of, at the least, Archmage.

Tanya shrugged to herself. If she wasn't in her original body – cause even Tanya couldn't miss her hair being _silver_ in her last life – then maybe she had been here for years and years, just as Tanya had been in her second life?

Tanya didn't know what the purpose of that would be, but she was no mind reader.

She thought back to those supplies she wished she had now that the bitch had blown up, and to the fight, and how it had _ended-_

Tanya shook her head, resisting the urge to trek towards one of the upscale buildings around her to find a brick with which to bludgeon herself with.

All it had taken was a _single _kiss for her to completely lose track of what she was doing. She'd let Mary slip through her grasp, and Tanya didn't doubt that the insane girl would try something else in the future.

Scowling, she continued down the road, idly studying the over-the-top buildings around her.

She hadn't been to this part of Axel much. She'd been here once to register the Mithril Foundation as a legitimate organization, but that was about it.

Earlier, she'd gone to the same place and asked where she might get a patent for an invention. They'd directed her to another shop, where a _very _old looking man with far too few teeth had cackled at her constantly, asking for a number of things she didn't have.

Yet.

She needed to bring in a working version of whatever she wanted to make to confirm that it wasn't something someone else had made, the plans for its design, and someone else to affirm that she was who she said she was and that she was trustworthy.

The working example of what she could make would come later, when Viktoriya had gotten some tools, as would the design.

For now, getting someone to sign for her meant finding Wiz, Darkness, or Gerrard.

The wily old man at the shop didn't seem like he'd be all that concerned with the nobility and their power, but even he would balk at crossing Darkness. Probably.

The Crusader had said something about being part of a 'great noble' family, or something. That had to mean something, as far as her family's power went.

Tanya sighed as she looked around at the expensive, frankly _outlandish _housing for the fifth time that hour. All of them matched – and probably exceeded – the wealth and decadence present in the Imperial Headquarters in Berun.

Every single building was made of stone and brick, with wide windows, pillars, columns, and domes covered each of them. They all looked very impressive, as well as very unnecessarily expensive.

Tanya shrugged. She couldn't tell them what to do with their money, and if they wanted to waste it on mansions, she couldn't stop them.

Tanya looked around again, cursing herself for laughing at Darkness when she'd told Tanya her name instead of asking for directions to her house.

_Lalatina_.

Tanya smiled, chuckling to herself. Well, at least she could use the girl's name to make herself laugh whenever she was feeling down.

She looked around one last time, and then shook her head. She just didn't know where Darkness could be found.

She'd talk to Gerrard, then; maybe he would sign off on her paperwork? He probably didn't like how evasive Tanya had been during her questioning following her battle against Chris, so convincing him might take a bit-

Just as she was about to head towards the police station, she was suddenly stopped by a meaty hand that gripped her shoulder.

Red and yellow cloth and marble and hallways and being dragged and a dead man and no no no _no no-_

Suppressing the intense desire to throw whoever had grabbed her shoulder _over_ her shoulder and into next week, she turned around stiffly.

What met her gaze was a short wall.

Red, barely-able-to-conceal-what-hid-beneath clothing was wrapped around the wall, while a blond, trashy wigs sat atop the wall. Tanya wasn't sure how a wall could speak in such a nasal voice, but this one certainly could.

"Did you hear me, girl? Where are your parents?" asked the wall.

Tanya blinked again, and she realized that it wasn't a wall, but a man so morbidly obese that he made even the weightiest American look malnourished.

The wig was just very unkempt hair, his clothes were struggling to contain his… _generousness_, and his loud, nasal voice was coming from a very small mouth that reminded her of a nutcracker.

_Twitch_.

She tried to walk away from the wall, but knights suddenly blocked her way, and she turned around to see that someone had painted the face of the wall red while she'd been trying to leave.

It tried to talk to her again. "Answer me! When Aurip Barnes Alexei, the noble in control of Axel's finances and the brother of Alderp, Lord of Axel, speaks to someone, they should hasten to speak!"

Tanya's eyes widened. "Oh, you're a noble? Could you point me to…" she smiled slightly, fighting to keep her tone level, "Lalatina Ford Dustiness's house? I need her to look at a few things."

The man's eyes widened, and he sneered at her. "Dustiness? You presume to be so well connected _and_ also unknown to me?"

Tanya scoffed. "Duh. I adventure with her all the time."

Aurip's beady eyes narrowed, and then they widened again. He glared fiercely at the knights that had surrounded her. "Back off!"

After they had all given her a bit of space, he stared down at her, nervous. "I- I hesitate to ask, but what might your name be?"

"Tanya von Degurechaff," she said simply as she raised an eyebrow. Immediately, the man relaxed, now more calm.

"Ah, nevermind. Your appearance made me mistake you for… _Iris_," he said. Tanya stared at him incomprehensibly, wondering who Iris was.

The bowling ball made no attempt to inform her, however, instead staring down at her again.

Tanya glanced around and realized that no one was moving. Guessing that he still wanted an answer to his first question, she sighed. "If you are looking for my parents, you could never find them, since they're most likely dead."

The man's eyebrows creased again. "How old are you?"

_Twitch_.

Everyone's gaze was dragged to the strand of hair on top of her head – Tanya had not felt very comfortable wearing the Circlet after Viktoriya's description of Tanya's actions against the Amalgamation and how it might be making the Type 95's curse _worse _– and Tanya, slowly, asked the man, "How old did you… _think _I was?"

He looked rather nervous, no doubt due to Tanya's even glare, and Tanya felt what little interest in the conversation shrivel up. She turned around and pushed passed the knights.

She heard him make a commotion, and they surrounded her again. She let her anger show on her face, but he was only momentarily stopped by her expression.

"Ahem. I was wondering if someone as _deliciously _cute as you would allow me, Aurip, to entertain you for an evening."

Tanya blinked.

She blinked again, and then she began to hope that she actually _had _beaten herself unconscious with a brick or walked into a wall, and that she was talking to it right now in some sort of brain-damage-related hallucination.

Nothing about her surroundings changed.

_Deliciously._

She grimaced. "I'm sixteen." She watched his face for even the slightest betrayal that he was a pedophi-

His smile grew in size and lecherousness. "Even better!"

_Twitch._

Tanya hid her disgust, anger, and rage under a deep intake of breath. How would she tell this wall that she wasn't in the least interested without alienating him or murdering-

She stopped. Then, she let a grin split her face.

She was _leaving _Axel, right? She'd likely never see any of the people around her again!

Or, even if she _did _come back, they were nobles. There was no way she would ever have to interact with them on a daily basis or anything.

She didn't have to give a damn about what she said to them. She could take out the stress and hatred generated by every lewd stare her _underdeveloped,_ _female_ body throughout her time in this backwards place. She could take out her anger at that Spearman of Chris's yesterday on this piece of shit. Her anger – it wasn't fear it wasn't it wasn't – at the _thing_ who'd-

She glared at him, leveling as much hatred as she could. Instantly, the wall lost a few rows of bricks. The knights around her all backed up a step.

She inhaled, going through a list of every insult she could imagine and discarding many that wouldn't make any sense to the people of this world. Then, she began her tirade, closing her eyes and pumping mana into her Type 97 to add an extra intimidating effect to her words.

"Listen here, you loli-fucking piece of shit. Stay away from me. I'm not interested in marriage, sex, and, least of all, _you_. I would rather the moon come crashing down and attempt to fuck me, because it would still not be as massive as your disgusting, flabby, _ball_ of a body."

"And I'd probably feel _something _then, at least. Do you often harass nobles you see on the street, hopeful that you'll be able to feel something touch your _worm-like_ cock? I can't imagine that you're able to masturbate yourself without crushing the tiny thing under your girth."

"If you ever think of me again, I hope you imagine me violently dismembering you, because that will happen if you so much and _think of _my face. I'll insert everything I cut off into whatever orifice I can fit them in, _eyes_ and _nose_ included, should I find out."

She let her words hang in the air for a moment, and then she barked out an "Understand?"

She opened her eyes and reveled in the whimpering, softly sniffling pile of fat that had appeared. She looked around and realized that the knights were all huddled up behind their lord, armor clattering loudly.

She smirked, and the blob attempted to move away. She spun around, happy to have worked off a bit of her stress.

She hadn't made someone cry like that in a year, and it was always refreshing to take out a bit of her anger on people she'd never see again.

-OxOxO-

Tanya smirked as she watched Gerrard groan and, inevitably, rise from his seat. He wasn't happy about it, but it wasn't like he wouldn't support her.

"Thank you, Mr. Head of the Police! I couldn't find Darkness, so I'm happy that you're willing to vouch for me." She smiled as they began to walk through the building.

He shook his head. "You'd better drop that title. I'm retiring in a few weeks," he muttered.

That brought Tanya up short, and the teasing expression on her face faded. "Well, I guess that's fine. You're getting pretty old anyway-"

He shook his head. "I'm being _asked _to retire. They think I'm old, and, more importantly, they suspect us of _harboring criminals_," he said, sending her a meaningful look.

She held up her hands as she backed out of the building. "I'm innocent, and you couldn't find anything to implicate me anyway. Who's this 'they,' by the way?"

He stopped in the doorway. "I was referring to the Succubi."

Tanya gave him a sheepish smile, and Gerrard shook his head. "…Whatever. 'They' are the Central Peace Authority in the capital. Honestly, I'm lucky that they let me stay around this long."

Tanya gazed at him confusedly. "What do you mean? You seem like a responsible person, a hard worker, and trustworthy."

He shot her another raised eyebrow. "Besides that one area," she half-muttered.

He glanced at her, amused for some reason. She just raised an eyebrow, and he shook his head, chuckling. "You know, I think you're the only noble I've met that hasn't looked down on me for being a peasant."

Tanya opened her mouth again, but he stopped her. "No. My tanned skin tells everyone I meet that I got plenty of sun growing up in the south, and my hair, where it isn't gray or gone, is burgundy. I'm a peasant, and I'm thankful that I've been allowed stick around this long."

Tanya pouted a bit, wishing once again that this place was as meritocratic as the Empire had been. It just didn't seem likely, however.

Even the Empire had only become as rigidly equal as it had due to the fact that they contained a lot of land and even more minorities. If they weren't fair, the people they were attempting to assimilate would try and rebel, and the only thing the Empire seemed to hate more than losing a war to a foreign power was losing a war to itself.

They arrived at the building in short order, and the creepy patent officer told her that she was indeed trustworthy, if the Head of the Police was vouching for her. They walked out, and Gerrard sighed.

"Why were you so insistent that we do this, anyway?"

Tanya smiled slightly. "Well, I'm leaving Axel tomorrow. I wanted to get these done while I'm here, since it's almost certainly cheaper to do everything here instead of the capital."

Gerrard nodded, and the two faced each other.

Both just stared, and then Tanya held out her hand. "It was nice knowing you, Gerrard. I hope we'll meet again, but if we don't…"

He also smiled, and he shook her hand. Tanya smirked, pressed a bag of money into his hand, and then ran off. She could hear him shouting for her to come back and take her bribe back, but she didn't listen.

He'd helped her out, and she didn't think that the retirement services of this country could be all that good, if people regularly sought out Tranquility Girls to pass away.

Besides, it wasn't a bribe. It was a gift she hoped he'd spend well. Maybe on the Succubi's shop, after his three months were up.

Speaking of which…

Tanya looked over her shoulder, saw that he wasn't following her, and slowed down, strolling to the Succubi's shop. Thankfully, it was rather close to the patent office, so the walk didn't take too long.

She walked in the back door, took a short trip down a hallway, and saw a room of Succubi working. None of them were wearing their negligee, and all of them seemed to be working on the charity.

They turned to the door, and happy cries of "Tanya!" greeted her, and they came and surrounded her, asking if she was okay.

"Don't worry, I'm okay. I just need to sit down, please," she said, slipping into one of their spare chairs.

The shrapnel in her side had been extracted by the Eris Cultists – another reason she'd decided to give them a bit of extra cash – but Tanya still felt her side ache occasionally. It was unfortunate, but she wouldn't tear open her side just to remove whatever lingering debris might be left.

Not without help, anyway.

The Eris Cultist certainly weren't doing it without more money than in all of Axel, after their latest conflict, and, while Tanya might be strong, she very much doubted that she'd have the strength to do it on her own.

Most of the Succubi walked back to their stations, filling out paperwork, making plans, or donning cloaks and walking out of the door with food in hand. It seemed they were distributing food and supplies now, and they were helping people get jobs.

Tanya turned to Receptionist Succubus at her side, smirking. "I have a proposition for you all, if you'd like to earn more money."

The Succubi all nervously shook their heads, and Receptionist Succubus began to speak. "It's fine! With the new system the adventurers set up thanks to Wiz, they have more than enough money to spend here! We haven't had to increase our prices, and they've been coming in even more often. The charity is helping us get more job experience, and we're helping a lot of people get jobs so that they can spend their money here. Honestly, we have too much money at this point…"

Tanya continued smirking. She knew they might want to turn down the offer, but Tanya was nothing if not persuasive. "Well, have you been reinvesting it? Buying better furnishings, expanding your building, anything like that?"

She shook her head slowly. "Not really. If we get much bigger, we might get found out."

"Then expand the other shopfront you bought for the Foundation. Hire some regular humans so that they can run some of the business for you and make things look less suspicious. Buy a building you can use as a schoolhouse, instead of using the orphanage. You've got a lot of options, and since you all don't need much upkeep besides going out and feasting on the dreams out your customers, there isn't a chance one of you will do something like embezzle the money."

She nodded, and Tanya opened her mouth again, but the Succubus still shook her head. "It's fine. If you've got an idea for something, we'll help you, but I think we're fine with our size for now."

Tanya nodded to herself. "Alright. I'd also like to see if you all could get me a magical item?"

She blinked at Tanya owlishly. "Why do you think we could get it?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "So you're denying that you don't peek around inside your clients' minds whenever you give them dreams?"

She stood there, stone faced, and then she grumbled. Tanya smiled. "Thanks! It's… a kind of…"

Tanya frowned. How would she tell them what she wanted without coming off as some kind of sexual deviant?

Well, Wiz didn't have anything like that, which meant it was rare, and Tanya didn't doubt that it was also very expensive. Other than that, though…

Tanya shrugged. "Just look out for bunches of rare and expensive items. It might possibly be illegal, though not _too _illegal."

"You know, if you told us what you wanted it to do, we could find it a lot easier," she said as she picked at a nail.

Tanya glared at her lightly, but the woman just smiled. "Just… every week or so, send me a letter with the details of anything that might match. If I see it, I'll head back," she said.

Receptionist Succubus nodded, and Tanya sighed. That about did it for today. She stood up.

"Fine. I'm going to be leaving Axel, so-"

Receptionist Succubus became panicked. "Wait, please don't! What if we need your help?"

Tanya shook her head. "No. I've got to go to the capital to keep leveling up. Besides, I trust you."

The Succubus paused, apparently surprised by something. "You… trust us? You trust Demons?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Well, as much as I can trust people I haven't known for more than a few weeks. You haven't done anything to double cross me, and you've all been perfectly nice to me. Why wouldn't I?"

She wrung her hands nervously. "Most people don't trust Demons."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "That seems… stupid. I hadn't met any Demons until I met you all, and I'm not inclined to believe the baseless lies of a religion."

The woman's eyes seemed to tear up, and Tanya resisted the urge to fidget.

Honestly, a small part of her preferential treatment of them was that they were directly opposed to Being X and his cohorts. There was, quite literally, _no way_ he could ever compromise them and turn them against her. Tanya could trust them a lot more than others she had known for longer thanks to that.

"Alright. Well, even if you don't help in the business directly, I need you all to hold onto some of my money. I'll explain later, I just need one or two of you to show up at Wiz's place tomorrow after lunch."

She nodded her head frantically, and Tanya saw herself out after a few updates on what they were doing. They were helping the poor, and with their extra revenue, they were planning on sponsoring the construction of poor houses or to help fund the reconstruction of the portions of the wall that the invasion had damaged.

Tanya agreed with everything, despite some of her lingering doubts. Now, she'd go to the Blacksmith and begin constructing every helpful invention she could think of…

She frowned as she left the building. Right, she'd made that deal with Verdia. She couldn't make _every_ helpful invention, then, but there had to be a lot she could make, right?

-OxOxO-

Looking at the pile of things she was showing off to Wiz and a pair of Succubi that the Receptionist had sent to her, Tanya felt somewhat… inadequate.

Her appearance didn't help the matter: she was covered in burns, her hands were clasped behind her back to hide how red they were from constantly bending metal and other materials all of yesterday afternoon and last night, and Tanya was fairly sure that there was still string in her hair, somewhere.

After fixing her rifle, she had tried to make anything and everything she could.

Really, she had.

There just weren't many things she could introduce to this world without aiding either side massively, and she did want to keep good relations with Verdia.

Tanya paused her thoughts. Verdia…

She cursed under her breath; she could remember… a vague image of meeting him, which meant she'd had some sort of encounter with him while under the influence of the Type 95 and the Circlet. Viktoriya had been unsure as to where Tanya's body had flown off to after she had finished off the Amalgamation, and Tanya hadn't had a clue.

She had forgotten whatever had happened in her encounter with him. That was… not good.

She shook her head, and smiled at the three people surveying her work. "Well, what do you all think?"

They were all holding a different item, and looking at them curiously. "Well, they all look interesting. But what do they do?" asked one of the two Succubi.

Tanya smiled, and she grabbed the first item from the purple-haired succubus, who had been holding the item by the small chain and key ring Tanya had made.

"Adventurers encounter all sorts of problems whenever they go on quests: thick bushes, a lack of hygiene, and, above all, a lack of space. They can't possibly plan for every encounter, so this helps to cut down on the limitations of how much they can carry by combining many tools into a single casing!"

With that, she began to disassemble the bright red Swiss army knife, showing off everything it had. "Scissors, a pencil, a saw, a file, a knife, and even a ruler! All of it is contained within this tiny casing, allowing for easy transport and, with the key ring, it's even hard to lose, too!"

She passed them out, and each of them began to fiddle with them, eyes sparkling. Wiz immediately looked up. "How does it hold so much? Is it magic?"

She shook her head at the thought of how reliant everyone must have been on magic, with how much more versatile it was. "It's just well built."

All of them nodded, and began to look at the items on the small table with interest, instead of simple curiosity.

One by one, she showed off everything she'd made.

A lighter that meant you wouldn't have to carry around supplies and keep them dry.

Safety matches, if you couldn't afford a lighter or didn't care for one.

Gauze, for families that couldn't afford the care of a Priest.

Band-Aids, for cuts on your arms or hands that you'd have to fix one-handed.

Ready-to-Eat Meals, which only require heating in order to be consumable.

Tanya had spent a number of Skill Points in order to learn cooking skills, and she had needed to hand out a bunch of money in order to convince the cook she'd woken up in the middle of the night to teach her the skills, then and there.

Tanya didn't think much of all of it, but she didn't have many options, as far as things she could make went.

Most of the things she could easily reproduce – like toothbrushes, soap, zippers, and a wide array of simple inventions – had already been invented, likely by some Reincarnate in the past. That left her with the items they couldn't figure out how to make and more niche items that might not sell well.

Her audience was surprisingly impressed with everything she showed them. A few stray questions – who would make all of this and how – were easily answered.

"Well, the Mithril Foundation…" she said, trailing off momentarily to confirm that Wiz knew who they were.

At her encouraging nod, Tanya continued, "They are a charitable foundation who can provide their own workers, and also push the poor and jobless they find into working to make this stuff."

She turned around, and brought a heavily-folded diagram out from the inside of her bag – a leather satchel she'd made two of last night so she had an actual bag instead of the repurposed burlap moneybags she and Viktoriya had been using.

"As for how those people will make the stuff, they'll be instructed on how to make a single portion of the item, and then pass along the work they've done to the next person in line, who knows how to make the next part. They won't have to learn any skills or get rid of their jobs in order to do this simple, assembly line work. The end result will be products we can sell, and they get steady work."

A few more questions about pricing and distribution were asked, and Tanya answered them with some input from Wiz. Then, she was finished, and Tanya breathed a sigh of relief.

She gathered up what she'd brought, and was about to leave, when she turned around. "Oh, I'll be leaving Axel, tomorrow, so I'll be seeing you guys later!"

With that, she left quickly, smiling. After a moment, Wiz came running out.

"Hey! What do you mean you're leaving? You don't need to!"

Tanya turned around, staring bemusedly at Wiz. "Well, I have to be going, right? The capital wants more people to fight the Demon King, and I think I'll be able to accomplish that easily enough."

Wiz pouted, but she nodded regardless. "I guess that's fine… do you want me to teleport you?"

Tanya's genuine smile became very, very strained. She tilted her head, trying not to become very annoyed. "Teleport?"

Wiz nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! I can teleport you to the capital in an instant. Normally, these things cost a lot of money, but considering how much you're helping us out by selling your amazing inventions, you're fine to go for free!"

Tanya gave her a shaky smile, fighting to ensure she didn't show any anger towards the unknowing shopkeeper.

Earlier that morning, she'd spent money and time arranging to be taken to the capital with a cadre of other adventurers and merchants, paying to get their quickly and decreasing the costs by volunteering for some guard duty and to ride with one of the poorer merchants.

Instead, she could have just skipped that with teleportation?

She sighed. She had already paid, so she might as well go the long way. She might even level up a bit, if she was lucky.

"No thanks, Wiz. I've already arranged something," she supplied. Wiz didn't seem the least bit upset. Tanya grabbed a pair of bags on her belt and handed them to Wiz.

"I'll be leaving Axel, and I don't want to be carrying around so much money. There should be a couple million Eris in those two, thanks to my fight with the Amalgamation. Give one to the Succubi and ask them to spend it on the projects. Keep the other locked up somewhere, alright?"

Wiz nodded frantically. And Tanya took a deep breath. "Ah, Wiz, before I left, I wanted to know something."

"What are the limits of magic? That Amalgamation was…" she trailed off.

She was hoping to imply that she was scared of it, and while she was, she did not really remember that much of the fight against it. Viktoriya's recordings of it with her Type 97 could only impart so much information to her.

Her arms struggling with the cash Tanya had handed her, Wiz's face fell. "Ah, if you mean Advanced magic…"

She then outlined a dizzying number of spells to Tanya. Explosion. Earthshaker. Inferno. Light of Saber. Teleport. Bottomless Swap. Amalgamation. Control Weather. Silent. Tornado.

And those were just the Archmage exclusive spells. Creators could use mana to imbue the elements with movement, up to and including lakes and hills. Archpriests could bring the dead back to life.

Tanya couldn't learn any of those spells. According to Wiz, it took months or even years to learn even one of them, unless someone 'special' taught you the spell.

Tanya quashed the urge to check if the Undead Mage counted as someone 'special,' as far as teachers of Advanced magic went. She could do that later.

As Wiz finished talking about another spell – Crystal Prison, which allowed one to capture another living being in a prison of ice – Tanya smiled widely. "Thanks for the advice! See you later!"

She quickly turned away, wondering just how old Wiz was and how many of those spells she knew. Tanya was fairly sure that her ability to fly away might give her an edge, but that was only if Wiz couldn't find some way to fly.

Dragons existed in this world, and they died. Tanya did _not_ want to try and fight against one, especially if Wiz was riding it.

She shook her head and focused on her destination instead of how much more powerful this world's magic had to be compared to her last world. She needed to meet up with Viktoriya.

She should be finished explaining things to Luna, and then they'd head to the staging area they'd been told to meet up at for the trip to the capital.

With any luck, she'd prove just how strong she was in no time, level up, and maybe even find some people that could join them and replace Darkness.

Tanya's mood fell, but she shook her head, focusing on what getting finished with things. She'd pick up Viktoriya, and then they'd leave. If she couldn't find Darkness before then…

Tanya frowned. Then so be it. She needed to keep working, and hanging out around here meant that she'd be stagnating. Being X hadn't sent Reincarnates in a while, which meant he really was going to wait until she left, or he'd send Mary back down a couple dozen times.

As Tanya finished her thoughts, she arrived at the guild and paused. Nothing seemed out of place – same seal above the door, same windows, and the same roof.

She still got the feeling that something was off, however.

Grimacing, she went inside, one hand trailing towards her rifle. When she got inside, however, she tilted her head. A commotion was going on, with two people she couldn't see being surrounded by a crowd.

She got closer, pushing through the crowd where she could and slipping between bodies where she couldn't. She got to the center and had to stop herself from sighing at what was going on, planting a hand squarely on her face.

At the center of the crowd, Viktoriya and Luna stood, the latter clinging onto the shoulders of the former. It was odd to see her in front of the counter, and it was even odder to see her clinging onto an adventurer.

The weirdest thing was, however, the fact that she wasn't smiling. There wasn't even the plastic one Tanya had become used to whenever she got tired or annoyed. She was as close to distraught as Tanya had ever seen her, and it was… very concerning.

"P- Please! Don't leave! You two are the best adventurers we've had! You do your work, pay your loans back on time, and even do whatever community service we assign you! You've done so much, so don't leave me with all the other adventurers and Dust! They all suck!"

Tanya walked over, nodding at the uncomfortable look on Viktoriya's face. Tanya hadn't expected her to be very comfortable with this much attention.

People often stared at Tanya, and considering they were always together, Viktoriya faded into the background to a degree whenever Tanya was being hounded by those interested in her.

"Hey, did you list me after saying 'the adventurers'? Am I _not_ an adventurer?" asked Dust. No one bothered to give the layabout the answer they were probably all thinking – no, you're a drunk.

Tanya shook her head at his antics and turned her attention to Luna. She placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a calming smile.

"Come on Luna. We've got to leave." Slowly, Tanya pried the woman off of Viktoriya.

She pleaded with them for a moment longer, but she must have figured out how intent on leaving this Tanya was, because she didn't resist for much longer.

Slightly teary eyed, she sniffled and thanked Tanya for everything she'd done.

"It's no problem. Besides, the monsters have started coming back, right? That means that Verdia's left and the town is safe," she said. Luna nodded, as if she thought this was inevitable.

Cheerful once more, she smiled genuinely. "Thank you for everything!"

From the crowd, people thanked her. Tanya smiled, shouting the occasional 'you're welcome' to them – and a 'see you later' to Aya, Takashi, and the girl who'd identified herself as Shizuka.

As they left, Tanya sighed nostalgically. She hadn't seen a welcome this warm and concerned for her since Viktoriya had rescued her from…

Tanya kept her face clear of disgust despite the memories that hid in her head. She tried to focus on the people around her and ignore the past.

She was moving on. She might as well give everyone a good goodbye.

-OxOxO-

Verdia knew he wasn't technically in trouble. By all accounts, he'd actually accomplished his goals.

He'd found the Double Blessed Reincarnate, and he'd stopped the flow of adventurers out of Axel by depriving them of experience.

His forces had even managed to kill some adventurers and damage the town. They'd have to spend resources fixing their walls and streets and housing instead of sending funding to the capital and the front lines.

He'd even managed to increase the size of his army with some of the more advanced humanoid undead.

Of course, he hadn't completed all of his goals. Axel still stood, but that was mitigated by the fact that the Double Blessed Reincarnate was there. The Demon King had told him to retreat if he might be beat.

After hesitating for only a moment more, he shook his head and walked into the large room. No, it wasn't that he'd failed any of his tasks. It was more that he felt he'd run away from a good fight.

He didn't desire this war – he wasn't the King of Belzerg or anything.

He did, however, like to fight honorably, and – besides Wiz – Degurechaff was probably the only person there who could have given him a run for his money in that town.

Even if she _was_ insane.

He shook his head once, in an attempt to give him an idea. Did she worship some sort of Insanity and Power God, and if she did, how had she heard of within a few months of her arrival when he'd never heard of it in his long, nearly eleven years of living in this world?

He took a deep breath, even if he didn't need it, and walked into the room. He stared around the meeting table as he entered.

The room was sparsely decorated, but its occupants more than made up for the relative lack of decor with their presence.

Ragcraft. Sylvia. The Demon King's Daughter. Wolbach. Vanir. And of course, the Demon King himself.

And then him. One of the most powerful undead in existence. It was amazing that so much power could be concentrated in such a small space, and yet…

There was so much more of it outside of it, too. The Reincarnates. The other Generals and the good-for-nothing NEET that had quit when Wiz had joined. The Gods and Goddesses and Deities.

He sighed. Of course, whatever serious atmosphere Verdia might have thought the place should have was completely destroyed by everyone's responses to Vanir's loud, unneeded declarations of Ragcraft's personal failings in regards to Elroad.

When he entered, the nigh on murderous air surrounding the Demon King faded away, and the aging being gestured to the seat opposite of himself, on the other side of the long dining room table.

Verdia grimaced. His distance from the king was… not a good sign.

He sat down, greeting both Vanir and Sylvia cordially while they laughed at Ragcraft. He began to try and think of just how he would present this so he'd come out smelling like roses.

He discarded the idea almost instantly.

Ragcraft was undoubtedly better at manipulating facts than he could ever be. Verdia would tell his King as much of the truth as he could, with their present company in mind.

As Ragcraft became a small slime and tried to melt into the chair, the Demon King banged on the table. "Enough. We have work to do. Before we move on to the main event, I want updates from all of you. Wolbach?"

The beautiful woman's red hair drooped down with the rest of her body. "Nothing. I haven't been able to find my other half. I've already looked, and I haven't found anything. I'm going to try and search the Crimson Demon Village, but it isn't exactly easy to blend in with that town of geniuses."

Everybody nodded. No one blamed her for not being able to locate her other half, but they were all just a bit depressed by the fact that they were still having to fight this forty-year-long war. Vanir was the exception, and was grinning widely as he was probably energized by the woman's disappointment.

Sylvia spoke up. "Actually, I was wondering if we could perhaps talk about that. With everything they have in their town, I'm sure they've got some kind of doomsday weapon I wouldn't mind fusing with and causing them havoc while you find your other part."

Wolbach looked genuinely surprised, but the wicked smirked that crossed her face reminded Verdia why she was a Goddess of Destruction.

Now Sylvia spoke, as everyone was already focused on him. "It's been tough fighting for so long without a break, but I've managed to take down a number of Hero Candidates with a bit of luck and my various resistances," he said proudly.

What went unsaid was that he'd probably used his looks as well. More than a few adventurers had been duped into believing that he was as feminine as he looked.

With that, everyone again turned to the Demon King. Slowly, painfully, the being turned his gaze to Vanir. "Vanir. I don't suppose you have anything you'd like to report?"

He smiled, and everyone shivered. "Moi would only like to once again express joy at finally being able to leave this sinking ship and set out to construct Moi's dream dungeon."

Verdia blinked. That was a rather… tame pronouncement.

Of course, if he wasn't spilling nearly everyone's secrets, that meant they'd be feeling more than enough shame and disappointment without his provocation.

The Demon King nodded, and waved a hand next to his head.

His daughter snapped to attention. "Father. Celestina says that she received another power boost recently, and that it likely means that another one of her Goddess's followers was destroyed. Wiz is… still losing money, although she has been losing a bit less recently. Hans has reported that he's begun to move, and that he would… like to be sent snacks. Otherwise, our forces are pushing in around Belzerg, with a number of their forward fortresses falling."

Verdia saw the old King's eye twitch, but he breathed in slowly. "Thank you, my daughter," he said, closing his eyes for a moment. He opened them again, and turned a steely gaze on him.

"Verdia." His head turned towards the doppelganger, and his voice, just as strong as ever, said the Doppelganger's name. "Ragcraft."

Once again in human form, the Doppelganger smiled apologetically. "Yes, my King?"

The Demon King was not placated by the Doppelganger's tone. "You were rather insistent that Verdia attend this meeting, and since he made a contract that might impact all of us, I thought it prudent to summon him away from the task that I assigned to him. However, when you got here, you seemed _relieved_ that he had made the contract you mentioned. I'd like to hear what changed," he finished, turning once more to the Dullahan.

"Verdia."

Bending his elbow slightly, he nodded his head and began to speak. "Before I tell you, some context is required. May I explain?"

He nodded slowly, and Verdia began to speak, deciding that prefacing the entire explanation with a bit of good news. "We found the Double Blessed… Hero Candidate."

Verdia saw Sylvia's eyebrows rise and Vanir's smile grow just a bit wider. Even the Demon King's daughter reacted with widely opened eyes. The Demon King himself, however, remained stonily silent.

That silence lasted for a moment.

"I assume, since you aren't already speaking of a great battle… that you did not see fit to _kill _them?"

Everyone else froze, and Verdia grit his teeth, lowering his head until he was staring at the floor. "Yes. There were circumstances that prevented my interfering."

At his silence, Verdia continued. "You see, a little over two weeks ago, someone who appeared to be a very young noble appeared in my castle, the only warning being a short message from a lookout and a Detonation spell. I hurried to my study, and met the intruder at the staircase."

He opened his mouth again, but then he turned to Ragcraft, an idea forming in his mind. "Could you assume her form?"

He scoffed. "Physically? Of course. I don't have a chance in hell to imitate her powers though."

Verdia shrugged, and Ragcraft obliged him. He shrunk down from his noble form to assume one that seemed to fit Degurechaff.

There seemed to be something missing, but Verdia couldn't guess what it was. Maybe he just wasn't holding himself up the same way? Was there a lack of mana?

Verdia stood from his chair, adding motions to his story and gesturing towards Ragcraft. "Imagine my surprise when, instead of some sort of Archmage, a girl with positively pathetic equipment appeared. I was going to tell her to leave, but she proved herself to be… inexplicably intimidating."

Everyone but Vanir, who was probably displeased by Verdia's lack of shame from being intimidated by a little girl, and the Demon King, who respected him more than that, began to chortle, and Sylvia even designed to comment. "Really, Verdia? She couldn't be more than twelve, and you're scared of a little girl?"

Verdia shrugged helplessly. "She has an… aura about her. It isn't physical or magical, from what I can tell. She just… holds herself up in a way that makes her seem very much more powerful than her physical form suggests."

They still shook their heads, but Verdia continued to talk. "Besides, my caution was warranted. _She _is the Double Blessed Hero Candidate."

The Demon King said nothing, but Sylvia certainly didn't hesitate to speak up. "You are certain?"

He leveled an annoyed glare at him. "If she had been able to alter herself to pretend to be one to my senses during our first meeting, our last interaction proved beyond a shadow of a doubt who she was. Now quiet!" he ordered sternly.

He glared at him, but he said nothing more. Verdia continued, gesturing towards the Demon King as he spoke. "The long and short of things is that she didn't want to leave. Or fight. She had come to me, one of your Generals… to learn what the war was really about."

The Demon King's eyes widened, and then he grinned knowingly at him, a spark of humor dancing in his aged eyes. "Her meeting with a general certainly went better than _your _meeting did."

He rolled his eyes as those around the table, besides Ragcraft, snickered. Verdia steeled himself, knowing this would ruin the atmosphere and potentially his relationship with the King. "Considering she walked away with her head attached and information on all of us, I'd say so."

The laughing stopped in an instant, and everyone leveled confused glares at him. He hurried to explain himself. "I am aware that making deals with such powerful players in the war is out of my area of expertise, but I had to."

The King, as opposed to everyone else, looked contemplative. "Fine."

His daughter turned to him, and Verdia saw that even Vanir looked over in shock. "Father? What do you mean-"

He silenced her. "If Verdia says that he had a reason, then I trust him. Besides, I would like to hear his explanation."

Verdia nodded and continued quickly. "The weapon she had… contrary to Ragcraft's _naive_ belief, was not some sort of spear. It was a… rifle."

Other than Ragcraft's annoyed glare, he received blank looks, but Verdia pressed on. He had to impress upon them the severity of what he was saying.

"They were made in very small numbers in Japan, relative to other states in… that area. I thought that there was no way for them to be brought here. If I am wrong, then we are in luck." He gazed about, frowning.

"If she and the other girl with her," because the Undead Mage – who had gained enough of a grudge to remember his first name – had told him he'd seen another girl with a weapon like that, "are the only ones that have them, then they aren't too dangerous. But if they can construct those things…"

He trailed off, taking a deep breath.

"Then there is no telling what else they could make. If they could make even a fraction of the things I remember, then they might be able to advance to and _beyond_ even Norse," he proclaimed.

With visions of a gray sky filled with planes and tanks crawling across the ground with a horrible, acidic mushroom cloud rising in the background, Verdia knew he wasn't even exaggerating.

He wasn't some kind of history buff, but even he knew that gunpowder weapons had been the cause of the decline of castles and swordsmanship. If she could make a tank, or if she made electricity, things would change.

If she allied with Belzerg, then they wouldn't change for the better.

Things were silent for a moment. Norse was not often brought up in conversation, unless one was in a town that was being approached by the dreaded Mobile Fortress Destroyer. But, one by one, they all seemed to realize what he was saying, looking at him incredulously. Even Ragcraft.

"You are certain? I don't doubt you, but if you think she could do such a thing, then it is imperative that we eliminate the threat she poses to us," his King uttered eventually. Verdia nodded his head, and continued to talk.

"You now understand why I gave up bits of knowledge about each of us in order to stay her hand. The contract is not self-enforcing-"

He was cut off by a hiss from Ragcraft, but Verdia tried to ignore him. "No. Those things are horrible, and I won't subject anyone to them. Besides, putting her under a self-enforcing one makes it seem like we're unwilling to trust her. If she is to join us, then we need her to see our deal as better than the ones the Hero Candidates get."

They were silent. Everyone was thinking about the possibility, but Verdia knew none of them would go for it at first. So he'd layer on promises.

"After we made that contract, she went into the courtyard of the castle I had managed to make my base, and resurrected undead. Without a spell."

The Demon King's head snapped up, eyes wide, a question at his lips.

Verdia anticipated it. "Yes. She solved the Rising Paradox. Why do some undead become much stronger undead than others? Their grudges, of course, but we could never figure out how to make their grudges any larger _before_ they were resurrected."

He swept out a hand, and called out behind him. "Evan! Come in."

As his Undead Mage walked in, Verdia continued to speak. "Having undead stand around and hope for powerful undead spawn naturally isn't efficient. If we play on what they loved and hated in life, the things they treasured, and speak to them, as if conducting a sermon, we can get more and better undead. I used her method to create Evan, this Undead Mage, without a spell."

Again, his crowd was silent. All of them.

That was not a good thing, when Vanir was involved, who seemed altogether _much _too interested in what he was saying.

Trying to push down his fears that Vanir might take a trip to Axel to meet the girl – she didn't have the protections on his mind that he did thanks to the Demon King's contract – he spoke. "Evan. Why don't you tell the Demon King what you did?"

He looked nervous, and he wrung his newly sewn on limbs, but the Demon King shook his head. "Verdia. I told you, disciplining troops falls under the purview of whoever their General is. I don't have time to-"

"He summoned an Amalgamation in the middle of Axel."

Again, silence dominated. Then, the Demon King shot to his feet, face aghast and hand tightly gripping the table. "You WHAT!?"

Evan cringed, and the people around the table began to berate him. Vanir and the Demon King's daughter were first.

"Moi is truly disgruntled. Moi thought atrocities that might bring undue destruction were banned by a treaty."

"Why would you use such magic? It drains away your own life, has a ridiculous casting time, and gives you a variable and often insane undead!"

They were soon drowned out. "Never use that spell again. Do you hear me, Evan? If I ever get wind of this spell being used again, no amount of mana will save you from me."

He winced, and rubbed the back of his head. "Actually, I only used it because Tanya said she wanted to learn a spell…"

Verdia whirled around. "Since _WHEN_?"

He shrugged helplessly. "It never came up? She'd defeated everything we threw at her and the adventurers, so I thought leaving a parting gift would be appropriate."

No one said anything, except for Vanir, who chuckled. Undoubtedly, he was reveling in the undead's shame. "I didn't understand just how powerful Wiz was, and I certainly underestimated how much power she had."

The Demon King gripped his bearded face, dreaded the response he would receive, and asked, "How powerful _was _she?"

Evan began to speak again. "More powerful than I am, when she isn't using her relics. When she used them, however…"

"She could take on Wiz and have a good chance of winning. Especially with her tactics, and how she… morbidly claimed to have been trying to see what a bunch of severed heads sounded like when they screamed."

Expression now baffled, Evan continued. "She spoke about wanting to… burn Verdia at the stake when she confronted us after beating the Amalgamation, and then she spouted off about things related to heresy. We think she must be beholden to some sort of Berserker or Power God, but we have no clue, since Verdia hasn't heard of any."

The Demon King placed his forehead against the wooden table they all sat at. For a moment, Verdia wondered if he would actually start crying.

Instead, maniacal laughter echoed through the room. Vanir was grinning horribly, but Verdia tried to ignore him.

His daughter gently touched his shoulder, and the Demon King's laughter died off slowly, replaced by muttered rhetorical questions.

"Why did we have to have a complication? We're so close to the Anniversary, so tantalizingly close to getting _reliable _reinforcements, and so close to _winning_. We haven't had to fight many new Hero Candidates. Elroad is quickly declining. Vanir is going to be leaving soon, hopefully to help Wiz break even instead of just draining our resources."

He looked up, staring into the distance. "Fine then. She is undoubtedly a threat, if she could take on Wiz, who wouldn't even fight for us without Adamantite proof that the Kingdom is killing non-combatants."

He trailed off, muttering under his breath.

He turned to the red haired woman. "Wolbach. Try and find your other half again for a few more months. After that, come back. We need to be prepared for the Anniversary, which will require a _united effort_."

She nodded, and the Demon King stood up, gesturing to the large, painted wall of the room. On it, a picture of Belzerg's night sky rested.

Ordinarily, it would just be beautiful. Here, however, it was much more significant.

"For now, we will prepare for the anniversary. If we want to get anything more significant than a handful of angels, then all of us, the NEET included, will be necessary," he proclaimed.

Verdia could feel anger radiating from the Demon King's Daughter and Wolbach. Ragcraft seemed perfectly composed, which meant he was hiding something. Vanir seemed gleeful, and Verdia knew that the Demon was thinking about what he'd do once he completed his part in the plan.

Verdia didn't care much for what happened to him afterwards. The Demon King had only summoned him, brought him into this world, for this event. Vanir, however, was quite adamant that he wouldn't be participating in this event due to his own contracts.

He had, however, been instrumental in giving them advice on how to pull this off. After a few more clauses were added to his contract with the Demon King – he could stay here for a long while, feast on his servants, and gain a permanent anchor to this world, as long as he stayed out of Verdia and the Demon King's minds – he'd been perfectly content causing chaos instead of anarchy.

And soon, he would get to cause much more chaos and havoc, as much as he pleased, as long as he maintained the barrier.

Verdia shook his head and stared at the painting. He was just… ready. He hadn't been particularly religious or atheistic in Japan, but here, where he had fought for and against the Gods, he was ready to do his duty and help his King.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** And so, Tanya says goodbye to her friends in Axel while giving Wiz several inventions as a parting gift. Wiz might actually start to earn a bit of money, just like with Kazuma. Oh, and she murdered a man as well.

Verbally, anyway. Aurip gets mentioned in like… one or two of the Dust spinoffs after Alderp gets… caught. He'll show up again once or twice in the future, though his fear of Tanya will keep him away.

In other news, the Demon King's Generals get together again. Celestina (aka 'Seresdina' aka Serena aka the Dark Priest from Vol. 15) gets that power boost because someone gets around to taking care of that ghost living in the hills – it was mentioned that most of the Durian quests were gone in an earlier chapter.

And, what would you know, they're waiting for the Anniversary too. How interesting.

**A/N 2: **Just finished watching the KonoSuba movie. If you want my full opinion, check out my profile. Otherwise…

In case it wasn't _immediately_ obvious from my inclusion of Ragcraft and all the other generals, we're sticking with the Light Novels as far as a timeline goes, _for the most part_. I'm basically going to add some content from the anime (and from other sources, teehee) if I like it, such as the Friendship Crystal from season two.

**A/N 3: **Replies to reviews on this website (and a big thank you to everyone for the continued support, it makes life better):

**vanhellsing9000:** lol indeed. While vol 7 of the LNs is likely to get skipped over due to Tanya's presence, something similar might end up happening later.

**neogoki: **CH 018 Comment: As per the timeline I laid out in Chapter 1, Tanya and Sioux meet in Africa in this timeline, and Being X takes a more active role in training her to fight Tanya, since he learned from Anson that throwing people and countries at Tanya isn't going to work.

And, while Tanya is wondering about her lack of magic and decision to be a Thief, she does address some of those concerns in this chapter. Plus, she doesn't know of anyone else that would try and attack her for no reason. She doesn't realize that associating with Darkness made her goddess want to come down and kick her head in, so she's made the best guess she could.

CH 019 Comment: As a matter of fact, Kazuma tries to extort a house – among other things – out of Tanya during their second meeting, when Tanya isn't feeling quite as homicidal towards Aqua.

**SoleReclaimer:** I didn't think it would be so fast either, but GremlinJack's fans over on SpaceBattles ensured that this came out at SONIC SPEED!

And yeah, she's got quite a bit to worry about without an entire state behind her.

**DNWorks:** Thanks for the continued support! As for the CDs, who do you _think _is skilled/poor enough to make Tanya her coveted gender-swapping item?

**Mechamorph:** Firstly, thank you for writing so much, it's awesome to hear this.

Whle she hasn't mentioned Loria/Loliya/Beriya by _name_, per se, she does get forcibly reminded of some rather concerning imagery when she unloads on the pedo's head, as well as several other points throughout this first arc. As for where he ended up, he went straight to hell, as both a communist and a pedophile.

I will say no more on the matter.

Strange how ominous the above line is, isn't it? Anyway, using the Omakes to feature Eris was a brilliant idea, and I thank you for it again.

As for Tanya's moniker, the wiki says that Mithril is a variation of the 'white silver,' 'rusted silver,' 'argent' group. Not sure where Mithril is from specifically other than that – the manga, anime sub or dub, or the LNs. Viktoriya does mention that it is her nickname during her 'I couldn't hurt you' speech, though Tanya doesn't appreciate the name much for some reason. I wonder why. Hehe.

Yunyun does eventually come to Tanya for help – and if you've read the third Explosion spinoff, you might be able to guess how.

I _did_ mention Lucifer, didn't I? I won't lie, I did originally think about making the Demon King a Reincarnate with a chip on his shoulder, much like Tanya… but I've thought of something equally interesting. (*cackles maniacally*)

**Lord of Moons: **I will admit that their argument on teamwork vs. versatility might need a few touchups, and while you're right about having a main battle tank to replace all the variants, the time it took to get where we are now needs to be taken into consideration. There were decades of using different tanks for different roles, before technology and tactics and learning advanced enough for progress to be made.

An Adventurer only has access to the skills that other jobs teach them, so to make the best possible job, you'd have to spend years – if you weren't a protagonist or have access to some kind of Training Program – running around trying to convince other people to share their skills with you. During that time, you could die to nearly anything.

Don't worry, though. Tanya's mostly just admitting that she could work together with others a bit more.

They won't change their jobs for something as small as that.

**Byakugan789:** CH 003 Comment: Unfortunately, if making specialized classes were easy, we'd see more in the canon. Tanya will stick with the Adventurer class for a long while. Don't worry though, if/when she changes, she'll continue to use her next class in new and interesting ways.

CH 004 Comment: Ah, while she could _kill _toads, there's a limit to how much the guild will let her do if they want to keep a viable population around. Plus, the quest she picked up didn't want her to kill the toads, it wanted her to keep them off a piece of property.

CH 006 Comment: While Aqua does have the ability to Resurrect Tanya, she might not want to, and Being X and Eris might not let her leave Heaven again.

CH 007 Comment: At the bottom of Ch 015, my responses to others lay out why she doesn't just pick them up and use them.

CH 008 Comment: Thank you for all the info on modern gunpowder. While I would have liked to use some of it, Tanya just doesn't know hat stuff, though she might experiment with other kinds of explosives in the future.

CH 010 Comment: Uh, where did you get the war statistics from? I could believe fewer people died as a percentage of the total human population, but… you know… well over ten million people died in the first WW, and at least 50 million died in the second. Not to mention all the death caused outside of war thanks to Imperialism and Colonization worked on such large scales thanks to gunpowder.

CH 015 Comment: Tanya will _probably _not be inventing new spells, BUT she might get more things like the Agility Reinforcement spell for some of her already existing spells. I was thinking a different form of 'Sharpen Blade' myself.

CH 018 Comment: Thank you for the support for the fight scenes. Getting specific praise for stuff like that is the best!

CH 019 Comment: Uh… could you direct me to some articles – news or Wikipedia – on the subject? I didn't know that.


	21. Quick Travel is for Chumps

Tanya supposed this was it. She had her guns, her relics, money, clothing, a – now bulging – leather bag, spare underwear, and as much extra ammunition as she could hold.

Bill had been aghast when she'd demanded every last piece of spare metal he had to make what she wanted, but he'd caved when she'd shoved a large bag full of Eris under his nose.

Of course, the most important part of this trip was also with her. Viktoriya looked almost as wistful as Tanya felt, but Tanya was sure that she was also just as convinced as Tanya was that they needed to do this.

They hadn't spent hours debating the subject as they walked from location to location in Axel for it to be any other way.

As they looked for their carriage, Tanya listened in on the conversations going on around them. Idle chatter could give her some information, and it distracted her from the one person she hadn't said goodbye to.

"We're going to the capital to get some provisions, and then we'll be heading towards Arcanretia the long way. Don't give me that look, we can brave the presence of the Crimson Demons for a few days."

"It's a shame that the King has to be away from the capital, but Iris has been doing as well as can be expected."

"Why can't they get rid of Alderp? Even if they don't have evidence, he's clearly corrupt."

"Have you heard what that Priest Zachary is doing?"

"Too bad Elroad's declining. I'd have loved to travel there, but if they aren't supporting Belzerg, then I don't want to give them my money."

Conversations flitted passed her ears, but the pair of women eventually found their cart. Like every other one, it had a beige covering that Tanya didn't know the name of across the top, and a single horse sat in the front.

Unlike some of the other ones, however, it was quite… dilapidated. The wheels looked thin and worn, the horse looked weathered, and the covering had patches of cloth stitched into it over holes torn in it in the past. The wood looked creaky, and the moment Tanya touched the thing with a single outstretched finger, all of it creaked ominously.

"Are you sure we can't go back to Wiz?" asked Viktoriya. Tanya was about to nod – losing her life to something as ridiculous as a rickety wagon seemed moronic, especially when it could be avoided – but a voice echoed out from inside.

"All y'all are the adventurers, then?"

Out of the darkness – and how did he make it look so dark inside when it was nearly midday? – emerged an elderly looking man who must own the scratchy voice they'd heard.

A short, gray beard hugged the scarred face of the imposing man. His stature and gaze seemed to be more characteristic of someone half the age of his voice, and Tanya couldn't help but compare him to an older and even more reckless Rudersdorf.

He stared at them for a moment more, before a vicious smile broke out on his face. "My cart ain't the best, as I'm sure y'all can see, but I assure you that you'll at least survive the trip with me. I used to be an adventurer, so I've enough experience protecting caravans of goods than you two ever will."

Tanya didn't doubt that – she couldn't see herself doing this very often – but she still regretted choosing to be stingy with her money. She should have just flown to the capital and let everyone assume she had teleported or something, or asked to be put on a better cart, or just have paid to be a passenger instead of also being some of the hired muscle.

Still, she hadn't done any of that, and as long as she _was _going to be on this cart…

She held out a hand. "Tanya von Degurechaff."

He leaped down from the cart, and Tanya realized that he was very tall, even without the added height of the cart. He might have even broke six and a half feet.

He crouched down so that he was eye level with her, smirked at her disapproving glare, and shook her hand. "I'm Mark. I haven't yet had the privilege of escorting nobility, and I assumed I never would. Thank you for the honor, miss."

Without another word, Tanya hopped on the cart, clearing the distance between the ground and the wagon in a single leap. She didn't turn around, but she could tell the confused edge in his greeting of Viktoriya that he probably thought he would have had help her up.

That made it worth the pain in her side.

Rapidly, her eyes adjusted to the darkness in the interior. Crates with animals – some smaller livestock, like chickens and goats, some monstrous – lined the walls, while two seats, probably for her and Viktoriya, were closest to the front.

Tanya sighed, and sat down on the one on the right, setting her rifle down on the seat. Viktoriya soon hopped on, and sat opposite of her. She looked around, trying to find something that was… acceptable.

…This was a downgrade from pretty much everything she'd traveled in in her last life.

Still, it wasn't… _too _bad. Just as Tanya was about to settle in – she didn't anticipate seeing too much action on the way there, at least compared to her time in Axel – Viktoriya spoke up.

"Could I see the… um, contract? I didn't ever get to look at mine for very long," she asked.

Tanya shrugged and handed her bulging bag to the woman while raising an eyebrow. "What happened to yours?"

She looked down nervously. "I… don't know, to be honest. I think I must have lost it while I was running from you, or when you carried me to Wiz's shop."

Tanya sighed, but she pointed at a pocket of her bag regardless. "I have a copy in the smaller pocket on the inside. It's got a lock," she said.

Just as she was about to tell her the combination, a commotion began to make itself known outside of the wagon.

"The date we got sent here!" she shouted as she ran out. She was blinded by the light outside the wagon, but, squinting, she was able to make out the situation.

Relief flooded her. Darkness was standing there, clad in not her armor, but her casual black coat, white blouse, and relatively short black dress that made her look like some sort of odd cross between a school teacher and a ballroom dancer.

She was speaking angrily to the merchant that was transporting them. "I demand to see her!"

He shook his head steadily. "No can do. I'm contract bound to protect them as they protect me. That contract might have cost me more, but it _guarantees _that we'll both protect each other. While I'm sure you could pass for her mother, I won't-"

She interrupted him, and Tanya's shame at not seeking her out more thoroughly to say goodbye was violently killed. "No! I must see Tanya! If you insist on stopping me, you'll have to make me. Even if you do horrible, perverted things to my body, I'll not stop until you destroy my very spirit!"

Tanya hopped down and walked over. "Darkness, please don't freak out the poor merchant," she said, gesturing to the merchant that looked like he was regretting having chosen to get the contract he mentioned.

Darkness's face lit up, and Tanya decided to get this over with.

Gripping the woman's arm roughly, she Reinforced herself and frog-marched her behind the rickety cart. All the way, Darkness put up a feeble resistance – because Tanya could tell that she wasn't putting her full effort into escaping – while her face told Tanya all she needed to know about how she _really _felt.

They stopped, and Tanya unhanded her. "There. I gave you your buzz of pleasure. Now, what do you want?" Tanya asked, ignoring the incredulous expression that had blossomed on Darkness's face.

"What- What do you mean?"

Tanya blinked once, and then she spat out a name she'd come up with after she had verbally dismantled that other noble. "Lalatina Lewdiness."

Her face became more panicked, but before she could deny anything, Tanya just shook her head. "No. What do you want? We're supposed to leave in a couple of minutes."

The Crusader's libido calmed for a moment, a sudden… profoundness overcoming her expression of ecstasy. "Tanya…"

She smiled. No desire for punishment. No kernel of distrust. No air of questioning. Just a simple smile.

"Thank you for being my friend."

Tanya smiled back, and then she shook her head. "Jeez. I didn't know you were such a sap. It's not like we won't ever meet again. I'll go to the capital for a few months, sure, but it isn't like I won't _ever_ come back here."

Darkness huffed at Tanya's dismissal, but both were still smiling. "Fine. I have to stay here. With all the adventuring and trying to figure out what your past is, I've neglected my duties."

Tanya gave her a curious look, and the Crusader explained. "My father and I came here, allegedly, because he wanted me to get a sense of what adventurers were really like. His dotting on me is well known, and there are other reasons for using that excuse. However, one of our true goals is to look into the corruption of the nobles around here."

"Undine, Tennessee, Alexei; there are many powerful nobles here that the King and my Father agree need to be checked on." Darkness declared this with a rather self-satisfied expression, but Tanya was much more skeptical.

She hadn't had to check for spies with the 203rd – none of them would have _dared _to cross her after the hell she put them through in training – but Rerugen had told her about how he was sure there were a number of traitors around him.

Tanya was sure that the man wouldn't lie to her, and she had also thought that Being X might have gotten _really_ heavy-handed with the Empire's staff. She didn't doubt that he could, and it was only really a matter of if he would.

Tanya shook her head to clear away the old memories and leveled a skeptical eyebrow at Darkness.

"Are they corrupt, or are they disloyal?"

Darkness gave her a very confused look, and Tanya shrugged. "Corrupt implies that they've been accepting bribes from people they aren't supposed to be accepting bribes from, or they have some other kind of monetary crime to pay for. Disloyal means that they've chosen to go against the King."

She shrugged, and Tanya shook her head. This was why she liked her own time so much more.

These things were much clearer cut than the bickering of family members over a piece of inherited land or your ownership of a bunch of gaudy jewelry.

Suddenly, Tanya heard the Merchant call down to them. "If y'all are done, I'd like to get a move on."

Tanya jumped slightly, but she nodded regardless, and jumped onto the wagon again. She stared out of the front at Darkness, waving to her as they left.

As her… friend left the gathering area just on the inside of Axel, Darkness sighed wistfully. She wondered if she'd ever find someone like Tanya again, or if she'd ever find Chris and get an explanation for why she'd tried to kill Tanya.

Shrugging to herself, she left the area, wondering if she could find another party to go on adventures with so that her father wouldn't try and get her married to some noble's son.

She shivered at the memory of Alderp's son, and tried to push passed it and focus on the investigation into his father's corruption. Adventuring would come later. For now, there was work to do.

-OxOxO-

Tanya, meanwhile, had ducked passed the merchant into the wagon. An odd sight greeted her.

As expected, Viktoriya was still sitting in her seat. She smiled nervously at Tanya and shot her a helpless look, while motioning to the spot beside her, instead of towards the seat across from her. Tanya's bag had been zipped up and, along with Viktoriya's, been shoved under her seat. Both of their rifles were above them, resting on a hanging shelf that shook with the movement of the cart.

What _wasn't _expected was the _other _occupant of the wagon. Tanya blinked, and then squeezed in next to Viktoriya, trying not to focus too much on the other person.

If you ignored the very obvious signs that they were not normal, you could mistake them for a human.

Their looks didn't stand out. The white hair was odd for Tanya to see, but she'd seen lots of people, young and old with more shocking colors of hair that they claimed were natural. White was a bit old hat compared to blue-with-purple-polka-dots and red-yellow-orange, and their hair was a bit shorter than Tanya's, so it didn't stand out because of length, either.

They were taller than even Mark was, which was astounding, considering how far she had to tilt her head up to see his face. Her face wasn't especially sharp or round, and the only thing notable about it was that her nose seemed oddly small.

Their clothing didn't stand out. The jacket was cut a bit too broadly for Tanya's tastes, with just a bit too much fabric around the cuffs, but the light, pastel blue and nearly-white colors seemed to fit, even if the black on the underside of the arms seemed out of place.

Her shirt and pants were black, her pants were also long and flowing, and the whole of the outer outfit seemed to be held together with a bunch of yellow clasps that looked much like the jewelry around her neck and the rings in her… ears…

Tanya shook her head, aware that they had just shot her and Viktoriya a curious stare.

No matter how much she tried, it was impossible to ignore her features that told Tanya that she wasn't human.

Two long, rabbit-like ears poked out of the top of her head, each of them with a pair of thick, flat gold rings in them.

The carriage jumped a bit, and Tanya bumped into Viktoriya. She apologized in Germanian under her breath. Viktoriya waved her concerns away, and an uncomfortable silence overtook the interior. The sound of the cart's mild groaning was only interrupted by the vegetables and the animals within.

Wishing that she had something to look at instead of just stare at anything but the person across from her, Tanya turned to Viktoriya. "_You find what you were looking for in the contract?"_

For a moment, the woman next to her froze, and then she began to talk. "_Yes. What I found was… interesting."_

Viktoriya left it at that, staring down at the floor of the wagon and saying nothing else. Mostly, she just hoped Tanya wouldn't go into it.

Viktoriya had looked at that contract, alright. Its pages had been worn, and it had skipped around portions of it, going from the beginning pages to somewhere in the middle instead of in a linear path, like… an actual book. Viktoriya supposed that that was because it was losing whatever magic it had.

She'd quickly pushed the oddity of the contract out of her mind and, when she managed to find it, instead read the portion about Tanya. Almost all of it that spoke about her personality was nearly completely false – Tanya was a bit mean sometimes, but she'd mellowed out a bit as the war dragged on.

Except towards her enemies.

The section on her powers had been incomplete, and even Viktoriya could see that the section on how to beat her wouldn't have been very helpful.

Except for one line. At the very end of the description on how to beat her, it had mentioned something about… her love.

That had seemed odd, to Viktoriya. Tanya had seemed extremely uninterested in romance – or anything that might even resemble such a thing – back in the Empire, the very few times anyone from outside the 203rd had had the gall to ask her about it.

For a few moments, Viktoriya had wondered who had managed to do it.

Then she had remembered. Tanya had told Viktoriya she was a man in her last life. Which meant…

Viktoriya had fought down the blush again, doing as many formulas in her head as she could to try and avert the thoughts.

They were both women, and… while that wasn't _too_ much of a problem in the Empire…

No! Viktoriya had shaken her head again as memories – horribly embarrassing ones – drifted through her head. Tanya had made her opinions on herself and a relationship clear on the Eastern Front.

It _wasn't _happening, and-

And before she had gotten to take a longer look at the section, the person – no, _beastman_, that was what Tanya had told her they were called – had wandered in. Viktoriya had closed the contract and shoved it into the bag, dragging Tanya's things to her own side.

She glanced down, eyeing Tanya's bag. She needed to look at that line again. Tanya might-

She shook her head, and sharply turned it towards Tanya. She'd just… talk to Tanya. She'd forget about that line soon enough, and focus on getting stronger and more skilled and helping Tanya and _not _on a fanciful, impossible dream.

Tanya jumped back a bit at Viktoriya's quick movements, but she thanked her regardless for getting her out of the precarious position of having to apologize for staring.

If Tanya just ignored it, then things would be fine.

"_So, what are we going to do once we get into the capital? They said it should only take eight days to get there."_

Tanya nodded, and then sighed. "Still, if I had known that Wiz could have just teleported us, I would have done that in a heartbeat. Would have been much easier…"

Again, they settled into silence. Tanya opened her bag and began to go over the information Verdia had given her. It was best to be sure about such things, after all.

Viktoriya read over her shoulder, pressing into her. Tanya licked her lips nervously, and then blinked, trying to chase away thoughts about Viktoriya's… very close body.

As she leaned back, Tanya realized this was going to be a long eight days. Pressed against Viktoriya and sharing a room with someone she didn't know while travelling along was going to get very old, very fast.

Across from them, Tanya saw that the beastman was shooting them a suspicious. Tanya didn't know what it was for, and she wasn't really in the mood to find out.

She held up her papers and began to read, missing the dejected and angry look the beastman shot at the floor.

-OxOxO-

Tanya had been right. Things got old and grating. She'd read everything Verdia had given her, and then moved on to whatever else she could find.

Her own Reincarnation Contract – no change.

The contract she'd taken from her first kill – still malfunctioning.

The designs for her weapons, bullets, clips and magazines, Computation Jewels, even the inventions that she hadn't shown to Wiz – still in pristine condition in small 'plastic' bags that she hadn't yet sold due to the cost of making them.

She'd even taken a look at her Adventurer's Card. She was still level eighteen, she still had only three Skill Points, and she was… thirty-seven Skill Points away from learning that spell the Undead Mage had used, as well as a total of 100 hours of studying necromancy, according to the thing.

The Amalgamation spell's description said that trying to control what you summoned – that being the type of undead that was created _and _the physical movements of the summoned undead – depended on your Magic-Power, your willpower, and your health.

Considering all of that, Tanya wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort to save up the points when she could get something far more practical sooner.

Using it as some sort of distraction wasn't any good either, since Tanya could just reveal her powers of flight and leave a battle if she didn't think she could win.

Tanya had managed to debate the subject internally for a good hour and a half, going over complicated scenarios that she was fairly sure wouldn't happen.

After that, she managed to distract herself for long enough by going over 'her' inventions, making a list of other things she could create, and finally asked Viktoriya if she could think of anything to create. Finally, the sun had begun to set.

Mark had yelled to them to get out and help the other wagons and their adventurers set up camp. The pair had helped a group of seven other adventurers move the carts and horses into a circle, where they'd set up a number of campfires.

The Merchants and those that had paid to be just passengers had gone to sleep closest to the center, while Tanya, Viktoriya, and the rest of the hired help had slept closer to the edge.

Tanya and Viktoriya had set up their tents, and then talked to Mark to ask about their shift.

Clad in what appeared to be pajamas, he scratched his beard. "Right. You two get the first shift. Wake up some of the others next to the largest wagon when the moon is at its highest."

Tanya nodded, not saying anything and already trying to figure out how to make a cheap pocket watch.

She was sure some Reincarnate had figured out how to make clocks before her – things at the guild moved much too smoothly for there not to be some sort of timekeeping device there – but making an affordable watch for people like Mark to use could rake in a lot of cash.

Before she could think about the specifics, however, Viktoriya said goodnight to the man, and Mark turned around, a slightly apologetic look on his scarred face.

"Listen… about today. I'm sorry about making you two have to sit near one of them beasties," he said, mournful.

Tanya was about to wave him off – they didn't mind being next to vegetables and animals that much – but his next words changed Tanya's forgiving look into a much more pained expression.

"I'd have denied their contract if I'd have known one of you were nobility. If you want, I can make her walk back to Axel. It'll cost me a bit, but if you want her gone…"

He trailed off, and Tanya snapped back to reality, shaking her head. "We don't mind. Goodnight," she replied stiffly, turning her back on him quickly. Viktoriya followed behind her, a faint aura of rueful smugness radiating from her.

Tanya sighed, and fished through her bag, pulling out a large bag of money. She turned towards Viktoriya, who shrugged. "I told you Tanya: regardless of how much they've been influenced by whatever ideas the Reincarnates brought through, they're still going to be prejudiced in some way."

Tanya playfully glared at her, more upset about being wrong than how much money she was giving up. "I knew that. Even the nobility of the Empire engaged in a bit of nepotism instead of adhering to their meritocratic ideology. That's why I bet that the only problems would be centered on the nobility and the traits associated with them and the peasantry."

Viktoriya took the money, and Tanya muttered, "Since when were _you_ the cynical one?"

The girl, putting away Tanya's money into her own bag, shrugged. "You placed a lot of weight on the progress of mankind and not a lot on emotions and feelings, Tanya."

Tanya just rolled her eyes. "Well, _we_ don't have to subscribe to whatever idiotic ideas they have about the beastmen," she said, resting against their wagon. The girl had probably been so quiet the entire journey because she thought they were just as prejudiced as everyone else.

As she settled in for the watch, Viktoriya's words reminded her of her fight with Chris. She'd certainly felt _ni-_

Tanya's face soured like milk, and she shook her head at the reminder. At Viktoriya's inquiring look, she sighed. "I suppose I should tell you what happened while Darkness knocked you out a few days ago, right? That briefing we did before we went to bed wasn't the most detailed…"

After a bit of explanation, Tanya was outlining her fight with 'Chris.' "She's taught me two things with that fight," Tanya said as she finished.

Viktoriya had been oddly quiet, but Tanya didn't blame her. She was probably surprised by Chris's audacity as well.

"We need to work on using weapons and skills other than our guns. We have a limited supply of bullets for now, which means we should be practicing using our skills."

Their Reinforcement spells were the main ones Tanya felt they needed to practice, but others, like the ice spells Viktoriya had learned from Wiz and the various spells that Tanya had learned, were more… usable than many of the ones that they had learned in their last life.

Exploding things was a very good option when you were fighting something that could kill you in an instant. But against things they wanted to salvage, like Giant Toads? Exploding them would decrease their value.

Improving their other spells and skills wouldn't be a bad idea.

"The second thing she taught me is that I really should expect anything. Tactics like kissing me on the lips work well, if they aren't expected."

Viktoriya nodded absently, just happy to be included and cursing herself for wondering if Tanya had enjoyed the kiss. Tanya was obviously thinking about the practical applications of such a thing.

Nothing more.

-OxOxO-

Nothing much of note had happened that night, besides having to fend off the occasional curious animal or wandering undead. They'd woken up the next group, and they'd thanked them.

Restful sleep and then morning had followed. Tanya had had a nice breakfast, and shown off some of her inventions to the curious merchants and adventurers. They had all loved the things – the lighters and the Ready-to-Eat-Meals most of all – and had bought every single product Tanya had, besides her medical supplies and the padlock on the important pocket of her bag.

A few merchants had asked about getting more of the items, and Tanya told them to talk to Wiz in Axel if they wanted more.

She'd spent the rest of the morning thinking of ideas for how to make some more inventions, and, by midday, decided that she'd had enough of the silence.

Besides, Tanya was sure that the woman across from them had caught Tanya staring more than once. She probably expected some sort of question by now.

Just as Tanya began to open her mouth, however, Mark's voice echoed through the wagon. "We got monsters approaching!"

The woman across from them shot up at a blinding speed, jumping quickly out of the back. Viktoriya followed, rifle in hand, and Tanya emerged later, cursing the slight discomfort in her side.

Stupid shrapnel. The pain was mostly gone, but it flared up at the oddest of times.

They got out, and watched a cloud of dust in the distance grow larger. Tanya took aim with her rifle, when an unfamiliar voice spoke out to her left. "You can see them from this distance?"

Tanya turned her head slightly. The soft, angry voice had come from the beastman who'd come with them. Tanya shrugged, and turned back to her rifle. "No. But I don't need to be able to see them to hit them."

With that, she muttered the spell for imbuing the bullet with an Explosive Vaporization, pulled the trigger, and smirked at the faint sound of an explosion.

The cloud, however, didn't seem to stop coming.

If anything, it had only increased in speed.

From her cart, she heard Mark shout. "Please, don't let them get us!"

Tanya's gaze towards his voice. Once curious, her gaze now became rather dejected. It seemed his claims of being a formidable adventurer before becoming a Merchant were completely false…

Tanya was about to turn around, but she heard several other cries arise from the line of carts. "Yes, please protect us! We won't survive an Orc attack! I don't want to lose my virginity to an Orc!"

Tanya's brow furrowed. Orcs?

She tried to remember where they might be from, and thought that she might have been told about them a while ago, when she was doing an escort mission. Why would someone complain about their virginity, though?

She turned back around, and her eyes widened. The cloud had gotten _much _closer. She could even make out several figures sprinting towards them. She ground her teeth and aimed again. Of course something in this mistake of a world could run faster than a car. Why not?

It wasn't like anything else made sense.

Eventually, they came close enough that the few female front line fighters present in the caravan moved forward to block their path, blocking Tanya's line of sight. Tanya lowered her rifle, taking the time to study her opponents.

She immediately regretted that decision, wishing that she had made Sioux's submachine gun already so she could blow them away.

Their skin, a disgusting blend of greens that reminded Tanya not of a quiet forest or the landscape as she flew passed it, but of toxic waste and puke, didn't help their looks. To top it off, their hair, brown and patchy, gave their already disgusting appearance an unkempt air.

Their physique, on the other hand, told Tanya that they probably didn't care _what _Tanya thought of their looks. Each of their bodies was taller than Tanya and Viktoriya, and their arms and legs were covered in muscles. By contrast, their torsos, while certainly not as bulbous as that noble from back in Axel, were certainly rotund.

The Orcs seemed to eye them, until one of them, seemingly fatter and more muscular than the rest, stepped forward. "Females! Leave this place. Let us rape and take our fill from every man in the caravan, and I promise not one of you will be hurt. In fact, take what you desire of their supplies and fortunes. We only want the men."

Tanya conceded that it spoke the language well, at least. Its predatory gaze hadn't yet lingered from the line of wagons, and the horde of other Orcs standing just behind it seemed to be drooling.

Tanya thought she might have even saw one of the things fondling itself, but she'd hoped that had been a very disgusting trick of the light.

None of them spoke anymore, and Tanya sighed. She supposed that she'd be the one to smooth things over.

Again.

Tanya stepped forward. "Our answer is no. They've paid us to protect them, and if you want to get to them, you'll have to go through us."

As Tanya spoke and stepped forward, all of their eyes became glued to her. Tanya thought, for a moment, that it might have been the rifle in her hands – people stared a lot whenever she used it.

However, their heavy panting only seemed to increase, and Tanya came to the sudden realization as to why they might be staring at her lustfully, if they were so interested in the men.

Uh oh.

"Actually, we can just use you," said their leader. Tanya's eyes widened, and she fought to keep calm.

Somehow, they'd figured out that she was a guy.

This was very bad.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, trying to play dumb while thinking of a plan that was a bit more nuanced than 'blow them all up right now as fast as possible.'

She had no doubt that plan would work, but considering how the Orcs didn't seem to be very angry at them, it was likely that they had managed to avoid the Explosive Vaporizations she had already shot at them.

If they could either avoid or even shrug off Explosive Vaporizations, she didn't really want to fight them close up.

The leader snorted. "Don't try and play coy with us. Your hair might be a bit long, but those clothes scream 'male.'"

Tanya countered, deciding that maybe it would be a good idea to retreat to the wagons with the others. "What self-respecting noble would let their son travel in a caravan through known Orc territory?"

As she continued to stall, Tanya had finally remembered that an Orc warning had been included in the contract she signed when she'd first signed the contract for this caravan.

The Merchants arranging this thing had rushed her past that part when it had mentioned it was only for males, and Tanya hadn't been able to come up with a good enough excuse to see it.

Obviously, she needed to read through these things more, even if well-meaning and unknowing Merchants tried to stop her.

Meanwhile, her statement about the nobility seemed to give the thing pause. She began to cast Reinforcement spells on herself as the Orc looked up again.

Just as it opened its mouth, Tanya turned to the cart and ran, jumping in the front one.

She looked inside, and found that there were five men crouched inside it, hiding behind boxes. She gave them an angry glare. "Get out here! I'm going to buff the horses, so I want you all ready to leave!"

They blinked at her, and then burst into action. It seemed they thought that their makeshift barrier made out of boxes of supplies were just as flimsy as Tanya had thought. She told the adventurers to tell the other carts, while she told the Merchants to wait.

She turned back to the horde of Orcs, and found that they were fighting the adventurers.

And winning.

Tanya groaned and then ran to the fray, her Agility Reinforcement spells burning through mana. She finally got there, decided that Viktoriya could handle two for now, and Reinforced a warrior in front of her.

The woman immediately began to overpower the Orc, her sword now striking flesh where it had been sailing through the air. Tanya nodded, and then rushed between fights, buffing agility and strength where she could.

She would have used the Pain-Reduction one too, but Tanya had needed time to acclimate to that spell in her last life. Plus, while she knew how much of the spell she could take before it began to interfere with her thought processes, she had no idea how much these adventurers could take before 'Pain-Reduction' turned into 'unable to hold weapons because nerves are too desensitized.'

Finally, after finishing with every standing adventurer, Tanya found a pair of Orcs that had managed to outmaneuver a Warrior and subdue a Mage. Tanya jumped in front of the downed adventurers, and…

She nearly retched as drool began to leak from their mouths.

"Such a wonderful specimen! We'll be able to make at least a dozen children with you. Maybe even fifty, if you keep using those fancy spells of yours!"

Tanya rolled her eyes and brandished her gun. Both of them looked at each other, and then they laughed.

Tanya just shook her head and put a bullet in the head of the one on the left.

They might be able to dodge spells when they were over a mile away, but up close, they couldn't react. The Orc was launched backwards, and the other one stared at Tanya, now wary.

Tanya was about to put a bullet through her head too, but the one she'd shot did the most remarkable thing.

It stood back up.

Slack-jawed, Tanya watched as the thing shakily stood on its legs, shook its head, and then stared at Tanya, more lustful than before.

In its forehead, Tanya could see a bullet hole. She blinked.

"You guys sure are strong…"

They grinned at her, and Tanya immediately began to pour mana into her Reinforcement spells and sharpened her blade. This might be a long fight.

She eyed them, and rushed towards the one on the left. She swung her blade in a wide arc, intent on cutting off something, but her blade met metal.

Or at least, it felt like it did. Her blade had sliced into its flesh just fine, but it had failed to cut thought whatever it had for bones. Her arms had reverberated from the impact.

She looked up at it, vaguely panicked for the first time in a while, and she gave it an apologetic smile.

While they both continued to leer at her and began to move to attack, Tanya ducked down and aimed her rifle at the most prominent part of their physiology: their rotund, protruding stomachs.

Tanya was met with much more success. It seemed that whatever they had for bones didn't protect their abdomens any more than a human's rib cage, judging by the gore and viscera that followed her blade as it retreated from the thing's stomach.

It collapsed in a few moments, and Tanya almost sighed at yet another similarity to the video games this world seemed to take its marching orders from. Why wouldn't they carry shields to defend what seemed to be their most obvious weakness, or at least wear a bit of armor beyond a bit of leather?

"Haa~"

Tanya blinked and turned away from the dying Orc, only to find her eyes widening at the hideous sight before her.

It wasn't as bad as if they had killed the adventurers fighting next to her, or if they had managed to run towards the caravan, which looked to be ready to flee. It was, however, quite revolting.

It seemed that nearly every single one had decided that Tanya was a much better target for their attacks than anyone else. Their words told her all she really needed to know.

"To kill one of us… when most males would be paralyzed in fear or squeaking and pleading in fear…"

"The most dangerous prey…"

"Someone with which to produce dozens of children…"

She cast a look beyond them for a moment. A few were behind the crowd, holding off Viktoriya and a few other adventurers that weren't stupefied by the Orcs' behavior.

She nodded. It seemed that she was outnumbered, and – unless she wanted to reveal that she could fly – she would eventually be overwhelmed by the dozens of monsters that were, even now, moving to surround her.

She flung herself back and away from the crowd, narrowly avoiding a lunge from the monsters. They all cried out in anger, but Tanya was already standing between them and the other adventurers, trying to make it back to the caravan.

Tanya grabbed a pair of adventurers on the way, ignoring their cries of surprise. They weren't as fast as she was, and they needed to leave, now, before the Orcs managed to encircle her and force her to reveal her Flight spells to the rest of the caravan.

She rattled off an order for them to start using whatever ranged weapons they had, and turned back to the running horde. The Orcs had quickly outpaced the female adventurers, and Tanya launched a spell at them as she ran away from the wagons.

Unexpectedly, they all changed their trajectory, running at Tanya instead of the caravan.

Tanya shivered; if they were so convinced of the truth, then there might be other ways to tell that she was what she didn't seem to be. She'd need to take measures to hide the truth, or finally find a gender-swapping item.

She ran a good hundred meters away from the wagon, and watched as the Orcs chased after her. All of them were shouting about the things they wanted to do to her, but she paid them no mind, watching as Viktoriya ferried running adventurers to the caravan.

Just as the Orcs were about to reach her, Tanya activated her Flight spells, leaping over them. Some watched her, a few tried to jump up to her, but none of them touched her. She immediately began running towards the caravan, shouting for Mark, who was at the back.

"What the fuck are you waiting for? Go already!"

He nodded, and, one by one, the carts took off. Almost literally.

They sped away, and the Orcs, which had could have outpaced their horses if they weren't buffed, were left in the dust. Tanya sighed.

"I love magic."

With that, she went into the cart deciding to take a seat and rest for a while. That sure was tiring…

-OxOxO-

Apparently, she'd tired herself out a lot more than she thought. When she woke up, her side was beginning to _really _hurt again, and they were apparently preparing for the third night of their journey. At least, that's what Viktoriya had told her.

The Reinforcement spells that Tanya and Viktoriya had cast – as well as the merchants' willingness to push the horses – meant that they'd halved the journey. They would arrive in the capital in one more day instead of five. Tanya was pleasantly surprised by the fact, and she honestly couldn't wait until they got there.

Now, they were resting. The merchants had wanted to give her a bag of Eris for her efforts, and Tanya had shrugged and accepted the gift – she didn't really have a reason to shove their thanks back in their faces, and more money never hurt anyone.

They'd even given her the night off, and Tanya was taking the time to rest soundly in Mark's wagon. There wasn't a lot of room, but they managed to make it work by hanging hammocks from the walls.

As the sounds of amazement had faded – everyone was still entranced by the usage of Tanya's products – she snuggled into the thin blankets they'd packed, making a mental note to try and invent sleeping bags and backpacks.

Just as she was about to drift off, sounds of commotion drifted in from outside. Annoyed and bleary-eyed, she rose, grabbing her pistol and Type 97 out from underneath her pillow, slipping the latter around her head and strapping the former to her waist.

She came out to find a group of male adventurers being confronted by Viktoriya, who was standing in front of the beastman they had yet to learn the name of. Tanya couldn't see her face in the limited light of the dying campfire, but her stance told Tanya enough.

She rushed over. "Is something wrong?" she asked, one hand resting on her pistol and the other grabbing Viktoriya's wrist. The girl stiffened up for a moment, but she relaxed as the men in front of them all backed down.

Their leader rolled his eyes. "No. We were just having a conversation with the Monsume."

Tanya frowned as her eyebrows furrowed. This guy had an accent – he sounded like he was from some cheesy, half-baked American Western. Still, she managed to hear something that sounded… familiar. "'Monsume?'"

They group of four gave her a strange look, for a moment, before the lead one shook his head. "Right, you're a noble, so I guess you all probably have a different term for them. Us, uh… _commoners _call them 'Monsume,' which is short for 'Monsuta Musume.'"

Tanya stared for a moment, before she sighed tiredly, stared dejectedly at the ground, and tried not to pull her hair out.

They were calling her a monster girl in _Japanese_, and they didn't even know.

It was obviously something some Reincarnate had spread around, like how magic light sources resembled light bulbs in shape even though they didn't need to be shaped like that.

Tanya and Viktoriya had found _that _out when they had disassembled one of the odd light sources when they were trying to think of things Tanya could reinvent to sell at Wiz's shop. They actually used Mithril to-

Tanya flinched at remembering what they did and promptly pushed that information down. She looked back up at them, quickly losing hope that this wouldn't end in some sort of confrontation.

"Look, while I'd _like_ to assume that you're calling her that endearingly, I'm guessing you probably aren't," she said, phrasing it as a half question.

They blinked at her in unison, and then laughed uproariously. Tanya turned to Viktoriya, saw the girl behind her looking down at the ground, and motioned towards the beastman behind them.

Viktoriya took a look at her, nodded, and walked towards the girl, giving Tanya determined nod as she walked off. Tanya turned back to the group, who seemed to finally be calming down.

Their leader continued to speak. "Miss noble-"

"Actually, I'm not a noble. I didn't think that you were as stupid as the Orcs to believe such a poor lie, but I guess there are many kinds of people in the world."

He raised an eyebrow at her before he rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyway-"

She didn't let him speak. "By the way, what kind of conversation were you having with her?"

He seemed confused for a moment, and then grinned back at his lackeys. They grinned lecherously back at him, and Tanya felt her mild annoyance with the group grow into anger.

"We just wanted to ask if she had any… _itches_ to scratch. She's part rabbit, so I thought we'd ask her nicely if she'd needed any help."

Moving slowly, Tanya positioned her left hip away from them, casting a look at the retreating forms of Viktoriya and the girl while also hiding the movement of her hand readying her gun. "I take it you'd have asked her not-so-nicely if she refused."

He didn't even attempt to deny it, and as the rest of his group broke out into laughter, he grinned at her. "Say, you're pretty bright. How about you take a bit of cash and trot off back to sleep. I'm sure you need all the beauty sleep you can get, with how flat you are."

The rest of his group broke out into a chorus of laughter, but Tanya just smiled at them, fighting down revulsion at the memories they were bringing forth.

"The last rapist who ran into me deeply regretted every moment of his reckoning. Pray to whatever god you believe in that you all experience nothing like he did."

All of them seemed rather confused by her remark, but Tanya just smiled at them. The leader stepped forward again. "Hey, it's not like she's worth anything. Just a run of the mill rabbit Monsume. Besides, the lot of them are obviously heretics if they were so unlucky to get fused with an animal. Just-"

"Sleep."

With a rather loud crash, the four of them hit the ground, softly snoring.

Tanya drew her pistol, and aimed at them.

Her finger was resting on the trigger.

It would be so effortless to end people who thought that rape was justifiable by any means, logical or emotional. She had no trouble killing men and women _without _any predilections who were soldiers.

They were far, far below the usual people she killed.

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She shouldn't go around killing people; there was no way she'd be able to claim to be a noble if there was a serious investigation into her history. The Mithril Foundation, Wiz, the Succubi, and, most importantly, Tanya and Viktoriya would be likely to suffer for the misunderstanding.

Still, her gun didn't stray from the pile of plain looking adventurers. It was _so _tempting…

Hand shaking and sweat glistening in the dying light of the campfire as it ran down her face, Tanya felt more stress aiming at them than she had confronting the four of them.

Memories of round glasses, a square, hungry face, and communist propaganda drifted passed glassy eyes, and Tanya felt herself leaning forward a bit, anticipating their end.

Achingly, with teeth clenched as tightly as she could press them together, she lowered the pistol.

If the merchants found four of them dead in the middle of the camp, Tanya _might _get away with it. No one knew what guns even _were_, let alone how to identify what kind had killed them.

But they were sleeping all around the dying campfire, and if they were the only ones to die, everyone in the surrounding caravans would be confused as to how the people in the safest part of their encampment were the only ones to die.

Making them disappear – like finding a frog to feed them to – would also be suspicious. Everyone would wonder why it was just those four.

As she turned around, she resisted the urge to kick them in the balls or steal their equipment, regardless of how much she wanted to.

If they thought that this encounter was anything more than a dream, then they might try and bring it up with the merchants. She'd already accepted the merchants' money, and Tanya really didn't feel like confronting systemic racism and rapists head on, not with her memories kicking about in her head.

Tanya stomped off towards their wagon, intent on gearing up and going for a calming flight. Then, she remembered that the four of them were supposed to be on guard, smirked, and moved them to the observer posts by dragging them along the ground.

Tanya grinned maliciously as she marched towards the wagon. With any luck, the four of them would be caught sleeping by the next shift and get fined. Maybe even imprisoned!

Tanya was feeling a bit better about the whole ordeal, but when she got inside, she groaned. Viktoriya and the beastman were arguing under their breath, shooting worried glances and furious glares outside, respectively.

She jumped on the thing, leaped towards them, and activated Lurk with a whisper. Both looked at her in surprise, but Tanya decided that she'd berate them to release a bit of stress.

The 203rd wasn't around, so they'd have to do.

"What are you two doing? He's right there!" she loudly whispered as she pointed to the front of the wagon where Mark was sleeping.

The beastman scoffed. "Oh please. We argued yesterday, and he didn't make a peep."

Tanya leveled an inquiring look at Viktoriya who chuckled nervously. "She wanted to wake you up, I thought that it would be better to let you sleep."

Tanya shook her head, and then took a deep breath. Slightly calmer, she tried her best to send a soft, inquiring look at the beastman. It felt sort of unnatural to not be wearing some sort of victorious smirk or judging frown, but she wanted an honest answer.

"Did they touch you?"

The woman, oddly enough, sneered at Tanya. "No. And I could have handled it."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "It's one on four. You probably couldn't have. Besides, they'd have woken up in the morning and made the merchants kick you out. You'd have to travel back to Axel on foot."

She tried her level best to retort, but Tanya's eyes quieted her. Tanya took another breath, and stood, offering a hand to the woman.

"Come on. We're getting into the capital tomorrow, so we'll need rest."

Her demure expression faded quickly, and she leveled a glare at Tanya's hand. "I don't need any help, especially not from the likes of you."

She rose, about to climb in her hammock, and Tanya took another breath.

Tanya couldn't just order her to be nice to them – she wasn't in the Empire. She climbed into her own hammock, deciding that she'd try her best to talk to the woman tomorrow.

She must have been pretty lonely by herself, and Tanya _was _in the market for a team member, with the loss of Darkness.

-OxOxO-

The beastman woke up to the sound of… nothing. No one was shouting, she couldn't hear anyone trying to board the cart, and she couldn't say that the far-off conversation sounded particularly murderous.

She frowned, wondering if they wanted to do something about her themselves, and she rose anyway, deciding that she should probably run for it and try to make her way back to Axel before they could get her.

Just as she'd managed to grab her bag, however, she was stopped. Both of them – she didn't need to be introduced to them; they were _famous _in Axel – were discussing something in that language of theirs.

She rose, trying to ignore them, but Degurechaff stepping in front of her, looking much more cordial and… cute than she ever had seen her. "Good morning! Would you care to eat breakfast with us? I noticed that you normally eat alone."

She looked down at the squirt – because she really was short and couldn't _possibly _be sixteen – debating with herself. She nodded slowly, and set down her bag. She could leave after a bit of food.

Tanya smirked as she watched the beastman leave the wagon, giving Viktoriya a knowing look. The former adjutant just rolled her eyes back, grinning mischievously.

Tanya had used that line on a number of officers and other introverted personnel, and whenever she did, she always got what she wanted.

It amazed Viktoriya just how manipulative Tanya could be when she wanted to be.

She stared at Tanya's back as she left. Whenever she did stuff like this, Viktoriya _also_ felt very-

She cut off that thought with a shake of her blushing face and a step off of the wagon. They followed the beastman to the large, central fire where most of the provisions were. As they did, they watched her interactions.

Most treated her brusquely; they handed her some rations quickly, gave her what food she asked for quickly, and passed her over for the next adventurer in line as fast as possible.

A few weren't even _that _polite. The man who handed her some utensils deliberately grabbed a pair from the pile of dirty, already used pile that he'd been handed already, and one particularly snide looking Merchant asked her for money for the food, _despite _the fact that the contract that all of them signed stated that the food would be free for them.

She took the abuse with a blank, small frown and nothing more.

Both Viktoriya and Tanya followed her footsteps, receiving better or, on Tanya's part, nearly reverent service that Tanya wouldn't have expected from even the most fanboyish child in the Empire.

They found her and sat down. Before she could dig into her meal, which looked noticeably smaller than Tanya's portion, Viktoriya snatched up the utensils.

Before either could ask her what she was doing, she sat down next to the beastman, stuck a hand in her bag, dragged out a pot, and placed both inside.

"Freeze!" she shouted. Both watched a thin layer of ice formed over them and inside the pot. She pulled out a lighter with the emblem of the Empire Tanya had given her and heated the bowl.

The ice melted quickly, and Viktoriya used the water to wash them off. She wiped them off on her sleeve, and handed them to the beastman.

She had watched the whole process stupefied, and was only shocked out of her stupor by the closeness of the utensils to her face. She took them slowly, and Viktoriya shot her a warm grin.

Tanya sat down next to Viktoriya, mentally thanking her for her overwhelming generosity, and dug into her meal.

The beastman did the same, and Tanya reflexively sighed at her private usage of the moniker, almost spraying soup everywhere.

Hastily, she finished what was in her mouth, and turned to the beastman. "By the way, what's your name? It's kind of weird to just refer to you as 'the beastman' in my head." She looked up from her meal, an eyebrow raised and an ear…

_Twitch._

Tanya's eyes shot towards the ear for a moment, and then an idea came to her as the beastman had some internal debate.

Tanya had been shocked to learn that her hair twitched in time with her emotions for some reason that was probably related to Being X.

It had been quite the fucking shock to learn that fact from Viktoriya one cold night on the Russy Front, and the looks she'd sent the rest of the 203rd when they admitted to knowing about it might have killed someone.

It was either that or the cold, and most of the others agreed it was her.

Tanya wasn't sure if they were joking half the time.

As it was, she hadn't been able to find a reason for the stupid _ahoge_, medical or magical.

Regardless, Tanya would ask her if she knew her ears twitched, just like her hair did.

If she did know, then she could apologize and state that she didn't really know much about beastmen, considering there weren't any in the Empire. If she didn't, then she'd probably thank Tanya.

"You know your ear just twitched right?"

Her eyes widened, and then shot towards the top of her head, tone panicked. "They did? I thought they did that, but no one ever told me. I assumed-"

Tanya grinned as the girl's panicked expression faded into a vaguely annoyed one. Viktoriya was smiling widely, and the girl sighed

"My name is Lorelei."

Tanya nodded. "I am-"

She cut her off. "You don't need to introduce yourself. Everyone in Axel knows your name."

She rose and cleared her throat, and Tanya had to crane her neck upwards to see the face that topped the towering body.

"Tanya von Degurechaff! Tranquility Destroyer, Banisher of Amalgamations, and another powerful noble! You couldn't go five feet in Axel without running into an adventurer who knew your name and had seen you or lost to you in an arm wrestling match, and even the peasantry spoke of your bright disposition towards them," she said, gesturing with her spoon and putting on airs.

She ended the tirade with a glare that contained none of the malice it had last night. Or, it didn't contain nearly as much. "Just another noble in my eyes."

Tanya took a moment to digest that. She turned to Viktoriya, who opened her mouth. Lorelei spoke before she could. "Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. I know already."

"Disregarding the obvious inflation of my renown," Tanya said, "I'm not actually a noble."

The girl jerked up from her soup again, shooting her a disbelieving look. Tanya nodded her head. "I am one by technicality, but it isn't what you think. Where I come from, blonde hair and blue eyes aren't particularly rare, and people could become very low-ranked nobles by being very skilled."

The girl scoffed, and Viktoriya nodded her head. "It's true! She beat out many men far older than she was and obtained the status of being among the top twelve gradua- erm… military scholars of the year!"

She still seemed rather distrustful, but something that might have resembled a conversation – if you ignored the long pauses – emerged, and both Tanya and Viktoriya left feeling rather happy about the inroads they'd built.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **And there we have it! The third permanent member of the team is found!

If anyone doesn't like my OCs, for whatever reason, then she is _technically_ found in the background of the KonoSuba anime. She has no lines and we know nothing about her, but since she technically exists, then you can think of this as an AU instead of me inventing an entirely new character.

Whichever offends you less.

Speaking of being offended: systemic racism! As Eris's cohorts showed, not every Reincarnate is as lazy and… uncaring as Kazuma is.

Now, while some of them undoubtedly had a hand in this, a lot of it will also come from the Eris Cult, who prize Luck and fortune above all. Being fused with animals is mentioned… a few times in the Light Novels as being a sign of someone being very unlucky, so I'm taking the idea and running with it.

**A/N 2:** The Orcs. While the movie shows them as being colored more like actual pigs, I'm basing them off of the description in the LN.

**A/N 3: **Replies to reviews:

DNWorks: Darkness mostly wants to figure out what she was thinking, mostly. She gave Tanya a chance, after all, and while 'consorting with the Demon King' and 'trying to murder someone' aren't exactly equal, Darkness might be persuaded to forigve her if, say, her Goddess spoke up for the Thief.

Pyromania101: You know what? I'll give it to you. I suppose that the only thing that might be seen as 'making light' of his near-rape is Yunyun being more concerned about his snot on her robes than with him. I guess that's what I get for watching a review before watching the movie and letting it color my opinions. Anyway, what do you think of the rest of the story?

vanhellsing9000: In the far future – more than 15 chapters – Darkness will reappear alongside some familiar faces.

Father Chaos: Tanya doesn't know how much power the nobles have. Obviously, they have a lot of power and influence, if people will allow her to do things she couldn't get away with normally if they think she's a noble, but she doesn't know exactly how much that is.

Plus, she did only insult a single noble for a slight against her, not all of them. The other nobles might want to use Tanya against Aurip and Alderp if he ever brought her up.

Naruto de Libra: Thank you for the ideas and for making it clear that this is my story. Some people don't seem to get that.

Now, while I do think your ideas are interesting, some of the members and practices of the Axis Cult – Cecily and Zesta as far as members go and the 'free love, even MINORS, but not undead or Demons' – will push her far, far away from ever considering them.

Your last idea is one I'm still debating, though.

Byakugan789: Thank you for the references and the information, and you're right about the production line being much more important. You don't have to train your employees in a master-apprentice kind of relationship, and you don't even have to take a job to do it!

Remember, while Wiz might have been able to demonstrate Teleport to her, Tanya would have to spend time learning about advanced spells in order to use it, at least according to Megumin's spinoff and how it explains Advanced magic.


	22. The Capital

Things were quiet, relatively speaking. The animals and vegetables made the occasional noise and the wagon sounded as rickety as ever, but Tanya and Viktoriya made no attempt to converse.

Tanya was designing yet another product – a pocket watch, this time – while internally marveling at how helpful the Smith technique was for this stuff.

She didn't mind that she couldn't make the very heavy armor that the more advanced Blacksmith skills unlocked, because she needed precision for these things, and that skill was not about precision.

She was even contemplating seeking out some of the Blacksmiths in the capital and trying to see if they had an upgraded version of Smith that allowed for even _more _precision. Tanya wasn't sure what the people here would use such a thing for – maybe artwork or sculptures? – but she was willing to try and find something.

Viktoriya was writing in what Tanya assumed was her newest diary.

Tanya hadn't seen the old, small, red book she had used for the same purpose back in the Empire, and she assumed that Viktoriya had left it in their last life. It was nice to see that she was just as dedicated to her old goal of keeping track of her life.

Lorelei, who Tanya made sure to keep throwing the occasional glance at, seemed to be confused about something, if the annoyed twitch of her ears or the way she was constantly sharpening her sword was anything to go by.

When Tanya had sent her a fifth look over the top of her drawings, the beastman finally seemed to have been pushed over the edge. She threw her blade at the ground – thankfully not crashing through the wood that made up the floor of the cart and breaking everything – and sent a glare at Tanya.

"Fine. What do you want?"

Tanya shrugged noncommittally. "A bit of conversation wouldn't-"

"_No,"_ she said, her eyes narrowed and pointing an accusing finger, "What do you want for protecting me? You obviously have some motive if you'd just help a Monsume you didn't know."

The reminder of what happened last night brought back _other _memories Tanya would rather forget, and she tried to take a calming breath.

She looked up at Lorelei, the earlier inquisitiveness that had been in her glances gone.

"I have something of a… _personal bias_ against rapists," she said.

Though Tanya thought she had been remarkably calm, Lorelei's reaction said otherwise.

The look of anger on the face of the woman opposite of her faded, and fear replaced it. Tanya took another calming breath, and Lorelei cleared her throat.

"…What did you do to them, anyway?"

Tanya smirked, cast a look out of the small, closed doorway that lead to the front of the vehicle, and began to whisper. "While I would have liked to do more, I cast Sleep on them and moved them to their observation posts. With any luck, they've been fined heavily."

Lorelei looked alarmed, but Viktoriya shook her head. "We should have done more," she stated.

Lorelei looked at Viktoriya, confused.

Wasn't she supposed to be the one who reigned in Degurechaff? Lorelei hadn't paid the two much more thought than anyone else did, but if even _Dust _claimed that the other girl's arrival had seemed to… relax Degurechaff, then she was willing to believe it.

Why was _she _the one chomping at the bit for action?

Tanya rolled her eyes. "They deserve worse than a fine, but we couldn't do anything to them without other people getting suspicious."

Silence reigned for a moment, and only the sounds of the road underneath them and the wagon around them intruded on their thoughts. Lorelei quickly swallowed the awkward cough she had been about to let out.

She was quickly coming to the conclusion that those four people would probably have been murdered if the pair thought they could have gotten away with it.

Was that typical of nobles? Probably, but that didn't mean _she _wanted to get tied up in that sort of stuff. She gulped and decided that sticking close to them was probably not a good idea.

She'd need to get rid of whatever debt she owed them for having been 'saved' first, though.

She cleared her throat, and tried to sound somewhat normal. "The question still stands. What do you want from me?"

She didn't know what to expect.

Tanya was a noble, so she probably wouldn't demand something like money… unless she wanted a lot. Lorelei didn't think she had any equipment that would strike their fancy, even with how basic their equipment was.

Despite her lack of expectations, she was still stupefied by her request. "Were you born a beastman? One of those fuckers said that you got fused with a rabbit, and I was… wondering where you guys came from."

Tanya had bet that the beastmen as a whole were probably the result of some Japanese reincarnate getting frisky with some sort of magical creature… but that was her best guess.

Viktoriya had suggested that it might have been some sort of medical procedure, but none of the people they asked – beastmen or not – took the question seriously.

For her part, Lorelei scoffed. "You sure are lacking common knowledge." She looked down at the wooden flooring, and sighed tiredly.

This was better than having to walk back to Axel or having to give them her money or something, she supposed. Still, telling them…

She shook her head. No…

Obviously, she wouldn't tell them everything. Just enough to abate their curiosity, and then she'd leave the moment they got to the capital.

She breathed in and began. "As Mages, I'm sure you know how finicky magic can be?" she asked.

Tanya and Viktoriya shot each other a mirrored glance, and both turned back, nodding in unison.

Lorelei took a deep breath, and crossed her arms. "I was travelling to Axel in what was supposed to be a short trip to pick up supplies. Axel is… one of the smaller centers of trade, despite its distance from the capital and lack of major resources. I didn't want to take a week-long trip, so I splurged a bit by purchasing a teleportation to Axel."

She glared at the flooring. "That was the _worst _mistake of my life."

"Teleportation is magically draining, and with inexperienced Archmages, things can go… _wrong_. Maybe you only go half the distance, or maybe you don't go anywhere and the spell fails entirely."

"In this instance, a rabbit jumped in the circle at the last minute. Their concentration was disrupted, and I jumped back."

"When we got to Axel, I had been changed. My… hair is white, and I have rabbit ears."

She sighed dejectedly. Tanya got the feeling that that wasn't everything, but Viktoriya spoke at that moment. "I mean… is it that bad? It doesn't…" she trailed off as she looked to Tanya beside her.

That was the wrong thing to say, apparently.

She shot Viktoriya a look of bitter anger, but it cooled a bit when she saw that Viktoriya was honestly confused.

She shook her head sadly. "Geez, you two _really _don't know anything…"

She stared at them, sadness present in every feature of her face, and Tanya winced. "The moment we arrived, everyone around me recoiled. My contacts in the city refused to talk to me, or they set the police on me. Even the person I _loved_, when I sent him a letter pleading for him to help me, nearly threw up the moment he set his eyes on me."

"Maybe, _maybe_, these changes have helped me be an adventurer."

She clenched her hands into fists. "But I wanted to be a _Tailor!_ One of the best in all of Belzerg! A single, _tiny _little misstep sent me into abject poverty and having to fight for my life on a weekly basis, at least."

She started at the ground again. "The worst part is that I don't even know what I did to get forsaken by Eris and get so unlucky. I went to church, attended and lowered my prices at festivals, and followed the rules to a tee. What could I have done differently?"

Tanya blinked at the girl.

_Well._

She had… not been expecting that much. A simple 'teleportation accident' would have sufficed as an answer.

Tanya tried, for a moment, to contemplate what she could say that wasn't an insult against religion. Lorelei didn't seem all that hateful of her – former? – faith...

Then, Tanya began to think beyond the information.

Her eyes narrowed.

Tanya wanted, for a moment, to believe that she was oversharing in an attempt to get them to pity her and take her under their wing, but Tanya thought back to the way she'd treated them last night, or the way she had looked down at herself.

Tanya had recognized that look easily, and she could _certainly _empathize with someone who didn't particularly like the body they were currently using.

While Tanya was safe in her knowledge that Being X set her up, Lorelei didn't even have the consolation that there was nothing she could have done to avoid it.

Not that she'd declare her real gender out loud. If those Orcs could figure out her actual gender with a glance, then other people could probably put the facts together.

Helping them in that regard by giving them more clues probably wasn't a good idea.

"Well… do you want to party up with us?"

She looked up sharply, eyes wide for a moment and then narrowed the next. "Why should I?"

"Look," she began, trying to convince her, "I'm trying to be _nice-"_

"That's a surprise," Viktoriya said, cutting her off.

Tanya blinked, and then she scowled at the innocent-looking Viktoriya.

She smiled and glared at her at the same time. "Real funny, Viktoriya. Just the cutest little comedian on this rickety wagon," she shot back, turning back to Lorelei and smirking at the soft squeak she made.

Viktoriya was just as easy to tease with a backhanded compliment as always.

"Yes. Well, if you have a _plan _for when you get in the capital, then by all means, go about your business. However… if you'd like to join us, even temporarily, then I'm making an offer."

Tanya had no doubt that, if she _was_ just trying to use them – she knew of them by name, after all, so she undoubtedly knew that they were successful – then her sob story would fall apart over time. If it was the real deal, then they'd stick together for a while.

Either way, Tanya and Viktoriya got a good teammate out of it for at least a little while. That couldn't be bad, unless she was working for Mary…

Tanya reached across the small aisle, an eyebrow raised to hide her true thoughts. Again, if it was a ploy to get close to them like Chris had, they would figure that out eventually.

Lorelei glared at Tanya's hand for a moment, until she sighed, and held out her own hand, shaking Tanya's.

Tanya smirked, and Viktoriya smiled. It seemed that they were up a party member, and they hadn't even had to get to the capital. It seemed things were going to go well, then.

Just as Tanya was about to go back to her work drawing, however…

"So. Are you actually a girl? Those Orcs seemed pretty interested in you."

Tanya stared blankly at her page, and then turned to Viktoriya, who was struggling to suppress her laughter. "Can we kick her out of this thing? I'm sure Mark wouldn't mind all too much."

-OxOxO-

Things had been nice after that. Conversation about innocuous things had followed – quests, skills, jobs, things most adventurers could find in common – and then they'd finally arrived.

The capital of Belzerg. Mark had announced it, and both Tanya and Viktoriya had leaned out of the back of the wagon and peered around the side of it to catch a glimpse of the city they were coming towards.

Walls loomed, and around them, farms flourished. They were passing through not an idle plain, but vast fields filled with crops. Tanya could spot farmers throughout it, while she was sure that she could see a slew of adventurers in the distance, fighting off a gigantic, bull-like beast.

The more impressive feature, however, were the walls. They were at least two times the size of Axel's, and instead of being a simple flat surface with pieces that jutted out of it for support and a piece of masonry that stuck out near the top, these walls seemed to be built to be quite… top heavy.

Tanya might have derided them for not looking like the ones she remembered from her last world, but the amount of stone that stuck out from the top told her that undead couldn't build themselves into a ladder anywhere near as easily as they had in Axel.

Over the top of the walls, Tanya could see a large castle stretching up to the sky. It looked decidedly European – there were none of the sloping roofs and typical signs of Japanese architecture she remembered from a short class trip to one back in her first life.

She sighed as she ducked back inside the wagon. It was all very… interesting.

The walls looked impressive, and the castle was majestic, and Tanya was sure that the thing had taken generations to build up… but her mind was pointing out just how easy it would be to destroy.

Artillery Shot spells meant that the walls of the city were more of a large target than a deterrent. The huge, towering castle was a sitting duck for aerial bombardment, from mages _or _planes. The closely packed houses that were likely to be crammed into the places would be wonderful tinder for a blaze that could burn the city to ashes.

Still, there was something about them that was… nice. At least aesthetically.

Maybe it was the relatively easy life she'd had living in this world talking to her?

She didn't know.

They soon reached the impressive gates, where the Guards did a check of the interior. They seemed shocked to see Tanya for some reason, but the four of them were hurried through quickly enough. Tanya didn't even have to answer any awkward questions about her weapons.

Mark got to his drop off with the rest of the merchants, where he waved goodbye to Tanya, Viktoriya, and Lorelei. He seemed confused to see the three of them walk off together, but none of them particularly cared.

Tanya turned to the other two, gesturing around the area. "So, you two have anything you want to do, or should we head to the guild and introduce ourselves?"

Lorelei seemed amused that Tanya thought they should introduce themselves, but she nodded her head. "Yeah. I should probably go find an inn that will take me."

Tanya frowned in concern, but she nodded regardless. If the woman wanted help, she would either ask. And, if she proved too prideful, Tanya would help her if she ever got in over her head, as long as they were teammates. "We'll meet up at the guild tomorrow, right?"

Lorelei nodded, and turned to leave. Tanya turned to Viktoriya, a smile playing at the edge of her lips. It was nice to finally stretch their legs. "What about you?"

Viktoriya shrugged. "I've got no problems going to the guild, as long as we can look around the city afterwards."

Tanya nodded her head. "Good point. We should figure out where all the important buildin-"

Tanya stopped in her tracks.

Frozen in a position of carefree conversation with an arm outstretched and her eyes half-closed. She was aware, in the back of her mind, that she probably looked ridiculous, standing in the middle of the street and not moving.

She wasn't even covered in gold or silver paint, to pretend to be a dazzling statue.

However, that was only in the back of her mind; much, much, much, much, much more important matters occupied all of her thoughts.

Viktoriya turned around, and looked curiously at Tanya. Tanya didn't react; she was trying to place something she had caught the barest hint of a smell from something she hadn't smelled in almost three months. Something… _familiar_.

Was it carnage and death? The smell of decaying bodies and blood? No, she had smelled those familiar things not more than a week ago in Axel.

Was it the smell of a wide open sky, unaffected by trees and the ground, high above the earth with the wind whipping passed her head? No, she had smelled that in between when she and Viktoriya had fought those Tranquility Girls.

Was it the unrelenting smog of industrial progress, cloying to and blackening every surface it touched, lungs and buildings alike? No, she'd smelled smoke in the Blacksmith's forge, and this smell wasn't bad.

This smell was… _good_.

It was _very _good. Tanya caught a whiff of it again, and her eyes widened in delight and desire as she realized what it was.

"Viktoriya," Tanya said, whipping her head towards the girl who had been considering dragging Tanya towards a nearby shop so that she wouldn't be in the middle of the street, "do you smell that?"

Viktoriya tried, for a too-small moment, but she shook her head. Tanya just grinned wider. "Viktoriya, I smell… coffee!"

She grinned maniacally at Viktoriya, whose eyes widened in dawning understanding.

Of course Tanya could smell coffee where literally no other human could have.

Immediately, Tanya set off, choosing a direction and checking the stalls and shops as they went.

She had managed to survive so far with a simple tea as her morning drink, but she hadn't been able to find any coffee.

Or, rather, any _good _coffee. She had found very, _very_ cheap coffee powder, but she wouldn't touch that stuff for fear of it being contaminated with dirt or… anything other than coffee, really.

Even Viktoriya hadn't been able to transform that stuff into something palatable, which told Tanya all she wanted to know about trying to ingest it.

As they went, the smell of coffee grew stronger, as did the signs that they were approaching an area where food was sold; supply shops became restaurants, the goods people were holding changed from weapons and clothing to food, some wrapped up and some already made into meals, like fast food.

Then, Tanya found it. The wonderful – dare she say it, _heavenly_ – smell of freshly brewed coffee was caressing her entire body.

It was a small shop, to be sure, considering its entrance was smaller than even the door to the Succubi's shop, but the materials it seemed to be made of suggested that it was either popular, or that it catered to a very rich clientele.

Tanya couldn't deny what she saw.

Tanya resisted the urge to barrel through the door and try to buy the shop outright and instead pushed on the door end entered the shop.

A small, gangly man was manning the counter, while everything that Tanya could think of related to coffee – bags of coffee beans, coffee presses, jars filled with coffee grounds, cups of all shapes and sizes, even a small stack of paper filters – lined the shelves.

She strode over to the boy, and slammed her hands down on the counter. He jolted up, but she paid it no mind.

Fighting to keep her voice level, she asked, "How much?"

He blinked at her dumbly, and managed to get out a stuttered "What?" in response to her. She narrowed her eyes.

"I said: how much? How much is a cup of coffee?"

"Five thousand Eris."

Tanya paused. That was… expensive.

She scowled after doing a few calculations. Actually, scratch that; expensive didn't begin to cover it. She sent him a slightly disbelieving look, but he just shrugged.

"It's very hard to import this stuff from the south, no matter how much the nobles here like it. Five thousand."

She glowered at him, but she pulled out the bag of cash that the merchants had given her for her protection of the caravan from the Orcs. "I'll take two cups of coffee, and," she said, turning around towards a mostly silent Viktoriya, "anything that she wants to buy."

Viktoriya looked up sharply, slightly confused, but Tanya continued to grin. "What, you thought you weren't making me coffee anymore? If you want, I'll pay you, just… _please_, make me coffee!"

She finished her sentence by jolting forward and grabbing Viktoriya by the shoulders, her face uncharacteristically pleading. Viktoriya's expression became panicked, and she nodded. "Alright! It's fine Tanya, I… don't mind! At all!"

Tanya grinned, and turned back to the storekeeper. He had a ceramic mug grasped in his hands. Tanya took the cup from him, and brought it up to her lips.

She managed to drink it all in one gulp, not particularly minding that it wasn't anywhere near the quality of the stuff in either of her past lives.

As long as she had something, it was better than tea.

She sprung out into the middle of the street, ignoring the look of bafflement the shopkeeper and fondness Viktoriya sent her, and spun around herself, to make sure that she took in everything.

After this, they'd be checking out the rest of the city. Besides the obvious need to make sure they understood the area on the off chance they had to fight the Demon King or Belzerg's own forces inside the city for some reason, Tanya was hoping they had more luxuries.

Coffee and chocolate were at the top of her list, but Tanya could think of a number of things she hadn't experienced in years in the Empire, thanks to the rationing near the end.

Coffee? A hilarious joke.

Chocolate? Not even all of Tanya's connections in the Empire could get her that.

Meat? Unless you enjoy eating stuff that would have become _leather_ outside of a war, don't even think of it.

Bread? Sure, here it is. It's 50% sawdust, but it's what you get, so shove it!

While she had lovingly embraced some kinds of food once more, she was _very _keen to reunite with Visha's coffee and chocolate.

-OxOxO-

The noble stared dejectedly at the ground, slightly happy that, in the capital, no one made much note of nobles walking down the street. They were more common here, after all, and most of them had jobs they needed to do to keep the Kingdom and its war effort afloat.

Despite the small bit of happiness that fact provided her, Rain's glum expression told any who cared to look that she wasn't particularly enjoying her walk through the capital.

And why should she? She'd been separated from Iris, the one she was supposed to be serving.

Oh, it had been framed in polite terms, but the noble heading the meeting between Iris, Claire, and a number of nobles from the surrounding countries had essentially told her 'you aren't _good enough_ for us.'

That had stung, and Rain was sure she'd seen some spark of resistance shine in Iris's eyes. However, she hadn't wanted to weaken Iris's position. She'd gracefully taken his suggestion to go about the capital and survey the guards and knights.

She wasn't doing that, of course; that was, technically, Claire's job, and Rain wasn't feeling particularly interested in doing such a monotonous task.

On the other hand, maybe she should have; it would take her mind off of her family's financial troubles and relative lack of status among nobles.

"This is the life!"

A noise rose from the general conversation going on around her. It wasn't particularly loud, and it wasn't very crass.

The voice was, however, _very _recognizable. Very familiar…

Rain looked around frantically, and then she shook her head. What would Iris be doing outside of the castle, when there was supposed to be a meeting?

She readjusted her hat, straightened her skirt, and moved her staff to her other hand. She began walking again. Maybe some inspiration would give her a good idea for getting her family out of debt?

She might not have liked their spending habits, but her family was her family; she'd try her best to find a way to get tens of millions of Eris. Then, they'd be considered proper company, and she could be seen with Iris instead of being regaled to the fringes of her meetings and parties like a common dog.

She looked around. Coffee houses, produce stores, bakeries; anything that Rain could imagine was consumed, she could probably find it here.

Rain shook her head. Iris wouldn't ever leave the castle, and even if she did, she'd never come to the shopping district. If she wanted something, one of her servants could easily find something of much better quality inside there than out here.

"Honestly, these people don't know how good they have it. Actual medieval people were probably never this well off."

Rain whirled around. Again, that voice…

Besides it being ever so slightly deeper, it was… _Iris's _voice. Rain whirled around, wondering _why _Iris would be outside of the castle.

Rain didn't hear the march of the kingdom's knights accompanying the voice, which meant that… if Iris _was _out here, she didn't have her guards.

She tried looking around again, and found nothing. There were just too many people, and Rain quickly realized that Iris would be too short to be spotted among the crowds. She quickly went to one of the shops and climbed up its steps, searching the crowd for a shock of blonde hair.

It took longer than she had thought possible, but Rain, ignoring the thought that she had just imagined the sound, _found _that shock of blonde hair.

When she did though, Rain wished that she'd just ignored the voice.

She took off down the steps, pushing through the crowd, begging Eris that it wasn't true.

Iris was a proper Princess, who wouldn't dare be out here, looking like…

She broke through, and found herself staring at Iris in abject horror.

Her beautiful, long hair was completely gone. It was supposed to fall down to her waist, but Rain wasn't sure that it even touched her shoulders now. None of it was braided, it looked unkempt, and Rain wasn't sure she'd even kept the cloth ties that went in her hair, unless she'd them under the atrocious looking hat perched on her head.

If the fact that she didn't have her hair wasn't enough, she wasn't wearing a dress.

She had a green cloak on, grey, bulky evening gloves that almost matched Rain's, and a simple white shirt. Her legs and feet were clothed in drab pants and boots. Rain couldn't get a glimpse of her front, and Rain hoped that the foolish girl had kept her jewelry at least.

To top it all off, an inelegant and peculiar spear was strapped to her back while she clutched bags of goods in her hands.

Rain shook her head, storming forward. The thought that it might _not_ be Iris entered her mind, and…

Iris stopped, for a moment. Iris wasn't so free-spirited that she'd abandon such an important meeting, and it wasn't _impossible_ that there was another noble that looked similar to her…

She began walking forward again. Rain would be able to confirm it easily.

If she got a good look at their face, that would settle the matter. If they spoke like Iris, were the same height as Iris, and even looked like Iris – disregarding the clothes – then it was almost assured that it was Iris.

She grabbed Iris by her shoulder and spun her around. Some of her bags hit the ground, and Rain noted that a cup of still-steaming coffee had hit the ground, but that didn't matter. Rain had gotten a single look at the person in front of her and confirmed the truth.

It was _definitely_ Iris.

Her eyes were a very specific shade of light blue, like pieces of the sky. Everything from the most common blonde hair to the exceedingly rare shape of her head – among nobles, anyway – told Rain that the person in front of her _was _Iris.

Rain stood up straight and began to lecture to Iris admonishingly. "Princess Iris, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in a meeting, not… dressed as an adventurer!" Rain declared, quickly figuring out the truth.

Iris was very fond of the stories that adventurers and Hero Candidates told them. It seemed that she must have rushed the meeting in order to partake in a bit of adventuring herself while Rain was gone.

As she took the girl's heavy hat and threw it on the ground, she nodded to herself. She must have given Claire some job that she'd love doing – like 'guarding' her clothing and undergarments – and snuck out of the castle.

As she reached for Iris's low-level mantle, two hands gripped her outstretched arm. Rain blinked in confusion, before tracing both arms back to their origin. One came from a rather irate looking Iris, while another came from…

Rain backed up reflexively. A commoner.

A _commoner _had grabbed her arm and tried to stop what she was doing. Before she could say anything, Iris spoke up.

"Just what do you think you're doing?"

Rain blinked, and then edited her assessment. Iris seemed to have blown passed irate and right into furious territory. Trying to make her tone placating, Rain began to speak.

"Princess Iris… I know you like your adventurer stories, but that isn't any excuse for doing a half-rushed job of things with the grand nobles and distracting Claire. Now, come along."

She tried to move her arm, and then realized that she was still being gripped by the commoner. She turned to them, trying to suppress the urge to tell them off.

Rain's family had neither the money to assault commoners regularly nor the influence to sway judges to turn a blind eye to such affairs.

Besides, she was supposed to be more down to earth. She would try being polite.

Before she could even speak, she was interrupted.

"Reinforcement spell: Strength," Iris muttered. Rain eyebrows came together for a moment – she didn't know that Iris had learned a new skill – before they widened again in pain.

Her arm was in pain, and Rain knew that she'd be receiving bruises at least. Her widened eyes looked at Iris in shock. "What-"

"I think you have me confused for this 'Iris' person. Please leave us alone."

She pushed Rain away, and Rain almost felt herself lose balance. Fortunately, one of her magic rings kicked in, and she stabilized herself. Her confused gaze lasted only a moment as it looked at Iris and her apparent companion.

The commoner was wearing very similar clothing to Iris.

She was wearing a jacket instead of a mantle, and she didn't have a hat on her head, though she had grabbed the one Rain had thrown off Iris's head. Other than those things and her height – she was at least a foot taller than the Princess – they could have been mistaken for the same members of a party.

Rain shook her head. "Iris, that's _enough_. You have work to do, and you're causing a scene. Such tomfoolery is below you. Commoner," she said, addressing each in turn. The brunette raised herself up from the aggressive stance she'd taken in front of Iris, pointing to herself.

Rain nodded, mentally apologizing to Iris for making her the center of attention.

She didn't hate it, but she had told them that it was draining. "You stand next to the Princess of Belzerg, Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg!"

Immediately, the crowd that had been forming a loose ring around them jumped back in shock.

Both of them seemed rather surprised, and Rain nodded. It seemed that her companion was as unaware of that fact as the crowd had been, judging by her confused expression.

She would hand Iris over and beg for forgiveness. What else would a commoner do?

Both of them looked at each other and the surrounding crowds, for a moment, and then nodded in unison. Before Rain could understand what they were doing, they moved, and an explosion engulfed them.

Rain was knocked back by the heat and force, and she felt her ring struggle and fail to right her stature. She hit the ground, and the crowd reeled. Smoke drifted into the sky, and neither of them were to be found.

Rain fought the urge to curse, and waited as guards and adventurers alike arrived on the scene, pushing through screaming crowds of the capitals common folk. She didn't see any Hero Candidates, but she could definitely these people to find her.

"Everyone! Search the area for… a small noble girl and a tall, female commoner. They're both wearing similar outfits."

While Rain didn't have a lot of pull in noble circles, she was still a noble. The group spread out and began to search the street, while Rain stayed in the center, describing them as best she could to the highest ranking guard she could find.

She couldn't say that it was Iris – that would reflect badly on the Princess, if she had caused such a ruckus – but she could give a good enough description, even without using her name. They would be found, and-

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. She sighed in relief as she saw a concerned and stressed Claire standing behind her.

Rain nodded; with her here, they'd find them soon enough.

"Rain? What happened? I heard the explosion, and Iris called off the meeting so that I could investigate it. Is there an infiltrator running about?"

Rain opened her mouth to explain that Iris had somehow slipped out of the castle, when Claire words brought her up short.

Iris was… _at the castle?_

She leveled a stern stare at the guard, who left quickly. Rain, eyebrows knit and feeling rather confused, said, "What do you mean, Iris ended the meeting? She was just here, wearing an adventurer's clothing and carrying a number of odd purchases."

She gestured to the cup lying on the ground, along with a few pieces of clothing. None of it seemed to be up to Iris's level of wealth, but some of it might have adorned a wealthy merchant's daughter.

Claire's head tilted. "What do you mean? Iris wouldn't do something like that. She's perfectly well behaved, besides her fascination with the stories of adventurers."

Rain shook her head. "Claire, I swear to you that the person standing before me was Iris. The _exact_ same face, build, and height. Her hair was cut as short as mine, and the only way I'd be able to tell them apart is their clothing."

Claire looked troubled. She brought a hand up to her chin, rubbing it as she thought.

Then, in a rush, her eyes widened. "Could it be some sort of infiltrator? Perhaps even a Demon?"

Rain sighed, and began to walk back to the castle with Claire. She needed to see for herself that Iris was fine.

She mulled the question over for a moment, and then began to speak again. "Possibly. However, I offered to bring her into the castle…"

Rain grimaced. If it had been an impostor, then she had almost made a blunder of epic proportions.

She'd almost brought an enemy into the castle. "She denied that she was Iris, and if some sort of Demon had the power to shapeshift and was intent on infiltrating the castle, she'd have taken my offer up immediately."

Claire grabbed hold of Rain's attention by striding forward. "Well, we can solve this easily enough. We'll go ask the Guild if they've seen anyone that matches her description, and then ask Iris if she's been out of the castle"

Rain nodded and supposed that that was the best course of action.

The guards would try their best, but searching the entirety of the city for two people wasn't exactly easy, especially if that commoner was a Thief, or an Advanced job above Thief. They could just remain hidden until the heat died down, and Rain may never see them again.

-OxOxO-

In a grand bedroom that was filled with all manner of items, clothing, and ornaments – not that she liked even half of them – the Princess stood in front of two people as cool nighttime air blew in from the open windows.

The peasants and commoners would think of them as nobles, not understanding their precise standing but acknowledging their power regardless.

The various knights and nobles that visited the castle would call them her retainers.

Her father and brother called them her most trusted retainers, and Iris did too.

Publicly.

In her mind, and when she could, she tried to show them that she thought of them as friends as well.

Which was why, in the wake of the small explosion and their story about a possible impostor, Iris was conflicted. Part of her wanted to believe Rain, and if Claire had confirmed the sighting of someone that looked like her from the peasants, then it was possible.

If someone had been able to replicate everything about her, however, that meant that there was a traitor in the castle or among the nobility.

No one else was able to get close enough to her to replicate everything about her otherwise, which meant that… one of her friends might be a traitor.

It hurt her to think of them in that way, but she was the Princess. She had to be pragmatic.

In another part of her, small and towards the back of her mind…. she wondered what she would look like wearing adventurers clothing. Something that wasn't tailored to her exact specifications, that itched occasionally, and that couldn't be thrown away at the smallest sign damage.

Iris shook her head. She was the Princess; such thoughts were unbecoming of her. Still…

"You are sure the Adventurers Guild hasn't heard of them?"

Both nodded. "They were annoyed at being woken, but once they realized what was going on, they hastened to assist us. They have not heard word of a new adventurer like that, and told us that they would not be getting any at all for a few days," Rain explained.

Iris tilted her head. "Why would it take so long?"

"Most adventurers cannot afford teleportation, and some that can feel that the possibility for failure or mistakes isn't worth the gold and saved time. They travel with merchants and provide them with protection. The next batch will arrive in just a few days, and not until then."

Iris nodded and then sighed. They really needed those adventurers, and every moment they took to get here was another moment that portions of the capital's defenses were weakened.

Claire stepped forward. "What would you have us do, My Princess?" she asked, eyes shining.

Iris tried to appear completely blank – this was a more formal meeting between the three of them, after all.

On one hand, she didn't want Claire and Rain to be distracted from running the castle and defending the capital. Things were precarious enough, and adding in her own selfish desires to the mix wouldn't help matters.

On the other hand, letting an impostor run around in the city, potentially causing havoc might be worse. And if they weren't an impostor, but instead someone who looked like her…

Iris looked up. "Please, try and find this person. If you have too much to do, then you can delegate it, but-"

Claire immediately spoke up. "Yes, My Princess! We will not stop until they have been found and we have received your praise!"

With that, Claire dashed out, followed by an amused and exasperated Rain. "Make sure to increase security around the castle and near the city walls, too. If they mean to harm me, then it would not do to be lax," Iris added.

Rain gave Iris a sidelong glance, nodded, and walked out of the room. She shut the doors behind her softly, and then…

Iris was alone, the only company she had being the dolls she'd been given when she was a child and the stars that hung above the city.

She left her room and walked onto the balcony, looking out across the city. The tallest buildings were clustered around the castle or towards the west, where the other nobles made their residences. Smaller buildings were everywhere, but one in particular caught her attention.

It wasn't particularly tall, and its red-tiled roofs didn't scream wealth. All the same, Iris looked at the Adventurers Guild with a sense of longing.

To be able to do what she wanted, fight for the good of the people, and find someone she could love on her own was a secret she'd told no one. The outside world was in front of her, but she could never reach it.

She thought of the possible impostor. Were they some disgusting minion of the Demon King, sent here to infiltrate the royal family? Or were they a noble who just happened to look like her, who'd somehow become an adventurer, ignoring their duties to do what they wanted?

She sighed and went back inside. Such fantasies shouldn't distract her. The meeting with a few of the closest grand nobles had gone well enough, but they had refused to give more money or soldiers without yet more promises that she couldn't make.

She just wasn't old enough yet.

Since they wouldn't help, that meant that she was out of options. She bit her lip…

If things were better, and the entirety of the front line – besides the area her father and her brother were holding – weren't being pushed, they could wait to beg for help. Instead…

She'd have to travel to Elroad and plead with her betrothed for more funds. Despite her misgivings and reluctance, they'd have to leave the capital, depriving the defenders of motivation, resolve, and, at the least, two people who could be trusted to defend Iris.

She sat down and began to write a letter. Arriving unannounced could mean scandal, so she'd send it via teleportation.

They needed funds more than ever, and Iris was ready to do her duty.

-OxOxO-

Tanya settled into her own bed, relishing in the comfortable cloth. She'd never take beds for granted again after her time on the front.

Not that these sheets were especially comfortable compared to any others Tanya had slept in. They'd actually checked into a cheaper inn than the one in Axel.

There were still two beds inside the room, and there was a small chest for storing things. Otherwise, however, there wasn't much.

Tanya didn't mind, though. They needed to save money on the off chance they could find a Blacksmith that would let Tanya use their equipment. She still needed to remake a lot of tools after Chris had managed to destroy them.

Tanya sighed.

She and Viktoriya now had limited supplies. Their Computation Jewels would function for a month before the wear and tear meant they'd begin to malfunction. Their guns could be maintained for a long while, but even their rifles would need repair eventually.

Most pressing, however, were their cartridges: they didn't have tons of them. Tanya hadn't been able to make many without her tools, but they had enough for two weeks, possibly… four. If they were _very _conservative with what they had left.

Tanya turned her head, expecting to find that Viktoriya was asleep.

She wasn't, and was instead staring worriedly at Tanya in the dark.

"Are you alright, Colonel?"

Tanya nearly scoffed.

Why did she insist on calling her by that rank? She had called her by her name plenty of times, and if she had to call her by a rank, couldn't she at least call her a Major-General? She'd climbed that high, after all…

Tanya didn't reprimand her or say anything, though. If Viktoriya took some sort of solace in what they had once been, she couldn't blame her.

Tanya stared up at the ceiling. "Yes, Viktoriya. How about you?"

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she sighed. Tanya's eyebrows rose in the dark. Viktoriya always seemed upbeat, but it seemed that she'd been decompressing a bit.

"Fine, I suppose… I was just wondering how much we're going to tell Lorelei."

Tanya sighed. "We can't tell her much, obviously, if we don't want her to run away screaming. It seems like she's had a pretty… unhappy past, if what she told us today is truthful. I think if we don't ask, she'll extend the same courtesy to us."

Tanya nodded, more to herself than Viktoriya, as she stared up at the dark ceiling.

This room might have had a window, but it was dark out. It seemed that even the capital didn't have enough money to put street lights everywhere, and the road this cheap inn was on didn't warrant any. It was a small reminder of Axel, but it was a reminder nonetheless.

"Are you sure we can afford to? I mean, we didn't tell Darkness all that much, and she thought that I was evil and trying to manipulate you…"

Tanya was silent for a moment, until she groaned. Yes, Darkness had been one of the reasons for Tanya's battles in and flight from Axel, and if the Crusader had known more about what Tanya and Viktoriya were trying to do, she might not have tried anything.

"You're right. As always, you seem to be able to find problems I'm just not able to."

She made a sound of shock, but Tanya shook her head. "No, no. It's true! You've done a lot to help me find things like that. You were the one who helped me come up with that idea to incite rebellion in the Russy Federation, remember?"

While the woman protested, Tanya thought back.

Tanya had been invited to a meeting of some of the big shots on the eastern front with the Russy, to help brainstorm ideas. None of the General Staff's plans were working, and even… _those_ spells were only able to slow them so much.

The Kaiser had declared that they'd include as many prominent officers as possible, even those that weren't part of the General Staff. Tanya had been invited for her previous achievements and her ability to fight the Bloody Valkyrie. She had thought it was a sort of litmus test to determine if she could ever hold that kind of role permanently.

_Ha._ What a joke…

She shook her head. She hadn't been able to come up with anything.

Viktoriya, on the other hand…

Viktoriya had. She'd told Tanya that her family had told her how much trouble the ruling classes always had keeping down the minorities – Polish, Lithuanians, Finnish, and almost anyone else that wasn't near the heartland that had also been marginalized or exploited.

It hadn't been an idle remark, either. She had come up with the idea, _entirely_. Tanya hadn't had any input, besides in a few details.

Tanya had suggested it and referenced Viktoriya numerous times, and within the month, the Russy had been paralyzed by internal riots. The Empire's scorched earth policy had also meant that they were struggling to find enough food to eat.

Only the entry of the Unified States had slowed the Russy Federation's fall, and even then, it had seemed like the Empire would end the war at any time…

Tanya's thoughts. The end of the war… the Russy Federation… Grantz… Neumann…

Tanya fought to keep her breathing calm and push back those memories. She didn't even-

"Tanya!"

She snapped her head to the side and saw Viktoriya. She blinked rapidly, and then sighed tiredly. Those stupid memories still wouldn't just… leave her alone.

Tanya tried her best to look calm, but she doubted it worked very well. Viktoriya wasn't good at gambling and card games _just _because she had a poker face like no other.

Still, Tanya pretended that she wasn't being scrutinized. She laid on the bed, hoping that sleep would claim her before Viktoriya tried to continue the conversation.

A voice came from her right. "Do you… want to talk about it?"

Tanya's hair laid deathly still. Talk about it? About the end of the war? About _it?_ About-

Tanya's head snapped to the side again, glaring murderously at Viktoriya.

Unsurprisingly – and wasn't _that _annoying – the woman's resolve held, though, and she just stared at Tanya and allowed the question to hang in the air.

Tanya resolved to shoot that question down as quickly and brutally as she could.

As if it were an Aerial Mage.

"_No."_

She turned over, even as Viktoriya continued to talk. "Tanya, you need to talk about it with _someone_-" Viktoriya began.

Tanya cut her off.

"No, Viktoriya. I'm not talking about what Lor- what he- what _it_ did. _Almost_ did."

Hate and anger and – it wasn't fear it wasn't it- _wasn't it_ – welled up in her chest, and she turned back around to stare Viktoriya in the eyes.

"…unless you'd like to _talk _about what _you_ did too?" Tanya spat out.

Viktoriya's eyes widened in shock. "Tanya…"

Tanya turned to the side, facing her back to her adjunct and ignoring the shame burning on her face.

She knew that that hadn't been necessary, and that it was more than just petty, but she would _not _talk about what had almost happened.

She hadn't had enough time to forget it… and Tanya didn't think she ever would.

Tanya tried her best to ignore the sniffling coming from Viktoriya, and she hoped that Viktoriya was giving Tanya the same consideration.

Tanya wasn't budging, though.

Eventually, all of her problems would be things of the past.

Or, she'd blow them up.

One or the other always happened.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** So that ended on a rather… sour note. Still, it isn't like the only reason they've stayed together this whole time is because they were forced to by, say, their rank in the army or something, right? Absolutely no chance that one does something rash to try and resolve things.

And things had just started to look good, too…

Tanya got her coffee back, the 'Iris Arc' or 'Royalty Arc' (as I'm calling it) has started off with the head honchos of the Kingdom – besides the King and his son and Darkness's father, of course – wondering about the resemblance between Iris and this other girl.

I will not lie, when I first read Vol. 6 of the Novels and saw Iris, I _immediately_ knew what I was going to do when Tanya got to the capital.

Oh, this _will _be good.

**A/N 2: **Replies to reviews:

**Father Chaos: **Believe it or not, they subverted Kazuma's expectations too, when he first met them!

**rotuxxd: **I do respond to comments in other languages, though keep in mind that I just slap it into Google Translate and hope that works well enough.

And to answer your one question: yes. If you go back and read the A/Ns and responses now that you're all caught up you'll get hints as to how it will be accomplished, but Tanya's gettin' her dick back, and for how much she'll be giving up to get it, it won't have any unfortunate side effects.

Now, while I agree with you that part of her essence is being a man unfortunately trapped in the wrong body, but Tanya is more than that. You know, with the tactical brilliance and the struggle with Being X and the murder and constant misunderstandings, among other things.

Besides, doesn't she deserve to overcome one of her problems for once? And it isn't as if this won't cause her just as many problems as it fixes.

Tanya will explain her thoughts on the subject more completely in chapter 30, but that's my take on it.

**Prometheus-42: **I am also upset that Darkness is staying behind. Unfortunately, with the suggestion Being X planted in her head kicking at the end of chapter 19 rattling around and pushing her to leave quickly, Darkness's responsibilities to her father and Axel, as well as a need to have someone with a positive opinion of Tanya to keep Kazuma, Aqua, and Megumin from doing something rash, she had to stay.

Considering this fanfic is going to end up well over 500k words, if not closer to 1m, we'll get plenty of time for them to interact later.

Although… you _have _given me an idea for another Omake…

**Xpparda: **Is she jealous…

Sort of? Visha's been telling herself that she doesn't have a chance with Tanya, so while she does, for a moment, contemplate if Tanya liked the kiss – and, by extension, if she would like _more _of that – she quickly buries the notion that Tanya would think of anything but the practical application of using unorthodox tactics in the heat of battle.

**Lord of Moons: **Living up to your name, I see?

In all seriousness, I hadn't considered it. I'll add it to the growing list of 'things people smarter than me have suggested so she can offload a whole bunch of stuff on Wiz'.

They do have glasses, actually. Sena, in the second season, constantly wears them. As for whether eyes could be healed…

Probably not. Heal can't do anything for disease, as shown by Darkness's cousin in the later volumes. If even Aqua's Heal can't fix a weak immune system, then it's likely that a limit is birth defects.

**Naruto de Libra: **Don't worry, I am aware that they're just suggestions. There will be infighting among the deities at a later date – if Wolbach being on the Demon King's side doesn't already count.

**AlternateReality:**

People are not exactly _willing _to talk about _**Being Raped, **_and trying to push people who have been through trauma like that – especially when they are stubborn and combative – has consequences.

As this chapter demonstrates.

Now, as for the romance, I _did _once change the tags to Hurt/Comfort when someone pointed out that the Romance wasn't there yet. I now realize that that is _also _too much, for a little bit.

The events of Konosuba take place on a _much _smaller timescale than the ones in Youjo Senki – absolute maximum is 4 years, and I'm not confident the timeline breaks three, without Megumin's backstory being added in. If I went at the usual pace of the postwar!Tanya fics, this thing would have been over by now.

_I want more out of this than that._

It might be taking a while, but we _will _get there, and if you want something more fast paced, check out 'You Thought that THAT was Hard?' Tanya literally asks Visha to marry her in the second chapter. It doesn't get faster than that.

tl;dr *Insert incredibles meme about getting there when we get there*

**Manuel:** Thanks!

**GremlinJack: **I'll update the fight scene in the last chapter soon.

**Pyromania101: **I'm gonna be honest, I didn't get what half of either of you said because I've spent way too much time obsessing over, like, 7 fandoms and nothing else.

REGARDLESS, your point about Yunyun is not just good, but _correct,_ when her interaction with the creep that Megumin scares of in Ch 2 of the 3rd Explosion spinoff LN, as well as her desire for friends to push her into considering using her future power as chief to domesticate monsters so she can have a friend…

She still has more friends than I do, though!

Anyway, thanks for putting the story on alert, and see you next time!


	23. Fighting and Bickering

Needless to say, neither of them had gotten much sleep. With the sun peeking through the window, both were bleary eyed, and they'd taken twice as long to get ready for the day.

Viktoriya had, quietly, made the two of them coffee. Lovely smells had drifted through the air, and Tanya was reminded of the quiet and smaller portions of the war.

The portions when they had been travelling or waiting for orders to move forward. The portions during the winter when they didn't have to fight as much and they needed the extra warmth of her coffee to make up for the lack of food. The portions when things had been… better.

Tanya had almost thanked her for it out loud, and then she'd clamped down on her elation at receiving another cup her favorite coffee.

Instead, she had thanked her in a distant, polite kind of way, like she would have any old barista at Starbucks.

Viktoriya had responded in kind, and the rest of the morning had progressed like that. They'd help each other out or do things that had previously inspired amusement or a nostalgic reminder of the past, and then they would clamp down on anything other than professional greetings.

Tanya hated it, but she couldn't do anything about it.

If she admitted defeat, then she'd been wrong.

If she was wrong, that meant she'd have to talk about _it _eventually.

And she _wouldn't _do that. She'd willingly pray to Being X before that happened.

Tanya scoffed and pretended that Viktoriya wasn't pressed against the door to their room, wondering what she was doing. She pulled her shirt over her head and shook it soon after. Tanya wouldn't go that far…

Both left the inn they'd stayed at and asked a passerby for directions to the adventurers guild. They'd been suspicious, but they'd taken a single look at Tanya's hair, obstructed from view by her hood, and pointed them towards the direction.

Now they were there. It was certainly… _different _than Axel's guild.

Axel's guild looked like a tavern or some sort of administrative building from the outside. A large, well-to-do family might have even lived in it.

It had obviously not been built with the objective of holding off invaders, and there were many buildings that easily topped it in extravagance or in being defensible throughout Axel.

This one, on the other hand, looked like a castle in miniature. Flags and banners with the crest of the guild hung from every surface, declaring loudly to all that saw it exactly what it was. Its roof was still red, probably to help adventurers find it, but otherwise, it looked like a fortress.

Before Tanya went in, she turned her head slightly. "We'll not be taking a quest today. We still need to survey the town, since we didn't get a chance to yesterday, with all the running around," she said.

Tanya saw Viktoriya's face light up momentarily, before it quickly snapped back to an edifice of stone. A flash of both irritation and sorrow flashed across Tanya's face, until she snapped a mask of her own into place.

She turned back to the thick door and pushed it open.

The inside, unlike the outside, seemed _just _like the guild in Axel. There was boisterous laughter, conversation, and a din of happiness. Despite the apparently dire situation that the Kingdom was facing from its adversaries, it seemed like the inside of the guild was immune to that.

Alternatively, they could all be drunk.

Aerial mages weren't given an alcohol ration unless they asked for it, since flying with a bit of alcohol was worse than driving completely plastered, but most of the regular soldiers had been able to face the thought of death with a smile on their face because of the beer in their bellies.

Both of them strode forward, intending to skip the tavern and head for the front desk.

She tried her best to find a familiar face – whether from Axel in general, or 'Chris' or Lorelei in particular – but couldn't find anyone that immediately jumped out at her. She saw a few people from their trip over in the line in front of her, including the would-be rapists, but otherwise, she didn't see anyone particularly memorable.

She shrugged; she'd find their new partner eventually, and until then, she could contemplate everything she'd wanted to do to the schmucks that had threatened Lorelei. She strode forward, Viktoriya by her side, and stood in the line.

Unlike Axel, where every male – herself included – tended to favor lining up in front of Luna to watch her mountainous breasts wobble, each of the five lines were similar in length. She chose one, and sighed.

Hopefully, this wouldn't take long.

Thankfully, it wasn't. The line quickly dispersed, and Tanya studied the receptionist in front of her.

He wasn't anything to write home about – light brown hair with a set of thick glasses that must have weighed at least fifty pounds, and a truly outrageous amount of acne both marked his face – but he'd worked through the people in his line the fastest.

Hopefully, he was just a good worker and he wasn't skipping procedures.

Tanya strode forward, Viktoriya by her side, and introduced herself. "I'm-"

Before she could finish, he cut her off. "No need to declare yourselves. We only care about that when we get your information from the last town you were at. I assume you were with the group from Axel?"

Tanya nodded, and he waved her by. "You can accept any quest you want, then. Just make sure it's within your skill level."

Tanya nodded slowly, and walked from the counter.

Well.

She grinned maliciously. They could accept _any _quest, huh? She rubbed her hands together, wondering just how much she could earn. Before she could get anywhere, however, a voice called out from the crowd.

"Degurechaff? Is that you?"

She turned around, looking for the owner of the unfamiliar voice. It didn't take long – the rest of the conversation around them had died as people turned towards the outcry, while one person was moving.

Tanya's eyes widened as the figure dressed in bulky blue armor strode towards her. She put on a confident smile and pushed aside plans and her fears with Viktoriya. Maybe she'd get more advice?

"Mitsurugi! Nice to see you again," she said, pouring mana into a Reinforcement spell and shaking his hand. He seemed surprised by her Strength, and exchanged an even handshake.

Both of them found a nearby table and sat down, closely followed by their companions. Tanya ignored the glares that his companions were sending her. It seemed that they were still harboring the delusion that she was _interested _in him.

How idiotic. Who would assume that anyone within his vicinity was trying to bag him besides the incredibly vain?

"What happened to you? You left Axel without a word. Something about trying to find a Mage, right?"

He nodded and sighed. "Yeah. I traveled around a bit and tried to find a Crimson Demon outside of their village, but I couldn't find anyone."

She sent him a confused look, and he waved her concern away. "Crimson Demons are altered humans. They all have black hair, red eyes, supreme intellect, and an outrageous amount of magical power. I traveled to the village once, but no one there wanted to go with me."

Tanya's eyes closed, and then they snapped back open. Luna had told her about Crimson Demons a while ago, right?

"I couldn't find anyone, though. They don't seem to like leaving their village, I guess..." he said, trailing off dejectedly.

She sighed, privately guessing that most everyone had been scared off by his two very… _protective _companions. "I'm sure you'll find a Mage eventually."

His eyes lit up. "Hey! You must have changed to a more useful class if you're here! Are you a Mage by any chance?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Still an Adventurer."

He rolled his eyes right back. "Degurechaff, you really _need _to change your class. You can't survive here with-"

"Prove it."

He blinked at her, but Tanya just grinned confidently. She'd do what she did last time she'd arrived at a guild: beat people in some sort of competition to prove her viability.

His head tilted, but Tanya just smirked. "Prove it. You've got a Swordmaster class, right? If you can beat me in some sort of competition, I'll concede that changing my class is an idea."

He looked reluctant. "I don't think that fighting a girl is-"

Tanya groaned, but Viktoriya piped up. "Then have one of them fight us," she said, pointing a pair of fingers and an appraising look at the two women by his side.

Tanya spared them a look, and noted that both were still wearing what they had been in their last meeting – which is to say, practically nothing.

In fact, it didn't seem like either of them had upgraded their gear. Tanya supposed that it was possible they had very good equipment, but she doubted it.

They seemed to be very interested in Mitsurugi because of his power, not in any desire to defeat the Demon King. Tanya was sure that meant they let him do a lot of the heavy lifting, though how he hadn't caught on yet, Tanya wasn't sure. He seemed like a smart kid.

Both began to look nervous, but Tanya jumped on Viktoriya's idea. "Yeah. If you're so concerned about fighting a _girl_, then have one of them fight me."

Mitsurugi seemed to be thinking hard about it and appraising them. His eyes narrowed as he stared at them – or rather, _above _them – and Tanya was guessing that he'd just caught sight of their bayonets.

"What are those? Have you chosen to use spears?"

Tanya grinned widely. She could safely reveal the gun without fear of someone trying to track her down because of it – if he told anyone that could arrest her about the guns due to some problem with it, he'd have to explain to the people he was trying to tattle on her to how he knew she had such a dangerous weapon, and most people would think he was insane if he tried to say 'I'm from another world.'

She reached around her back to grab her rifle, but Viktoriya shot her a confused look, halting her actions.

Tanya spoke to her rapidly in Germanian. _"He's a Reincarnate too. He'll understand the significance of the weapons."_

She shrugged noncommittally, and Tanya felt a sharp pang of guilt. She pushed it down, and revealed the weapon, to the confusion of his companions and to his shock. "These are our weapons."

He blinked for a moment, and then shot to his feet. "You have GUNS!?" he screeched uncharacteristically.

Conversation throughout the guild died quickly, and a large crowd began to form around them. Tanya rubbed the back of her head nervously. She'd forgotten that most of the Reincarnates that had come to this world got a fast-pass to the capital.

There were loud exclamations from the people around them, and Tanya wondered if any advice he could give her would be worth the trouble.

"Are you kidding? You managed to make guns?"

"Don't ruin the fantasy setting! We have enough problems without having to worry about bullets!"

"Maybe this will turn the tide?"

Tanya tried to ignore most of the exclamations, but the ones she did hear sounded like an odd mix of anger, shock, and elation. She focused on Mitsurugi, who was reaching out a hand to touch the gun.

She swiped it away. "Hey! Don't touch it," she said, securing it to her back once again. She looked around herself, and realized that there had to be at least thirty Reincarnates around her.

She turned back to Mitsurugi. "So, do you want them to fight me, or will you-" she was about to ask.

Truthfully, this was more than enough attention, and she couldn't honestly say that she wanted to show off her weapon in front of such a crowd. She felt a certain amount of hostility being sent her way, some of which she was sure was due to anger that their quests were about to be completed at a breakneck pace.

"Are you crazy? No way I'd-" he began to say. Unfortunately for him, the people sitting next to him interrupted him.

"Of course he'll take you on! The Cursed Sword Gram is way more powerful than whatever stupid weapon you have!"

"That's right! He'll mop the floor with your stupid looking face once he breaks that stupid weapon!"

From the crowd, cheering was beginning to rise, though Mitsurugi was sending his companions a rather biting stare. Tanya could pick out a few of the more inebriated Reincarnates cheering him on, but most of the noise seemed to be coming from beyond the immediate crowd of Reincarnates.

Before either of them could back out, a voice rose above the crowd with the help out the magically-powered loudspeakers. "QUIET!"

The cheering quieted, and the receptionist that Tanya had been talking to was glaring angrily at them. "What's going on?"

Again, Tanya was beaten to the punch by Mitsurugi's companions. "They're picking a fight with Kyouya!"

Tanya shook her head. "No! We just wanted a friendly competition! Nothing like a fight!" she claimed.

If she was going to fight something, she'd rather her abilities be revealed while they were fighting against an invasion where she could gain the most renown, not in a petty bar fight.

He glared at them all, and then visibly brightened. "Oh, if that's all, then it's completely fine!"

"Really?" Tanya asked hopefully, wondering if maybe this could all be resolved peacefu-

"OF COURSE NOT!" he shouted, deafening the crowd and dashing her hopes. He hastily deactivated the magic item he was holding in his hand, and gestured to the back to the tavern/guild area. "If you want a 'friendly competition,' then go to the Pit!"

The crowd around them was quiet for a moment, before it broke out in raucous cheers. She turned to Mitsurugi. "What this Pit? And why does it sound so intimidating?"

He began to explain. "There are so many powerful adventurers here that, whenever the Demon King hasn't attacked in a while, people start to pick fights because they don't have anything to do. It isn't actually a _pit_, per se, but-"

He was cut off by the crowd, which began to push them out. Not wanting to get caught up in things, Tanya stayed ahead of the swell of people, and found herself in what she could only call a coliseum.

It was just like the _big _one in Reme – the capital of the Empire's Ildoan puppet state that had been set up in the wake of their declaration of war – the 203rd had visited, even if this one was a bit smaller. The adventurers began to fill the stands of the indoor arena, calling for a fight.

Of course, this one was also inside, for some reason. Tanya guessed that it had to do with keeping magic in some place where it couldn't fly off and cause massive damage.

As she was pushed into the center alongside Mitsurugi, she decided, amid the increasingly loud cheering, that no advice he could give her was worth this.

She groaned. She'd just wanted a friendly little arm wrestling match, or maybe a game of chess. Something small and simple. Why did she have to do this?

She searched the stands, and found that Viktoriya was sitting in one of the stands, resolutely staring forward. Tanya sighed, and turned around to see an equally uncomfortable Mitsurugi.

He didn't strike her as the kind of person who liked this sort of thing, but it seemed that he accepted his position.

She shrugged; if a veteran adventurer wasn't going to protest, she probably didn't have a chance of getting out of this without losing face. She withdrew her rifle once more, fiddling with the clasp on her hooded mantle.

He became infinitely more nervous. "I'm not interested in trying out if Adamantite can block bullets, so how about you don't shoot at me?" he asked.

Tanya shrugged. "Offer an incentive."

It wasn't like she _wanted _to hurt the Reincarnate, but showing off her gun's abilities and her corresponding abilities with magic would certainly impress the crowd.

She was, however, human, and she responded to incentives just as anyone else would.

He drew his ridiculous sword – which was longer than she was tall – and made it glow. "This can shoot beams of power. I won't use that skill if you don't fire at me."

Tanya nodded. "That's fine. Is this a battle to first blood, or…"

He shook his head. "We can all afford Priests; this gets… pretty messy."

Just as he started to lower himself, she held up a hand.

The seated, roaring crowd around them groaned collectively, but she ignored it. "So, to recap: we fight until we get bloodied up, no one from the crowd can interfere, and anything besides bullets and your skill goes?"

He shook his head. "The crowd is allowed to help, but the crowd can _also _retaliate against anyone in the crowd who does so, turning this one on one into a free for all."

Tanya sighed. Well, Viktoriya couldn't help her win without earning the ire of every other adventurer.

Of course, it wasn't like she was going to help her anyway-

She cut off that thought with a snarl, and then she lowered herself down, casting Reinforcement spells through her Type 97.

At least she'd get a good idea of what the Reincarnates were like here. She didn't discount the possibility that Reincarnates that had been tasked with killing her – or even Mary – might tell everyone that she'd deprived their countrymen of their relics and skills.

Figuring out just how powerful they were would give her insight into just how many she might be able to take on before taking to the air and retreating.

Both of them stood there for a moment. Tanya guessed that he was sizing her up. She pointed her rifle.

He flinched away ever so slightly, and she smirked. "Explosive Vaporization."

A ball of light flew from her rifle, impacting the ground next to him. He jumped away from it quickly, ducking into a roll and standing back up to watch as it exploded.

He sent her a stern gaze, and she returned a flippant smile and readjusted her aim. He began to run towards her, and Tanya smirked; he'd fallen for the ploy.

He thought she fought from a far distance. It wasn't a bad assumption, of course; she had a gun, and he'd just seen her use magic. Both of those things were the makings of a ranged fighter who wanted others in between them and monsters.

He did, however, know that she was an Adventurer, mind the capitalization. He really should have expected her to be smarter than that.

She whipped off the cloak she had loosened and gestured with an outstretched hand. "Wind Breath!"

The cloak flapped away from her, crashing straight into Mitsurugi and causing him to trip. The crowd made an uproar, but Tanya jetted forward, feeling the rush of adrenaline and she raised her rifle.

He tore the cloak off of him, ripping through cloth and leather, and raised his own sword up, preparing to block her strike. Just as she'd done in her first fight against a Reincarnate, however, she subverted his expectations.

Unfortunately, he did so too. His eyes widened as he saw her foot lash out, and he shouted "Stance Change!"

His body moved like lightning, and he blocked the kick with his sword. Tanya was sent backwards, cursing.

That must have been some sort of skill from his job.

The Reincarnate had the gall to _gloat_. "Would you like to concede? I am aware of my power, and-"

She narrowed her eyes, and silently cast another Explosive Vaporization, this time behind him. He dodged it, as planned, but the edge of the blast caught him, sending him sprawling, for a moment.

Tanya poured mana into an Agility Reinforcement spell and into sharpening her blade. Hopefully, his armor wouldn't be too damaged.

She lunged forward, aiming for his armor, and again, he surprised her. Her blade impacted his armor, yes. but it did nothing. Tanya could see that it had left a small hole, and that he might have a very shallow wound, but nothing else.

This Adamantite seemed… absurdly good at its job.

Before she could try again, this time closer to one of the gaps in his armor, he kicked her in the stomach. Tanya didn't feel much pain thanks to her spells, but she was sent flying away, crashing into the ground.

She rose and stared at him, mentally adding Adamantite weapons or armor to her growing shopping list.

He stared back, still brandishing his sword.

Neither moved, and Tanya was trying to think. The last time she'd won in a situation where she couldn't use bullets against a Reincarnate with a sword, she'd managed to trick the fool into tiring himself out.

Tanya grinned; don't fix what wasn't broken. She could do the same here.

He began to run towards her, but she simply backed up, using the space of the coliseum to her advantage to stay well away from him. He continued to run towards her, and she continued to back up.

She continued to mirror his advance, step for step.

Eventually, he caught on to what she was doing. He slowed, and backed up a bit. She slowed and stepped forward a bit. He stared at her, but she only grinned. She'd just had another idea.

That armor seemed pretty heavy, and Tanya doubted that he'd managed to fit an air conditioner in there.

"Napalm!" she shouted. A point in front of her gun began to spew fire, coating the ground near Mitsurugi with fire that Tanya knew would burn far longer than this fight would last. He began to back up, but Tanya matched the distance, spraying fire everywhere near him.

She poured mana into an Oxygen Conversion spell – one that hadn't seen much use at all until the 203rd proved that they could exceed the normal height ceiling of mages – to make sure she wouldn't inhale any smoke.

Tanya vaguely heard a voice in the background shout for the Mages to use wind spells, but she didn't mind; if they didn't want to deal with fire in a confined space, they should have built their arena outside.

Or they could have at least put in a sunroof.

She continued to advance, stalking forward. Soon, he was surrounded by flames.

Tanya, however, didn't gloat. She was smarter than that. Instead, she began to cut off the spell. No more fire appeared, but considering half of the place was filled with it, Tanya doubted that he was very comforted.

She began to send spells towards him, exploding what little ground he had left to maneuver in. He was dodging them, but Tanya could tell that he was tiring. Inch by inch, his reactions were becoming more delayed.

Tanya was beginning to feel the drain of her mana, but she ignored it. She hadn't even fought for half an hour; she could keep going.

He seemed to have come to the same conclusion. He was looking around himself and looking worried. Still, he seemed very cocky. He was grinning, and…

Wait. Tanya narrowed her eyes.

He wasn't sweating profusely.

Tanya glared coldly; considering everything else she had encountered in this world, it was entirely possible he had an item that protected him from extreme temperatures.

She grit her teeth; fine, she'd just use a dehydration spell on him. Even he couldn't resist that for long, no matter what kind of trinkets he had on him.

She poured mana into a Passive Barrier and jumped through the fire, apparently surprising him.

He raised his sword, preparing for an attack. It seemed he thought she would be fighting him with her bayonet. She played into his ideas, rushing towards him and raising her blade again.

It seemed he expected it. Instead of guarding, he was betting that his own attack would be faster and be able to slice her. She just laughed internally, and applied a bit of a Flight spell to herself so that she twisted in midair and flew _over_ him.

His blade missed, and Tanya thrust her spear forward.

A direct hit.

She'd managed to slice into his arm. He cried out, but kept a hold of his sword and began to bring it around to slice at her again.

She ignored the ridiculous thing, and reached out a hand as she hit the ground behind him.

"Dehydrate!"

She watched in satisfaction as he collapsed. Desperately, he tried swinging his sword, but she just backed up, continuing to point and ready to cast the spell again.

She cast it twice more as he managed to rise to his feet once and twice.

"Do you give up?" she asked.

His cheeks had visibly sunk in a bit, and his eyes looked more prominent. He sighed, and shot her a warm smile. "I give up."

Before Tanya could comment on that – why on Earth was he _smiling_ at her? He'd lost without even getting a good hit on her – the crowd around them erupted into cheers.

It seemed that their earlier… partiality to Mitsurugi had evaporated in the face of her victory.

Tanya smirked, but before she could bask in the sound, a shout of "Freeze Gust!" extinguished most of the still raging fire.

Tanya turned to the voice, and began to run towards her.

Then she stopped, and stood ramrod straight.

Right, she couldn't hug Viktoriya in jubilation that she'd won.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Tanya turned to Mitsurugi, who was being helped to his feet by his friends. Both were struggling to lift him, no doubt because he was heavy, or the suit of armor had heated up, or both.

"Here, let me help." She stretched out a hand, but his sidekicks spoke first.

"Leave Kyouya alone, you cheating coward!"

"Yeah! You used dirty tricks to win."

Tanya rolled her eyes and cast a spell anyway. "Heal."

He shuddered, for a moment, before he stood quickly. He turned to Tanya, looking honestly shocked. "Thank you!"

Tanya nodded quickly, and then turned to Viktoriya. Her smile became stiff again, and both of them left the arena without another word. Both ignore the congratulations and scorn they were receiving.

"I suppose that Lorelei must be here by now, right?"

Tanya looked over her shoulder, and she saw Viktoriya nod stiffly. Silently, she strode over towards the doors, making sure that she didn't slip out or something. Tanya turned forward, and looked around the rapidly refilling room.

_There_. She was leaving the entrance to the arena among a long line of others, looking rather dazed.

Tanya ran over, guessing that she must have been close to the fire.

Tanya tapped her on the arm, and she jumped, clearing Tanya's height with a single surprised shout. She fell to the ground just as quickly, angrily staring down at Tanya. "Who-"

She stopped herself, and sighed as she looked at Tanya. "Oh. What do you want?"

Tanya pointed back at Viktoriya. "We've decided that we're going to be exploring the capital for today instead of taking a quest. Would you like to join us?"

She glared at Tanya quizzically, but before she could answer, someone from behind Tanya poked her on the shoulder.

She turned around and leveled a glare of her own at them. Couldn't they see that she was speaking to someone?

It was Mitsurugi, as well as his two cohorts. Both looked dejected and hung their heads, but neither were glaring at Tanya, which was new.

She let her glare lessen, and the Reincarnate seemed to collect himself.

"I- no, _we_\- were wondering if you two would like to join our party."

Tanya leveled an amused gaze at him. "What happened to becoming a Mage? I thought people like me wouldn't last two seconds without taking a more 'professional' job?"

He shrugged uncomfortably, pointing nervously at her back. "If you've got magic like that and guns, then I think it wouldn't exactly be smart not to ask, right?"

Tanya thought about it for exactly as long as she thought the offer warranted, which was all of three seconds.

She wasn't about to trust her life to a pair of people that thought she wanted to bang Mitsurugi, and beyond the obvious safety concerns, their glares from earlier convinced Tanya that she would get an hour of sleep around them before she 'mysteriously' disappeared.

"No thank you. We'd be adding three more people to your party, and-"

It seemed that the two people behind Mitsurugi had had enough. "No way! We're not teaming up with some hideous Monsume trash! Come on!"

With that, the one with the blue scarf grabbed Mitsurugi by the back of his armor. She tried to pull, but she didn't move. She glared at her counterpart, and together, they managed to start dragging him away.

He shot her one last look, but she shook her head firmly. Shrugging, he straightened up, and began to walk towards the bulletin board of quests. Tanya sighed.

It seemed that those two were pathetically weak compared to Mitsurugi. If he just kept defending them against any foe they faced, they'd never level up.

She hoped that her fight with him taught him that he couldn't protect them forever, but he didn't strike her as particularly open to having his ideas refuted. Besides, they would likely deny any and all claims that they were weak, and Mitsurugi seemed rather… _inclined _to believe them.

Tanya turned back around to find Lorelei frowning at the ground. Tanya rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to them. You look fine."

Suddenly, she had a very tall beastman leaning over her, peering down questioningly.

Tanya blinked.

"Why?" she asked, leading Tanya to simply tilt her head.

She growled, and pointed towards the rapidly retreating reincarnate as her impatiently tapping foot continued to tap. "Why wouldn't you team up with him? He's a much more powerful adventurer than I am, and moreover-"

Tanya shook her head. "Lorelei, there's more to a team than power. If every battle was won with power, I would have been killed at least once, maybe two or three times."

After her and Darkness's… 'debate' about Tanya and Viktoriya's jobs, Tanya had put thought into the idea of working in a small team, where everyone had temporary roles that depended on the specific enemy they were fighting and each team member's skills, health, power, and relationships.

Part of teamwork was, of course, routed in morale and everyone's ability to work with each other. While Tanya might be able to get anyone to work together after enough training – the 203rd had never had any complaints about each other, after all – she wouldn't be the leader of that team by a long shot.

Meanwhile, Lorelei was just staring at the small noble in front of her.

From what she'd seen, Degurechaff was… _exceedingly _powerful, if she could beat an undead monstrosity and contend with a Hero Candidate. If she'd almost died…

"The ability to work together is especially important in a team. Among other things, those two obviously wouldn't have been able to work with you, and from the angry looks they sent me and Viktoriya, I assume they would have tried to kill us to keep Mitsurugi to themselves."

Lorelei tilted her head as she looked at Degurechaff. That was… a very blasé way to put it, especially if she was a noble. Usually, nobles got very panicked when even the thought of being killed was entertained by those beneath them, but she seemed unfazed.

Lorelei _almost _brought it up, but… she refrained. She didn't want to lose her-

She shook her head. No! She wasn't getting attached to _another _party! They'd dump her if they ever saw what _else _the teleportation had done to her, and they'd do so anyway once they got through with her.

Before her thoughts could continue, Tanya flicked her head. "Earth to Lorelei. Are you there?"

She shook her head. "Yeah. Sure."

Tanya brightened up. Lorelei obviously hadn't been paying attention, so Tanya would pretend that she had asked Lorelei to come with them into the capital and that she had agreed while she was distracted.

Tanya needed to seem less like that 'Princess Iris' that weird noble lady had kept calling them. Running around with a beastman would hide her better than a hood ever could, if the reaction of those two buffoons was anything to go by.

"Wonderful! Come on! We're burning daylight, and we have a very expansive city to map out on foot. Besides, I need a new cloak!"

Tanya waited a moment, rolled her mantle-less shoulders, and then smirked as Lorelei followed behind her. They met a stony Viktoriya at the door, and Tanya felt herself stiffen at the memory of what had happened last night.

She shook her head. She'd try and ignore it and pretend that they hadn't said what they had.

They were supposed to have something that resembled relaxation today – mapping out a city and 'seeing the sights' instead of fighting monsters. Tanya wouldn't ruin it, and she hoped that Viktoriya would extend the same courtesy.

Lorelei just shook her head; why Tanya thought those two girls following the Hero Candidate were angry, she didn't know.

Those two were obviously _jealous _of Tanya's noble status, or maybe even her looks.

She sighed, settling in for a day of scornful stares, passive-aggressive comments, and overpriced goods. The capital was undoubtedly no different than Axel, and with how few _normal _adventurers they had, they were probably worse.

-OxOxO-

Tanya eyed her enemy warily. One wrong move would see her put into a stranglehold, and she wouldn't get outdone, not when it came to something so important.

They moved as one, their disgusting pseudo-net between them.

Tanya knew it was just a feint; both could throw it away and wrestle her to the ground, if she didn't use magic.

And she couldn't.

The owner of the clothing store had been very clear on that, when the two of them had eyed a small dress and shot an identical look at Tanya. She wouldn't wear it, though.

"Absolutely not! I didn't wear one when I met the fucking _Kaiser_, Viktoriya. You're _not _getting me to wear one now!"

Viktoriya's eyes narrowed, and she stepped forward purposefully. Tanya cringed back, and she glared at Viktoriya as a smirk grew on her face.

Tanya grit her teeth, and continued to maneuver around racks of clothing, wondering how long that clerk would take to ring up their purchases.

Both Tanya and Viktoriya had insisted on surveying the walls, tallest buildings, strongholds, forts, and pretty much every defensive position they could find in the city. All of them had sworn not to buy anything until they'd finished.

Lorelei found the whole thing humorous, but she had gone along with it anyway.

It had only taken an hour of looking around for them to cave, deciding that they could duck into the occasional shop as they surveyed the city.

Viktoriya had been the first. She'd seen a photography shop, gone in, and purchased a simple metal locket that was supposedly enchanted to never be lost.

Tanya had tutted at the purchase and obvious lie.

When Viktoriya had demonstrated the effectiveness of the thing by tossing it in the air and then pulling it out from around her neck, however, Tanya had just wondered what _else _could be enchanted and exactly how it was done.

Tanya had gone into a different merchant's shop and checked out his wares, hoping to find something else that was enchanted. Among the knickknacks, items, staffs, wands, pieces of armor, and everything else, to her immense shock, was a knickknack or two from Wiz's shop.

They were all expensive, of course, but Tanya realized that maybe she should have checked her shop for items besides her explosive potions.

When she had asked about anything that was enchanted, she had been shown a variety of rings that were supposed to provide various protections from magic, wounds, and even poisons.

Tanya had glossed over most of those; she had her Active Barrier and Heal if she was truly in danger from something like that. While she had looked at them rather disinterestedly, the merchant probably thought that she wasn't interested because of the price.

He explained that creating magical equipment consumes Skill Points, and that only the isolated Crimson Demons could afford to make large quantities of magical items.

He'd assured her of their quality being the reason for the price tag, though she had still remained interested for a while.

Then, one had sparked interest in her. Or, rather, it had ignited a fiery desire within her to own the object before her.

The simple golden band was supposed to grant protection from a variety of psychic attacks, from mind reading to delusion to possession.

He had tried to get her to buy a more normal ring, explaining that those kinds of attacks were very rare, but she had ignored his advice and bought the ring anyway.

She… hoped the thing could work on Being X. It was a long shot, of course, but even if it only worked a tiny bit… then it would be worth it.

She didn't really want to talk to him, and she didn't want Viktoriya to be touched by that bastard if she could help it.

The merchant, unfortunately, didn't have more than one ring of any kind, so figuring out how to make one – one for Viktoriya and Lorelei and Darkness and anyone else that associated with her – would be important.

Lorelei, after being told that she could get whatever she wanted since the two of them were paying, had jumped into a Blacksmith's shop and bought a sword that looked to be of much higher quality than the one she had.

On Tanya's behalf, Viktoriya had asked if they could use his forges. The man had laughed at them, and then, in between breaths, explained that no capital Blacksmith would ever let anyone into their forges unless they swore oaths of secrecy and became apprentices.

Soon after that, they'd finished surveying the city, realized how late it was, and hurried into the first clothier they could find. Everything had gone fine, and they had been about to leave, when the clerk had pointed them towards a selection of dresses.

Tanya spun around at the sound of Lorelei's muttering, and glared at the 'cute' red and white dress that she was clasping in her long fingers with a maniac look in her eyes.

"This dress is made of one of the smoothest fabrics in the world. While I can't wear it, _you _can. Come on, just put it on. It will look so cute, and-"

She was cut off from her ramblings by the store clerk. "All right, I've charged you for your purchases w-"

Before he could finish, Tanya had jetted over to the counter, picked up their things, and run out of the door, panting heavily. She turned around quickly, ready to bolt if either of them came out with that damned dress.

Both came out, seemingly serene. Tanya glared at them, but they just smiled at her.

She turned around sharply, and began to march down the street muttering and glancing behind her occasionally.

"Stupid women deciding that I need to wear a dress. I don't. I never will without the threat of a direct order. I won't wear one. That would be admitting I am _that_, which I am not. I don't want periods, I don't want tits, and I don't want to wear dresses."

Both of them were talking behind her, and Tanya shot them a paranoid look every now and then. From the looks _they'd _been shooting _her_, they were probably going to come back here when her back was turned and get every dress they could carry and turn her into a doll.

She shuddered as she remembered when Viktoriya had braided her hair and tied it into pigtails on the one day they had been waiting for transfer from the Francois's former African holdings to the Empire.

Those were more reminders of her forced femininity that she would avoid at all costs.

Soon enough, they reached what amounted to the residential district, where all of the housing for adventurers and the inhabitants of the city was clustered. Tanya spun on her heel, glaring at them both.

She rutted though the bag of stuff, and she pulled out what Lorelei had bought, which amounted to some thick pieces of leather clothing at the clothier and even a breastplate at the blacksmiths.

She hefted them towards her, along with a cloth bag filled with more casual clothing the beastman had purchased, and then she continued to march back to her and Viktoriya's inn.

Tanya stopped, and she gave Viktoriya what she'd bought.

Her former adjutant had decided to get a bit of chain mail to wear under her clothing.

Tanya had been tempted to do the same, but she'd decided to wait until they'd managed to work out a deal with a Blacksmith or get their own tools. Mitsurugi had said his armor was made of Adamantite, and getting chain mail made out of that stuff would be better than iron or steel, if he thought that the stuff might have even a _chance _of being bulletproof.

She'd also switched out her gray evening gloves for a much shorter black pair. Tanya would figure out how to get the explosive knives she'd made in them eventually, but for now, she'd just have to live with having them on her belt.

Tanya hadn't bought much from the clothier – a new green mantle that had black highlights where the yellow had been, enough cloth to where she could make another hood, and a few more pairs of shirts.

To her surprise, she'd found some clothing from Japan. Like in Axel, the clerk had mentioned that the Hero Candidates often dropped off that stuff. It wasn't popular, but Tanya had guessed that from the pricing. She happily bought a couple pairs of shirts and actual _jeans_.

Lorelei had given her a disparaging look for what she considered 'nonsensical, brightly colored drivel', and Tanya had taken a few of her more so-called 'acceptable' suggestions of clothing to wear, until the dress incident.

As Tanya and Viktoriya began to walk away towards another night of stifled conversation and walking on eggshells, Lorelei smiled to herself, not even feeling like trying to suppress her happiness.

They'd walked with her. They hadn't asked her to walk twenty feet behind them; they'd stood by her side, braving the distrustful and angry glares of pedestrians with her.

They'd defended her. They didn't accept that when people mistreated her, which was inevitable; they openly questioned anyone who came near them and tried to abuse her, physically or verbally.

They'd haggled for her. When that Blacksmith had tried to overcharge her, Viktoriya had hotly asked why he would do that, while Tanya had pointed out that he'd scare away customers like that.

The threat of a noble reporting on him badly had shaken him, and he'd even given them a small discount.

She sighed wistfully; if only her last party had been that kind. She could have just stayed in Axel, instead of having to try her luck here.

She shook her head, and tried to fight back stinging tears. Her last party…

As she came towards the dilapidated building, she tried not to make any sound that would clue the other occupants of this building in to her thoughts.

These two would get tired of her, just like her last party, or they'd figure out just how not-human she really was.

They'd abandon her, and she'd be stuck at square one.

Again. Or…

_Would they?_

She tried to shut down the traitorous thought; of course they would. She was a Monsume, abandoned by Eris to become a freak of nature. They weren't allowed to be anything other than adventurers, fated to die at the hands of an enemy, starve, or be sacrificed for those that weren't freaks.

Or worse.

Lorelei rushed to her room, ignoring the other beastmen and crashing into her room. Just as with Tanya and Viktoriya, Lorelei wouldn't sleep very much.

-OxOxO-

Tanya grunted with effort as another group of undead was scattered. Limbs, flesh, and just about everything else associated with bodies went flying. Despite the gore, more undead continued to push towards them.

Tanya fired another Explosive Vaporization, again cursing herself for leaving Axel so quickly. Without the Blacksmith, their ammunition was limited. She and Viktoriya had to conserve as many bullets as they could for particularly tough enemies.

"Freeze!"

Behind her, Tanya felt a gust of small air. She didn't need to turn around; she knew what Viktoriya had done.

The sound of a swinging blade reached her ears, and Tanya nodded. These undead didn't have any commander, and mostly just shambled towards them, occasionally sprinting forward when they thought they were close enough.

That meant that Viktoriya's usage of that spell to cover the ground had most of them sprawled out on the slippery ice. While they floundered, Viktoriya and Lorelei would slice the heads off of as many as they could.

Lorelei had balked at the quest in the guild. She had shown up mostly to inform them that she wouldn't be coming because it was a Sunday and she wanted to do a bit more shopping, but Tanya had convinced her to come by pointing out that they had first pick of the quests and she'd get more spending money if she did a very good one.

She'd agreed tentatively, and then she had almost regretted it at what they suggested first – facing dozens of Zombies in the middle of a forest seemed suicidal, especially without a Priest – but Tanya and Viktoriya had mandated that she needed to raise her level a bit, if she was going to join them on harder and more rewarding quests.

So Tanya watched their backs, killing stray Zombies that managed to stand, while Viktoriya and Lorelei killed the ones that slipped. At this point, all of them thought it was a bit monotonous.

Or, Tanya assumed the others thought that. Things had been… quiet. Viktoriya and Tanya still acted professionally, of course, but Tanya knew that even Lorelei had picked up on the frostiness between them.

She'd asked about it earlier, but after the twin glares they'd sent her, she had wisely retracted her statement and joined them in silence.

Tanya knew it was affecting their teamwork. She knew she should just swallow her pride and admit she was wrong.

She knew that she should.

She _couldn't_, though. She wouldn't talk about what that thing had almost done to her.

Almost done to her…

Something it had said swam through her mind, and Tanya closed her eyes and fought down the flash of anger she felt towards the General Staff.

They had _known _that that bastard had been in command of the Russy's forces.

They'd known about his disgusting fetish.

They'd told her nothing.

Tanya had been contemplating dropping out of the military as soon as the war ended. No cushy behind-lines job was worth the planned disinformation they'd given her and what she'd almost experienced. The promotion to Major-General had soothed her anger somewhat, but even then…

A yelp behind her caught her attention, and Tanya spun around, firing at the Zombie that had leapt upon Lorelei. She jerked at the sound of Tanya's weapon, and the Zombie's head rained gore around them.

She spun back around.

"Aren't you going to apologize for that?"

Tanya spun towards Viktoriya, fury in her gaze. She looked at the one who'd spoken, glaring at her former adjunct.

"Excuse me?"

Viktoriya scoffed. "You almost shot her. She could have been hurt. Isn't that enough reason to apologize? Or are you above that?"

Tanya glared at her, but Viktoriya glared right back. Grunting, Tanya turned to the beastman, regretting ever telling that Russy woman how to effectively glare at people.

"Sorry about that. Even though I _planned_ for you to duck, I suppose something could have gone wrong."

She spun back around. "Happy?"

"No," she bit out, spinning around to slice at more Zombies.

Furious, Tanya also spun around.

She scowled at her mana levels. It seemed that she'd need to do this the hard way if she wanted to conserve anything.

"Sharpen Blade."

With that, she began to run towards the Zombies. It was somewhat cumbersome to do so with the awkward attachments to their shoes that allowed them to stand on the ice, but she managed.

One, two, three. She sliced through the oncoming opponents without a care in the world, relishing in the one thing she seemed to be able to do without fail.

Unfortunately, Tanya got overconfident. It was expected, with how slow the things moved and how quickly she could cut through them, but Tanya hadn't really been expecting to be punished for her hubris when facing corpses.

She was. She kicked one that was lying on the ground in the chest, and was surprised when it turned over suddenly. Her foot, her leg, and her body were dragged with it, flung onto the ground.

She gasped in pain, and grit her teeth as she was flung across the ice. She managed to lodge her blade in its head, and shakily stood.

She glanced behind her, and saw that some Zombies were approaching. She glared at them.

"Heal."

The pain and swelling of her ankle subsided, and Tanya spun to face them. They were already gone.

Viktoriya was standing over them, sighing in relief. Tanya directed a glare at her. "What was that for?"

"You looked injured, so-"

"I was fine!"

"You were _limping_. Clearly, you weren't."

"Hey guys?"

"Well I was! Maybe you should learn to read to mood a bit more!"

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Hey guys!"

"WHAT?"

All of their annoyance and anger melted away as they looked at her. All of the Zombies had congregated around her.

Her tall stature meant that Tanya could see her upper chest, head, and ears, and Tanya winced at the panic in her fast, jerky motions that were so unlike the hesitant but smooth motions from earlier.

Without Viktoriya constantly casting Freeze, the Zombies were beginning to use the corpses of their fellows to move around.

Both rushed forward, slicing into the Zombies and berating themselves. Limbs and heads flew free of their places, and corpses collapsed as their legs were sliced into.

Tanya growled angrily, trying to get to Lorelei. There were too many. For every one she cut down, it seemed like another two would replace it.

Tanya blinked as she began to understand, and then she cursed. "Viktoriya, use a Flight spell, do a bit of reconnaissance. I think that there's something more in the area than just Zombies."

Tanya began to survey the surroundings. Hordes of Zombies weren't exactly uncommon, especially considering how many soldiers both sides of this conflict had gone through, but Zombies simply weren't smart enough to surround a group of living.

They would come at them piecemeal from different parts of the location they were in, sure, but there were never this many without some kind of intelligence behind them.

Tanya activated Observation spells, and snarled as mana lit up her screen. She flew towards it, uncaring of the gasping she could hear coming from Lorelei. They would have had to tell her about their particular brand of magic eventually, if they had ever agreed on keeping her around long term.

It seemed that she would be sticking with them from here on out, however. Tanya wasn't letting someone that knew the truth of her power anywhere outside of her purview, even if she would be seen as an insane lunatic for saying Tanya could fly.

The Hero Candidates might believe that sort of thing more easily than anyone else, and they were one of the groups most likely to attack her.

She dodged trees, and eventually found a group of what she had suspected: Zombie Makers.

They seemed to be panicking, but Tanya couldn't care less. "Napalm!"

Fire erupted around them, and the corpses were soon burnt to a crisp. "Freeze Gust!"

Tanya turned to see Viktoriya shouldering a wounded Lorelei and gesturing towards the fire with her rifle. The fire was smoldered by the frigid magic, and Viktoriya quickly stomped out the rest.

Tanya finished healing Lorelei, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, now that that's over…" she said, trailing off as she looked towards the Zombies that were slipping on the ice. Without the Zombie Makers, they didn't have the place of mind to stand on the other corpses.

Just as Tanya was about to walk back into the clearing, Lorelei jumped in front of Tanya. "What… was _that?"_

"You'll have to be more specific," she said, trying to think of an excuse as to how Viktoriya could fly.

"Don't play dumb. She can fly?" Lorelei asked, pointing an accusing finger at Viktoriya. She looked up at her, giving her a small smile. Tanya shrugged.

"Yeah. I can too," Tanya said, flying up to the same height as the towering beastman. She stepped back, confusion evident in her eyes.

"Why? How are you so… calm?"

Tanya shrugged again as she walked towards the other Zombies. Now that they weren't being led by the Zombie Makers, they were honestly sort of pathetic. They couldn't run anymore, and they weren't even trying to stand on the ice.

They'd trip and try to crawl across, and Tanya would take off their heads.

She didn't doubt that the Zombie Makers _could _take over other Zombies or corpses, but considering Tanya's ability to flambé them, she doubted they stuck around.

"It was actually expected where we came from," she said, bending down to check the corpses. Any good equipment was usually corrupted or rotted by their being, but some stuff was still salvageable.

Lorelei seemed to be rather pensive, so Tanya would let her think. Viktoriya was helping Tanya, beheading corpses and relieving the Zombies that managed to continue to fight after that of their arms.

Tanya sighed, and began to think.

Not only was it monumentally stupid for the two of them to be arguing in what amounted to a battlefield, Lorelei had nearly gotten hurt because of them.

They'd promised her that they wouldn't let her get hurt during the quest – one of the reasons she'd even accepted their desire to go on such a quest without a Priest – and they'd failed in that regard.

They had also revealed their powers. Another source of information on them that Tanya would have to keep extensive track of.

And it wasn't like the tension between Tanya and Viktoriya would just go away, leading to more breaches and mistakes…

Unless one of them admitted that they were wrong.

Tanya turned away from the corpse she'd been checking, sighing. She ground her teeth together, and then turned around, facing the back of Viktoriya.

She strode forward, glaring at her. Tanya _knew _that her adjunct was right, that she really did _need _to talk about… it. And everything. And that if she did talk…

She _might _feel a bit better.

She knew that intellectually. Inside her heart, though, she was…

Tanya was…

She was _afraid_. _Terrified _of admitting to herself what had almost happened. _Scared _that something like that could happen again.

Tanya was, however, a being of logic. At least, she tried to be. She'd suck up her pride, apologize for what she'd said, and honestly think about speaking to Viktoriya about the matter.

Tanya tapped her… friend on the back. She jumped up, one hand already on the rifle that was hanging from her shoulders. The hardness of her eyes faded, for a moment, and then it was back in full force.

Tanya winced visibly, and she saw confusion bloom on Viktoriya's face with a single raised eyebrow. Tanya took one last deep breath, and then sighed.

Why was this so hard? She'd faced enemy after enemy on the battlefield, and this probably felt worse than a majority of what had happened to her.

She shook her head. "Viktoriya. I… I am sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did, and I know that I should talk about it. I…" she trailed off again, and mentally cursed herself for the blush she felt rising on her cheeks.

"I'll honestly consider talking about it instead of just brushing off your concern. You're too important to me to just ignore your suggestions."

She looked away from Viktoriya, saying the last part and looking down at the ground. Tanya waited, and then heard Viktoriya sigh.

"It's… fine, Colonel. I won't push you to do it, but I really don't think keeping everything we did locked up inside is really healthy. You felt better when you told me about… what happened _before_, right?"

Tanya nodded to herself; she _had _felt better when she'd let off steam over how much she had changed from her first life. Tanya looked up, and smiled softly at Viktoriya.

"Now. We aren't going to do something stupid like fighting in the middle of a battle, right? We work best together."

She nodded quickly, and both bent down to continue looting the corpses. Instead of stony silence, small conversations about what they found filled the silence.

Hopefully, they could go back to how things were. Tanya hoped for at least that much.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **And things are getting better! Mitsurugi's getting more screen time – and expect that to continue for a bit – Lorelei is explaining things, and Tanya picks up another magical item. This time, it doesn't even have any built in nastiness!

It would be a shame if someone threw a wrench in all of Tanya's plans, wouldn't it?

Also, Tanya is finally thinking about opening up, too. We're getting there, just like I said.

**A/N 2: **Responses to reviews on this site.

**Pyromania101: **While a war with the Orcs _would _be fun, I don't believe they have a nation-state to call their own. The LNs give off the vibe that they have a few villages scattered about and not much else.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Belzerg might eventually decide that they've been left alone for far too long…

Also… when I said I have a backlog, I mean that I've got the backlog… and not much planned concretely beyond that. Yunyun is definitely an option to add to the main team, though. And, while Komekko would be just… great on _so many _levels, Megumin's parent's (probably, Megumin's mom is… ruthless) wouldn't let her run off, even if Tanya gave them a boatload of money.

**Tuisyo: **hey buddy, you hacking into my documents and reading ahead?

In all seriousness, quite a _number _of people are going to be unable to look past the resemblance. Hehehe…

**DschingisKahn**, **SoleReclaimer**, **Sprengkamp**, **Imperial warlord**, and **simple405**, thank you all for the continued support! Expect more to come soon!


	24. Differing Battlefields

Tanya grinned broadly as she walked into the guild. They walked towards where they could see Lorelei waving at them with a small smile on her face, ignoring the people that were there.

Tanya smiled. Things seemed to be looking up, finally.

All three of them had leveled up and gained Skill Points from that fight yesterday. Both Tanya and Viktoriya had been able to… _resolve_ their ideas about the past and how much they should be talking about it. The receptionist at the guild had been impressed by their quick handling of the quest.

She looked down at her bandolier and smirked. Wiz had also sent her more explosive potions – a young adventurer had been teleported here with them, and he was being paid well to deliver them in the early hours of the morning – along with some of the special absorbent soil from the botanist.

Tanya had decided to make a few rudimentary grenades – that had a lot more power than her knives – with the stuff. They weren't anything to write home about, but Tanya very much doubted that she'd have access to a Blacksmith anytime soon. She might as well make what she could.

The Succubi had piggybacked off of Wiz's messenger and sent her a nice bit of cash, as well as an update on their situation and the search for Tanya's 'mysterious' item.

Thanks to all those adventurers coming in, they were getting more business than ever. They had to work longer hours and keep their work clothing on during all that time too.

Tanya had skipped over the next part of the letter for the most part – a 'ritual' that could be used to summon them if they needed to talk and she wanted them to be presentable before she brought Viktoriya over. Tanya would just give them a heads up beforehand; there was no need for some odd communication ritual.

The Mithril Foundation was doing fine too. They'd directly hired some people who wanted the work to help in the production of Tanya's products, and they'd helped others find more permanent jobs.

Along with the updates had been a list of magical items that the Succubi could acquire eventually. Despite the size of the list, not a single one had been what she was looking for. A hastily scrawled response and an order for the messenger to go back would tell them to keep looking.

She had even woken up to delicious, energizing, Viktoriya-made coffee and an equally energized Viktoriya, who had smiled at her, warming her as much as the coffee had.

Tanya sighed happily and turned to Viktoriya. "You know, I don't think _anything _could_ possibly _go wrong today. It just feels-"

Tanya stopped her sentence abruptly, but not as abruptly as she, Viktoriya, and Lorelei stopped in their tracks.

And, none of _those _things stopped anywhere _near _as fast as the conversation around them decided to die, and the glares they were being sent told Tanya that they wished that Tanya, Viktoriya, and Lorelei would take a nice long walk off a short pier and over the Niagara Falls.

One jumped up and began to approach her, anger and desperation in his dark eyes. Tanya placed a hand on her pistol, in case he decided to act on the murder in his eyes, and he stopped in his tracks, now nervous eyes glued to her sidearm. He said something, but Tanya didn't hear it.

"I'm sorry?" she asked. His breathing became ragged, and he spoke louder.

"I asked… you to… _repeat _yourself."

Her eyebrows furrowed at his dangerous, resigned tone. She cast her gaze about, and found that all of the guild was staring at them. "…I just said 'I don't think anything could possibly go wrong today'. Does this place have some sort of bias against benign verbal statements?"

Apparently, it did, judging by the Absolute Quiet that had not yet abated. Tanya could have heard a pin drop, and considering the receptionist dropped a handful of money onto the counter, she might as well have.

Things were quiet for a single moment more, and then the entirety of the guild seemed to groan and begin to shout as one collective being. She looked around, nervously wondering what on Earth could possibly be so bad.

Before she could ask, the adventurers began to rise from their seats as one, readying themselves for battle by grabbing one last – or their first – drink, their weapons, and their friends.

"How could you possibly invite the possibility for attack?"

"Stupid nobles… should know better than to trigger flags like that…"

"I guess we're going to have to fight a battle then."

She didn't know what they meant by 'flags', but it sounded somewhat familiar. Maybe it was from her first life?

She shook her head; she didn't need to know what it meant _exactly_. Characters inciting the universe's wrath was a common enough trope in fiction, after all.

She turned around herself, staring intently at the hateful people of the crowd. "You all think that just because I said something about this being a 'good day' that the universe is going to bend over backwards just to prove me-"

The doors Tanya had just walked through burst open once more, and Tanya heard someone behind her begin to shout. "THE DEMON KING'S FORCES ARE ATTACKING!"

He stood there, panting for a bit. Then, his gaze followed the combined, annoyed and hate-filled gazes of everyone else in the room, landing on Tanya. He glanced between the crowd of adventurers and Hero Candidates and Tanya for only a moment, before groaning.

Tanya shrank back just a bit from the annoyed, expecting glares that no one had stopped leveling at her. "Well, that doesn't sound _too _bad-"

Everyone groaned again, and another messenger, just as tired and ragged as the first, jumped inside. "THERE ARE TWO GENERALS AMONG THEM!"

This messenger also paused, reacted much like the first, besides glaring at Tanya and muttering, "C'mon, I thought everyone knew better than to test Eris like that…"

As he finished talking, everyone continued to glare at Tanya, daring her to speak again for the small price of her remaining tattered dignity, and she sighed and hung her head. "I'll shut up."

Everyone began to grumble, but, one by one, they continued to get ready, gathering their teams and making their way out of the guild to speak with the messengers and follow the knights and guards that were running about outside. Tanya began to walk towards Lorelei, who was talking to the receptionist.

"Why do we have to fight? None of us are above level 25, and-"

He shook his head. "Sorry. You all came here, you need to defend the capital. We might have asked you to simply keep the peace inside the walls if we had the forces to spare but…"

He trailed off and sighed. "We don't."

Lorelei hung her head and her ears, and Tanya patted her arm, unwilling to put in the effort to jump up to her shoulder. "Don't worry. We're not going to let you get hurt."

She gave them skeptical looks, and even as Viktoriya nodded vigorously, Lorelei rolled her eyes. "That's what you said yesterday."

Both winced, gave each other an uncertain look, and then followed the beastman out of the doors. They'd need to do better today…

-OxOxO-

Tanya screeched as she tore through another wolf. They had some sort of official name, but to her, it just looked like a big, angry, _annoying_ wolf.

She began to pant heavily. She turned around, and made sure that Lorelei was alright. She seemed to be fine for now, using her superior speed to avoid larger monsters and pick off weaker monsters, like Kobolds and Goblins.

Tanya's Active Barrier flared to life, and she snarled as she spun around, slashing at the thing that dared to touch her shield. This time, it seemed to be something smarter than an animal, if its vaguely humanoid form was anything to go by.

Vaguely, because even the green, over-muscled, animal-eared, towering Orcs that they'd run into on their way to the capital had looked more human than this thing. It was a light shade of blue, had odd wings on its back, and honestly reminded her more of a… hairless gorilla than a human.

Its attempts at banter, however, told her it was much smarter than a gorilla, unless it could only emulate human speech, instead of comprehending it.

"Interesting. New magic is always fun to play with…" it trailed off, staring intently at her. Tanya just rolled her eyes and leveled her rifle at the thing.

"Oh? A new type of-" was all it could say before Tanya put a bullet through its leg.

It screamed as it fell to the ground, and Tanya moved forward, intent on finishing it. However, it moved out of the way, faster than she thought something that big could have moved, panting heavily and snarling.

It paused to taunt her, and its wings flared up, growing larger than its body. "Oh, you think-"

He was cut off again, this time by Viktoriya slicing its left wing off. It collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. The spectators began to fight each other again, and Tanya kicked an approaching Goblin in the face.

"Slash the back of his knees!" she shouted over the sounds of battle, and Tanya smirked as she heard the thing screech again. She guessed that it was a Demon – the Succubi's advice about Demon's being very weak to physical damage seemed to apply in this instance… though Tanya was sure most things that had arms and wings would react negatively to having them cut off.

Tanya grabbed the thing by its still attached wing, drawing out another scream as she dragged it across the ground to where Lorelei seemed to be dancing around a group of Kobolds.

It seemed she'd taken Tanya's advice and was now using her speed to her advantage instead of expecting her enemies to come towards her.

Tanya tapped Lorelei on the shoulder, and watched as she spun around, nearly dropping her sword. As it was, she fumbled the thing and was gripping it by the barest edge of its hilt.

Tanya shook her head, and then dropped the Demon. "Here. Kill this."

Lorelei blinked, and then crouched down towards Tanya, a confused look on her face. _"What?"_

Tanya rolled her eyes. "He's free experience, right? Slice off his head so we can get this over with."

She continued to stare between Tanya and the Demon, and Tanya growled as the Kobolds began to approach. "_Come on._ We don't have all day."

The thing whimpered again, and Tanya snarled as the group of Kobolds behind Lorelei decided to stop staring at the downed Demon and attack. _"Hurry up!"_

Lorelei still looked conflicted, but she raised her sword all the same. The Demon gave her a pathetic look, and Lorelei felt her face scrunch up.

It lowered its head in defeat, as if it were some orphan child in front of an uncaring executioner instead of a hulking blue Demon, and Lorelei… looked indecisive. Tanya groaned, jumped into the air with the aid of a bit of a Flight spell, grabbed a hold of Lorelei's arms, and leaned forward, plunging the blade into the thing's head.

Lorelei blinked in shock, but Tanya just scoffed as she spun the girl around to face the Kobolds. "Don't fall for tricks like that. One moment, it seems like the enemy is surrendering, and the next, they're escaping, your name embedded in their mind at the top of their shit list."

"That sounds very personal not-so-hypothetical situation. Are you okay?" Lorelei muttered sarcastically as she looked at the body, and saw that he had been reaching out his clawed hand.

Lorelei sighed as Tanya ignored her and ran off towards Viktoriya at blinding speeds. She suppressed the urge to look at her Adventurer's Card to see exactly what that thing had been; she could do that later, when she wasn't facing down Kobolds and an army of the Demon King.

Tanya ran towards Viktoriya, panting from the beginnings of mana exhaustion. Even if they weren't using Flight spells, using so many Reinforcement spells, Active Barriers, and Explosive Vaporization spells was starting to get draining.

"Damn it, there's too many of them, and we're running out of our ammunition. Suggestions?"

"Napalm?" she asked, slicing through the head of a Kobold.

Tanya shook her head. "Their forces aren't concentrated enough, and I don't trust the adventurers not to panic in the face of a spreading fire."

"The grenades?"

Tanya thought for a moment, and then nodded. That could work. "Alright. Throw two of them far behind their lines. With any luck, they'll think they've been encircled by a Mage or two."

Both retreated through the line of adventurers, ducking through shields, scepters, and armor. The regular infantry of the capital was off in the distance, slowly approaching from the side. With any luck, this diversion would kill a few of them and convince them that they were being surrounded from the front, back, and side.

Both withdrew one 'grenade' from their bandoliers and withdrew a lighter.

Honestly, they were more like dynamite than grenades, but Tanya hadn't the faintest idea as to how the internal fuses of grenades worked, and she was sure she would need to invest more into Smith if she wanted to make anything better.

"Light!"

Both of them brought their lighter towards the fuses.

Immediately, they began to burn, winding down towards the main body.

Tanya waited for it to wind down farther, and then gave the order. "Throw!"

Both of them lobbed the things. A normal infantryman couldn't have thrown them farther than 30 meters, and if the two of them had tried to throw them unaided, then it was more likely that they would have gone off in the middle of the clash between the adventurers and the Demon King's forces.

Thankfully, they had magic, and both of the grenades sailed far over the enemies' heads. Tanya lost sight of them, but she definitely didn't miss the explosions and the following cries of pain.

Tanya smirked, and then took the time to look over the battle.

The adventurers seemed to be making some progress. Tanya couldn't see either of the Generals that were supposed to be there, and the Reincarnates were holding up well.

Tanya looked towards Lorelei and saw that she was still fighting a much diminished group of Kobolds. It seemed that they were trying to flee when faced with Lorelei's apparent skill, but she wasn't letting them.

Just as she began to hope that maybe this would be over quickly, the sound of hearty, deep laughter reached her ears in time with the terrified screams of adventurers and Hero Candidates alike.

She turned her head and sighed. Yes, it seemed that Verdia was the one leading the attack. Honestly, it shouldn't have surprised her.

He was supposed to be one of the stronger Generals, and with him gone from Axel, it was a foregone conclusion that he'd be fighting somewhere.

Tanya turned to Viktoriya, who had been defending Tanya while she thought. "Go get Lorelei. We've got at least one General to confront."

Viktoriya jogged off, and Tanya made her way towards the clearing, fighting against the retreating adventurers and killing the occasional weakened monster.

Some adventurers seemed to complain about 'kill stealing,' but Tanya didn't care. Experience was experience, and if they couldn't kill something in a timely matter, that wasn't her problem.

Finally, she joined a ring of adventurers that was watching Mitsurugi and Verdia battle. On the other side of the ring, she could see monsters of various shapes and sizes watching intently, and Tanya cursed herself for not making that submachine gun already.

She could have cut down a sizable percentage of them before they even realized what had happened if she had one of those.

For a moment, Tanya thought about helping Mitsurugi in his battle against Verdia, but she decided against it with a shake of her hat-clad head. Getting to know Verdia's attacks could help if she had to fight him, should one in her position finally settle on Belzerg's side.

Tanya stood ramrod straight, watching the fight and recording it on the Type 97.

Both of them had stopped, for now, choosing to size each other up and trade barbs. Mitsurugi was panting, while Verdia looked calm.

"You seem to be an honorable fighter. I would hate to have to kill you," Verdia said, slowly bringing his sword up again.

Tanya couldn't see it, but she could certainly _hear _the smirk in his voice. "You won't be able to. With the Cursed Sword Gram by my side, nothing can defeat me!"

He charged forward, shouting as he went. Tanya watched as Verdia tossed his head into the air and gripped his sword with both hands, readying himself.

Tanya's eyes widened as a giant eye, constructed with blazing lines of fire, unfurled from Verdia's head. The area around him seemed to be bathed in a red light, and Verdia moved.

In an instant, Mitsurugi's attack had been deflected. He seemed to grunt with effort, but he shouted "Stance Change!"

He seemed to gain some sort of speed enhancement, and he readjusted his sword like lightning, preparing to bring it down on Verdia once more. The Dullahan's laughter echoed across the battlefield.

"That won't work!"

Verdia moved just as fast, jumping back and avoiding his attack and preparing to hit the Reincarnate once more. His sword connected with his stomach, and he was sent flying into the crowd.

Verdia caught his head, and a dark chuckle emerged from the depths of the helmet. "Who's next?"

Tanya decided that she'd seen enough. The moral of the Hero Candidates seemed to be falling, if the way she was now at the head of the crowd of adventurers was anything to go by. She raised her rifle and aimed at the head that Verdia was holding above his shoulders.

He seemed to see her just as she pulled the trigger. "Degurechaff?"

She smirked and pulled the trigger. Immediately, a bullet sped towards the helmet, striking just where she'd aimed.

His head was sent spiraling by the intentionally glancing blow, flying out of his hand and over the heads of his army.

It seemed to be screaming, judging by the faintly dwindling sound it was emitting, and the heads and eyes of everyone, opponents and allies included, followed the quickly vanishing object.

She turned around. "Alright, let's go. He'll have to spend at least a few hours looking for his head and directing his body towards it. Seems like a job well done to me!"

Just as she heard muttered incredulity from the adventurers around her, she turned around and faced their enemies again. She shot a Kobold, and she turned back around once more as its head exploded.

"I don't suppose you all want to end up like that?" she shouted, hoping they'd be intimidated.

They were. One by one, the various monsters began to retreat, fleeing towards the distant forest.

Tanya shook her head as the people around her broke out into cheers. Honestly, all she'd done was shoot her rifle two times to end things.

If that was all it took to send an army packing, then she wasn't sure why this war was taking decades years to finish.

Although, if that was all it took to end things on her part, maybe she should fight the Demon King and wrap things up?

-OxOxO-

Once more, Claire and Rain were visiting the guild. Rain did not really like it all that much. She had better things to do than interview receptionists.

Iris had ordered them to lead the investigation into the rumors of someone that had looked like her, though, and neither she nor Claire had been able to find hide nor hair of someone trying to impersonate Iris, thus far.

The grand nobles, being as difficult as always, had eventually told them that their resources knew nothing of an impersonator in the capital, and even the nobles that were considerably less affluent had not heard anything.

A few of the more mercantile nobles had said something about scandalous rumors about a noble girl hanging out with a _Monsume_, of all things, and both of them had ignored those obviously false pieces of gossip.

No one trying to impersonate the Princess would be caught dead with one of those things, since the very idea of a noble directly dealing with a beastman in any way that was equal was unthinkable.

They had heard much more concrete rumors today. The commanders of the capital's garrison had seen a petite girl in the Demon King's latest attack and had asked a few adventurers about her.

Some claimed that they were a Mage, capable of using Detonation magic. Others had seen her wielding a spear and slicing open the throats of Gray Wolves.

A few of them had even reported her using Priestly healing magic on adventurers and the few soldiers that had seen combat.

Obviously, some of the details of the stories were false; no one had all of those skills, and if a class allowed for that, they would have found it long ago. Everyone, though, had been able to tell them that there was a noble-looking adventurer who had greatly helped in the fight.

So, here the two of them were, staring down at the group assembled before them. One Hero Candidate, one receptionist, and the manager of this branch of the guild. All of them seemed somewhat nervous, but Rain supposed that that was expected.

She and Claire _were _nobles, after all.

The receptionist stammered. "You… you know we're not supposed to give up information about adventurers without an allegation of crime… right?"

Claire scoffed, but Rain stopped her from speaking.

Conversing with the lower class was her forte, between the two of them. Rain shook her head and sighed as if tired. "And we told you, there will _be _one if we suspect her to be an impostor."

The manager shook his head. "Just tell them and get this over with. We don't have time for this."

The Hero Candidate stepped forward. "I'll tell you something about her."

Rain smiled happily, and an expression of deep nervousness overcame his face. "I wouldn't fight her for anything."

Both Rain and Claire tilted their heads, but he shrugged. "She's powerful, and more than that, she could easily kill most any of us if she wanted to. She doesn't seem like the type that would, but still…"

"You wouldn't fight her for anything? Money, wealth, fame? A noble title or two?"

The Hero Candidate shook his head. "Nope. I haven't survived as long as I have without assessing risks, and going anywhere near her without Adamantite _everything, _if not more, would be a one-way street to death."

With that, he sat down again, staring down at the table. Both Claire and Rain looked at the receptionist, who nervously glared at the Hero Candidate.

Claire rolled her eyes, and brought her necklace out from under her suit. "Do you recognize this?"

Both the receptionist and the manager took all of two seconds to glance at the thing, before they gasped in shock. "Shinfornea!?"

She smirked, and Rain pouted. She'd tried so hard to get them to speak willingly, and now they were going to tell them everything at the flash of Claire's medallion.

Rain had given up on not feeling jealous long ago. There was just so much that separated her and the other woman who could claim to be one of the Princess's retainers.

Trying not to feel jealous of Claire's family was an exercise in futility, and she just hoped that, should her family ever reclaim their lost wealth, the feeling would subside a bit.

The receptionist hurriedly ran towards the counter and grabbed a sheaf of papers from just inside. He ran back, and bowed his head. "To tell you the truth, after you asked us about the possibility of someone that matched that description, we were on the lookout. She showed up, and we've been wondering who she was. Until today."

He set down the papers, and Rain caught a glimpse of them. She couldn't make out what they said, but she had no doubt that they would be given an identical packet once they were done talking.

"We just got them today, and she wasn't supposed to show up until tomorrow. Her journey from Axel was sped up though the usage of enhancement magic, according to a few adventurers who were in the same caravan," he explained, detaching the top paper form the rest of the stack. He opened his mouth, and then paused.

"Before you hear who she is, you need to understand that everything is true. These documents aren't forgeries."

Both Claire and Rain nodded, wondering what could be so shocking.

He held up the first piece of paper in the stack. "Tanya von Degurechaff is the girl you were looking for. She'd a top rate adventurer, who always completes her quests quickly and is even willing to do more… unsavory quests, like killing Tranquility Girls."

Rain's eyebrows creased together. "What are those?"

Claire nodded, and the receptionist with the paper began to explain. "They are… plant monsters that lure adventurers into dying next to them. Using a variety of means, the adventurer slowly wastes away next to what appears to be a girl who is, in actuality, a monster."

Claire and Rain both scowled. What kind of noble would be willing to do such work?

"She is _highly _recommended, and receptionists from Axel claim that they would gladly have kept her and given her every possible accommodation to get her to stay."

The manager swiped the piece of paper from his hands, and muttered, "They don't need a life story. Get to the good bits," as he skimmed it.

The manager turned to the two nobles. "She was last reported as having one other companion, a brown haired commoner. She's also taken to hanging out with a beastman recently…" he said, trailing off with a scowl.

Rain turned to Claire. "So those rumors _were _about her?"

Claire nodded and sighed. "It seems that she isn't some kind of impostor. But then why…"

Rain didn't need to know the rest of her question. Why did she look so much like Iris?

The manager turned stiffly towards the receptionist. "You're sure this is real?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes. It has all the right paperwork filled in, and I triple checked it."

The manager sighed, and then turned to the two nobles. "Obviously, I can't order you two around. I'm just a manager. But you _can't_ tell anyone about her."

"Why not?" Claire scoffed. Rain winced at her dismissal, but she was wondering why the man thought they shouldn't do that.

He held up the piece of paper. "She killed an _Amalgamation_. Nearly on her own, if the reports are accurate."

Claire's eyes furrowed, but Rain stopped wondering why she had thought they couldn't tell anyone.

That spell was reason enough.

"You are sure? Absolutely?"

The receptionist nodded gravely, and the manager sighed tiredly. "Yes. And not one of the puny, half-insane ones. This was one of the more powerful ones I've heard of."

"What's an Amalgamation?"

Rain turned towards Claire, shaking her head. "'Abomination' would be a more prudent name. They are the absolute worst type of undead."

Claire tilted her head. "But I thought Liches, Vampires, and Dullahans were the strongest undead?"

Rain nodded. "That is because they are some of the few with powerful grudges, power, _and _sanity. These things have only power, and quite a lot of it."

"Those that try to summon them are killed. The people around them are killed. They can bathe entire towns in blood, and the only reason that they aren't considered the strongest is that they cannot strategize and they cannot stay together for too long. Eventually, the lack of a grudge will degrade them, and without additional mana from the Necromancer, they'll fall apart."

Everyone was silent, and Rain bowed her head towards the manager. "We thank you for your time."

With that, they took the rest of the papers – copies of the quest's she had completed and other such records – and made to leave.

Rain suddenly had a thought.

She, Rain, and nearly everyone else in the capital wouldn't ever be able to get near the girl without her realizing who they were. They needed someone who could be much more…

Subtle.

She turned around, standing in the doorway and ignoring Claire's questioning gaze. "I was wondering if you had any adventurers that would be willing to do a bit of work for us? We need people that don't stand out too much that can be relied upon if we want to gather more information on them."

Again, the receptionist looked somewhat conflicted. The adventurer, however, nodded. "I know just the guys. They just arrived in town, and besides the one black mark on their records they're fine men."

Rain nodded and looked to the guild manager. He shrugged and clapped a hand on the receptionist's shoulder. "He'll show you to them tomorrow afternoon."

Rain nodded her head, ready to report her findings to Iris.

-OxOxO-

Iris nodded her head as she listened to them explain this 'Tanya von Degurechaff.'

"Have either of you heard that name before?"

Both looked at each other, and shook their heads. "Never. She could be from Elroad, or…"

Claire trailed off as Iris's expression soured. Elroad.

Elraod had stopped sending them money. Without that money, they could not pay their conscripts and they could not pay the nobles to keep committing their resources to the fight.

It was maddening, but it was also not the purpose of their current discussion.

Iris stood there, wondering how she could meet this noble. It was quite clear that she was powerful, so she was sure to have a few stories.

And… Iris could imagine herself doing these heroic things, running away from her responsibilities and instead saving the people through her power.

"Can you write her a letter? We obviously can't send it to her house, if we don't know which family she's from, but if we send it to the guild, they can pass it along, yes?"

Iris would have liked to send Claire and Rain to invite her like they normally invited adventurers, but if she was a noble, then certain formalities needed to be adhered to.

If Iris assumed this noble had the time of day to meet her and had no prior commitments – as if a noble wasn't always either busy working or busy scheming – this Degurechaff could interpret that assumption as an insult.

Rain nodded quickly. She was now just as interested in this noble as Princess Iris was.

No matter how hard she tried, her memories couldn't find a single difference in looks between the girl she'd seen in the streets and the girl standing in front of her. Why did they resemble each other so much?

Claire also nodded, after a moment more of thinking. The possibility of this person being an impostor was lower now, and Claire was melting on the inside at the thought of having a copy of Iris.

Iris smiled warmly. "Great! We'll ask her to come to a meeting in… one day from tomorrow? That should give her enough time to get her affairs in order, right?"

Both paused, for a moment, and then nodded. Even if she hadn't brought along respectable clothing on her trip here – which wasn't as ludicrous as they might first think, considering she was an adventurer – she could surely find some kind of dress to wear.

Rain left the room, considering the wording of the letter, while Claire left, intent on exploring the wondrous world of Iris's clothing again, wondering how much of it would fit on the new Iris.

Iris was thinking of what kind of story her look alike would tell her of her adventures. Hopefully, it would be more interesting than her usual fare, because she needed something entertaining to think about while she traveled to Elroad in search of money.

-OxOxO-

Today, Tanya and Viktoriya walked into the guild cautiously, wisely keeping their mouths shut.

Tanya was tempted to try to say what she had yesterday about nothing going wrong – just as an experiment – but the glares that some people were sending her convinced her that some of them might try and kill her, regardless of the consequences or disparity in power.

Luckily, nothing happened. They walked in, ignored the glaring adventurers – whose elation at her ability to defeat Verdia had been tempered by reminders of who had 'caused' him to show up in the first place – and straight towards the bulletin board.

Just as she was beginning to think everything was fine and they could take a quest, the receptionist called out to her. "Degurechaff!"

She snapped her head around, glaring at the man. He shrank back, holding out a letter in his hand. "You have a letter."

Tanya blinked owlishly. She did?

Swiftly, she walked towards him and snatched the letter out of his hand. She opened the letter, noting, with a small amount of worry, the quality of the paper.

She didn't think that the Succubi could afford to waste money on paper this good, and Tanya would beat Wiz over the head if she dared to waste money on such a frivolous thing when she could hardly make ends meet as it was.

Hopefully, it was from Darkness. She was the only rich person Tanya knew here, and if someone else knew of her and had the money to waste on good paper, then things were about to get… complicated.

She grimaced. It might even be a missive from Mary, meant to mock her in some way.

She noted that it was sealed with wax, broke the thin, and opened the letter. Viktoriya peered over her shoulder, and both read what it said, spirits dropping as they did.

_Dear Lady Tanya von Degurechaff,_

_You are invited to join Princess Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg for a cordial lunch and afternoon meeting._

_You are a new adventurer, so we will take the time to explain that which you may not know._

_The Princess is particularly fond of the stories of adventurers. While Hero Candidates would usually be called on, we received word of the deeds you performed yesterday, and thought that asking you to come instead would be a good change of pace for the Princess._

_Rest assured, you are in no way obligated to attend, but all of us would love it if you would meet us at the front of the Royal Estate tomorrow at twelve o'clock sharp._

_Most sincerely, Claire Entil Shinfornea._

Tanya looked up and met the eyes of Viktoriya. "Fuck."

Both quickly retreated into one of the corners of the guild, slipping into Germanian so that they weren't overheard.

_"Why the fuck does she want to meet us?"_ Tanya asked, gesturing violently with the letter and wringing a hand through her hair.

Great. Now, they would have to meet the Princess of the nation and try not to feel guilty about the fact that people in their situation were contemplating switching sides.

Their conflict with Verdia had brought the matter to the front of her mind, but it had been there since the idea had first come to her.

Sure, they couldn't get that rule-free wish if they switched, but if Belzerg was losing, there wasn't exactly a lot they could do to fix the situation.

They were, after all, just two people. Strong people, yes, but even they needed to eat and sleep. Doing either of those things was hard if you were an enemy of the state.

By contrast, Viktoriya seemed to have calmed down somewhat. _"Is it really so bad? If we don't switch sides, then this will be very good for gaining favor. And if we do… well, we'll know a bit about how the enemy thinks, right?"_

Tanya grumbled, but she supposed that the woman was right. _"I guess so… and Verdia's notes say that if we want to understand the war, we'll need to get close to the royal family…"_

Oh, Tanya wasn't engrossed in the idea of finding out why they were even fighting this war, but she hadn't had the freedom to choose her side in her last life. If possible, she'd like to figure out as much as she could about the situation before she committed to one side or the other.

Tanya sighed. "I guess we'll go, then…"

"Go where?"

Both of them jumped, hands on their pistols, but it was only Lorelei, leaning down to look at them. Tanya shook her head and began to check that her pistol was secure as Viktoriya began to explain.

"We've been invited to visit the Princess, apparently," she said. Both were quiet after that.

Tanya turned around and saw that Mitsurugi was staring at them, smiling mysteriously. Tanya could see his crazy followers behind him, trying to kill Tanya by glaring at her.

Thankfully, she was immune to such pitiful attempts on her life. She turned her attention to Mitsurugi, who was shaking his head with mirth shining in his eyes.

"Congratulations! Iris is a real treasure. She'll ask you to tell her a story from an adventure you've been on and then send you on your way," he explained.

"How would you know?" she asked him.

He shrugged and raised an eyebrow. "I _am_ a hero candidate. Most of us get invited to tell her a story eventually."

His happiness seemed to fade away when Tanya sighed dejectedly.

She hastened to explain. "I don't even know what to wear. The last time I met royalty, I just wore my uniform…"

He shook his head. "Don't do that! Her retainers get very… _touchy _if you don't come wearing something nice. Pretend you're meeting your boss's boss's boss."

Tanya shrugged helplessly. "Exactly. I showed up to a party in my uniform, and everyone made a big fuss because of it."

He rolled his eyes. "Just… find a nice dress to wear," he said flippantly, ignoring the hatred that flashed across her face to lean back and imagine her in a dress.

A concerned look crossed his face. "Now that I think about it, you look… similar to Iris…"

Tanya hardly heard him. She would have thanked him, but she was currently dreading the look of the other two behind her.

Slowly, she twisted around, and chuckled nervously at the expressions on Lorelei and Viktoriya's faces.

She tried to play it off as she began to gather mana. "What is it? Is something wrong with my hair?"

Both shook their heads in unison, and Tanya backed up a step. They advanced forward.

Lorelei spoke. "You know, we _really_ should get a dress."

Viktoriya nodded along with the beastman's words. "Yeah. I don't imagine that we can show up wearing these things," she added, gesturing down to their current clothing.

Tanya's eyes widened, and she jumped back just as the two tried to grab her. She pointed an accusing finger at them, ignoring how it was shaking and watching from the corner of her eye as Mitsurugi backed away. "Never! You'll never get me to wear something as degrading, horrible, and _feminine_ as-"

Both of them gave each other a look and jumped at Tanya again. She dodged Viktoriya easily; she had trained her and recognized each and every movement of her body.

Unfortunately, Lorelei had sprung far beyond where Tanya had thought she would be, and the beastman was now struggling to keep her hold on her.

Tanya snarled as the beastman began to speak in a torrential downpour of words. "Come on Tanya! We'll get your measurements, and use every last Eris you have to make a dress! You'll look so cute, especially when _I_ get a hold of you…"

She tried to break out of the beastman's grip, but she was very strong. Thankfully, Tanya could just use her-

"Reinforcement spell: Strength."

Tanya's spirits plummeted as she saw Viktoriya hold out a hand towards the beastman and saw Lorelei's brown eyes dilate. Tanya began to pour mana into her own spells, fighting to break free.

Viktoriya shook her head slowly. "Sorry, Tanya. We do need to put our best foot forward, and that means you need to wear a dress."

She poured mana into her fists, attempting to smash Lorelei's face, not even bothering to apologize to her internally. She would _not-_

Nothing. She didn't so much as flinch, and the very demented look in her eyes hadn't faded the slightest.

Tanya turned around in the beastman's grip as much as possible, looking towards Viktoriya as all three of them left the guild. "Viktoriya, come on! I don't have to wear a dress. I didn't have to wear one for the Kaiser."

Viktoriya shook her head. "That was the Empire. Your reputation for professionalism meant that even if people were shocked at your refusal to wear a dress, they understood. Here though? People might be upset."

Tanya glared at the back of her head. "Sure, they could be. However, I could build up my reputation with this meeting-"

Tanya felt Lorelei's ears smack the back of her head as the beastman shook their head. "I may not be a noble, but even _I _know that you need to wear something more appropriate than a uniform. Many nobles are knights, after all, and they don't wear their armor."

Tanya shot her a murderous glare, but it seemed that her desire to dress Tanya up was greater than any fear Tanya had instilled in her.

She did flinch, but then she continued to walk along after Viktoriya.

Tanya growled, and mentally told herself to put this beastman through the hell the 203rd had gone through. She whirled back around, craning her neck to see Viktoriya. "Come on! You said I wouldn't ever have to wear a dress if I didn't want to!"

This time, Viktoriya stopped. She turned around, emotions warring on her face. She sighed, and bit her lip, giving her that stupid, _unconquerable _puppy-dog stare. "Do you really think we can't wear dresses?"

Tanya felt her resolve disintegrating in the face of Viktoriya's… face.

She tried to look away, but Lorelei had adjusted her grip so that Tanya couldn't look away from Viktoriya's slightly-sad, slightly-pleading look. She tried to run through formulas in her mind.

Nothing could withstand that look.

She sighed dejectedly, and entertained the errant, traitorous thought of what would happen if she walked in to a meeting with the Princess wearing adventurer's clothing or anything less than what was expected of her – or more accurately, what was expected of a woman in a Medieval era.

She groaned. "Fine." She glared at Lorelei again, and the beastman gingerly released Tanya.

She hopped down to the ground and glared at them both, crossing her arms and hunching her back. "Fucking… _fine_. I'll wear a stupid fucking dress, and whatever else you can put on me."

Both of them smiled broadly, but she turned to Lorelei stiffly. "You. I'll be putting you through the same hell I put my battalion through once we finish with this stupid meeting and I get some time."

She turned to Viktoriya, who had built up an immunity to Tanya's glares and grinned through Tanya's promise that she would figure out a way to get her back.

As she brooded behind the two, she hid a smirk. Viktoriya had that _diary_, right? Tanya would go through it and find some – mostly – harmless way to prank her.

-OxOxO-

Tanya was on the verge of crying.

She'd been through hell on the battlefield, fought against the best of what Being X could throw at her, and even managed to make it this far in this nonsensical fantasy land where mackerel grew in the ground and watermelons were caught in the sea.

Very few things had nearly brought Tanya to tears, and she could confidently add this experience to the list.

Oh, the clothing looked wonderful, from an outside perspective. Lots of white, very few frills, and a dress that dipped down to her ankles. She'd even been given evening gloves that were made of higher quality fabric than her new black ones.

It didn't even come with a corset, something Tanya was very thankful for. Because, if someone had dared to try one of _those _on her – whether she had served nearly eight years on the front line with them or only met them days ago – she would likely have ripped anything that they tried to constrict her breathing to shreds and then fed said shreds to the idiotic dressers who dared to try something like that.

Despite what was good about it, Tanya still hated how it looked on her. It was too white. She would have preferred to be dressed in blues or greens, but Lorelei had shaken her head and muttered something about 'purity' to the woman making the thing.

It didn't have anywhere for her to put weapons. She could strap her pistol to her leg, but that was about it.

It hugged her body in an attempt to accentuate assets that Tanya wished she could cut off.

Lorelei asked for a reason as to why in the name of Eris they'd wouldn't try and make it seem that she was at least a bit more desirable, and Tanya had countered that no men would be at this little get together. Lorelei had just rolled her eyes.

It didn't let her stash her Type 97 in her clothing. She'd have to wear the thing around her neck in full view of everyone, and the only reason she also wasn't wearing that stupid circlet was because Tanya hadn't told Lorelei about it.

Still… despite her hatred of the dress, all of it _paled _in comparison to her hair.

Tanya had thought, after they had purchased the damn dress, that they'd go home, and Tanya could contemplate using all her mana so that she'd wind up sick the next morning. Instead, Lorelei had dragged them to a _hairdresser_. The man had tutted at Tanya's messy, short hair, and put more work into Tanya's hair in those two hours than she had _in her life._

Then they'd gone home. Tanya had been exhausted and angry. Viktoriya had enjoyed her dress much more, and Lorelei had seemed energized by the entire experience.

They'd gone to bed, and Tanya had woken up to the sounds of Viktoriya making coffee. It tasted good, of course, but the dread she was feeling made it taste just slightly too bitter.

Viktoriya had dragged her out of the inn, they'd met up with Lorelei, and then they'd gone and done it all again, except this time…

Tanya resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands as they walked through the streets of the capital.

They were outside.

And, everyone that cared to was looking at them, gawking at them, and generally calling attention to the nicely dressed women walking through the streets towards the looming castle.

She glared behind her at Viktoriya. She was smiling and waving at the occasional onlooker, a smile of mixed nervousness and appreciation gracing her face.

Tanya gave her a look over, turned around and grinned to herself. Well, Tanya might not have liked all the white and gold on herself, but it looked… quite nice on Viktoriya…

She shook her head and tried to be angry at her adjunct.

Tanya didn't care what she thought of the experience; Tanya was going to find out some dirty little secret in the girl's diary, and then confront her about it.

Maybe she'd even tell others about it? Tanya couldn't really see her getting embarrassed if it was just Tanya. They had shared too much for that.

After making sure Viktoriya wasn't looking, Tanya rolled her eyes. Viktoriya didn't mind undressing in front of Tanya before she'd learned the truth of her origin; of course she'd have to tell other people before she got embarrassed.

Finally, they got the gates of the castle. It was majestic, imposing, and a big fucking target, as far as Tanya was concerned.

She turned to Lorelei, a question on her lips.

It died as she realized that she wasn't wearing a dress, and how she hadn't participated in the… beauty pageant of last night.

Tanya might have wished Lorelei to have experienced the same indignity, but the woman seemed to appreciate dresses and clothing far more than Tanya did. "Why aren't you wearing anything?"

She snorted. "I don't think that the guards would trust me enough to let me walk inside alive, let alone meet the Princess."

Tanya spun back around and ground her teeth.

She let out an angry breath, and spun around again. "Do you _want_ to come in?"

The beastman blinked rapidly, and then tilted her head as she thought about it.

She probably hadn't even considered the thought, judging by the look on her face. She shrugged.

"I don't mind staying out here." She didn't cave when Tanya sent her a questioning glance, so Tanya sighed and turned around.

"Fine. Just remember: you'll be surprised at what I'm going to _make _you live through."

Tanya smirked as the gates opened and a girl walked out. Lorelei walked away slowly, wondering if getting to handle fabric again was really worth whatever she would be put through.

She smirked to herself. Yes, getting to experience even a portion of her old life was worth it. Besides, Tanya was just joking.

Right?

Behind the retreating Lorelei, Tanya slightly inclined her head towards the girl. "I don't suppose you are Miss Shinfornea?"

Rain smiled nervously. That dress was expensive. Even the commoner she'd brought along with her was dressed up nicely. The necklace that hung from her neck looked more like a piece of art than something someone would dirty by taking it out from behind a pair of guards and thick glass.

That she wore it anyway spoke of wealth comparable to a noble at least more wealthy that Rain was.

Just… _lovely._

"I'm afraid not. I am Rain, a noble form a… lower house, one of Princess Iris's retainers, and her teacher," she said, nervously touching a piece of her hair. Tanya nodded.

"Well, I suppose you'll be taking us to meet the Princess, Miss Rain?"

Rain nodded, for a moment, and then began to blush and waved her hands. "No, no- Well, I mean I will be taking you to the Princess after a tour of the castle, but there is no need for you to address me so formally, Miss Degurechaff!"

"Alright, alright," Tanya said, attempting to placate her. She sighed, and began to walk forwards, following behind her beside Viktoriya.

She took the time as they walked passed the gates of the castle and inside to study her current host. Her clothing was…

Remarkably sensible. A dark skirt that crept from just above her thighs up to above her waist was the main feature, but the small piece of blue cloth that hung from around her neck and encircled the middle of her arms wasn't unnoticeable. A small beret-like hat topped her head, and thin gloves went up her arms and passed her elbows, disappearing underneath the cloth.

Tanya could see rings on each of her fingers, and Tanya guessed that they were like the one Tanya still had on that was supposed to deter mental attacks.

She was holding a staff and Tanya could honestly say that she looked… somewhat normal. Sure, maybe her possessions was made of high quality stuff, but it didn't seem like it would be out of place in the guild.

Tanya sent a glare towards her companion, who smiled nervously. If it turned out that wearing this stupid thing wasn't even necessary…

She rolled her eyes and tried to focus on what the pseudo-tour guide was saying.

"This castle has been improved upon by generation after generation of kings and queens – Confirmed Heroes all of them. As such, differences in architecture can be seen throughout the castle, with different areas being built to the tastes of the monarchs who built them."

Tanya nodded along with her words, taking a bit of time to look around. The place was certainly better than anything Tanya had been exposed to during this life, and she could honestly say that the number of knights she'd seen inside the thing acting as guards was impressive.

She had seen more, however. Her meeting with the Kaiser had taken place in a room filled to the brim with all kinds of wealth, from art to sheer gold.

She'd even been given the honor of exploring the entirety of Versailles.

This place was, by comparison… hollow. Sure, there was gold and carpet and chandeliers everywhere, and Tanya could count the seconds that they hadn't seen a weapon or a piece of armor on one hand.

However, there was very little _other _than overt wealth and weapons.

She had seen very little art. Artistry was present in every square inch of gilded metal and walls, of course, but paintings or statues or even drawings couldn't be found.

It was a bit disheartening to not be able to see this world's culture through its art, but she supposed that the lack of art said something just as important.

Tanya cut off her musings and refocused on the entrance to their supposed dining hall. Rain had run through to prepare the Princess, leaving Tanya and Viktoriya standing in the hall.

"Did you see the things that the maids were wearing? What kind of maid wears something like that? If they're maids, why weren't their clothes dirty? Do you think they're just for show or something?"

Tanya didn't respond, for a moment. She contemplated telling Viktoriya that those people looked like they were wearing something made for foreplay instead of cleaning. Before she could declare that, however, a smile crept over her face.

She turned to look at Viktoriya, very deliberately run her eyes over her body, and began to chuckle. "No, I didn't take notice. Now that you mention it, however…"

Viktoriya's curious expression quickly became one of dread. "T- Tanya? You wouldn't…"

Tanya just chuckled to herself. "Oh, you'd be _surprised _what I'm willing to do as revenge for this dress."

She had meant to continue the thought, but the doors in front of them opened. Wordlessly, the two of them straightened themselves, walked through the doors, and looked around the room.

Tanya would later look around and note that this area seemed to be more tasteful. The wealth wasn't blinding, and it seemed that everything was just a bit more sensible. There were even a few paintings of battles lining the walls, depicting various heroes of legend battling towering monsters.

Tanya, however, couldn't focus on much of that, however.

Because, seated across the room at the head of the long dining table that was laden with an assortment of delicious foods, was…

Tanya von Degurechaff.

Tanya blinked, and tried to find fault. She couldn't, so she stepped into the room, peering at her double in an attempt to find a flaw.

The same eyes, the same mouth, chin, nose, ears, even her body seemed to be identical. The clothes she wore actually helped differentiate them – it showed off more of her arms and shoulders than Tanya's did, and she wasn't wearing any necklace.

Her hair was longer than Tanya, and what looked like grapes – not that Tanya thought someone would actually wear food in their hair – adorned her head.

Still, everything kept circling back to the girl's face. The same face that she had woken up to for sixteen years.

"An identical Iris?!"

"Tanya's twin?!"

Tanya didn't have to guess who said the last statement, and she didn't care who'd said the first. She was busy trying to suppress her virulent, growing anger.

The chances of someone looking so… identically like her were slim to none in a rational world, especially considering how… distinctive Tanya looked as a sixteen-year-old orphan girl who'd been in the army as long as she had been outside of it.

The people across from her were likely confused as to how this could happen – some idiotic fiction about a lost twin or a bastard? – but Tanya could count on exactly _one thing_ to have caused this.

Being X.

Being X had made someone look exactly like her. Superficial differences existed in their hair style and dresses, but no one could possibly be given all the facts and conclude that that idiotic thing that claimed to be god hadn't intervened.

Tanya sighed as she walked along the side of the able towards the three people opposite of her.

Well, the moron had proven himself wrong again. There was absolutely, positively, _no fucking way_ that god had the time to come down to a planet and facilitate how a king and queen fucked so that their child looked like someone.

It just wasn't possible. Yet another point against the…

Tanya almost shook her head. Calling him a dictator, devil, or monster didn't really fit. The only word she could think of was…

Doofus. Being X was a doofus.

She suppressed the urge to sigh and instead strode forward, coming to a stop in front of her double, staring down at the girl. Tanya could see that she was trying to put up a mask of blankness, but the wideness of her eyes gave away her surprise.

Tanya resisted the urge to introduce herself in one of her old ways.

In her first life, she might have shaken hands and exchange pleasantries.

Usually, she hadn't needed to; anyone who she had met that she wasn't already familiar with was usually about to be fired.

In her last life, she hadn't often needed to introduce herself to many people.

Those she had, she would salute, if they were a higher rank, and then she would give off her rank in the 203rd.

Neither was appropriate, so Tanya instead bent at the waist, bowing her head until she was facing the ground. "Your highness. I am Tanya von Degurechaff."

Iris inclined her head, tossed a glance back at Viktoriya, who was also approaching. The girl inclined her head slightly and spoke. "Understood. I am the First Princess of Belzerg, Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg."

Tanya nodded her head, absently wondering if that was really her middle name and noting that the girl's voice was much higher pitched than Tanya's. That was unfortunate for a sixteen-year-old, but Tanya couldn't do anything about it, so she'd say nothing.

Tanya was sure that she was probably insecure about it, considering Tanya was mildly annoyed about the pitch of her voice, and she had a lifetime of growing up as an abnormally tall Japanese man to fall back on.

Viktoriya walked forward and bent as low as Tanya had moments earlier. "Your highness. I am Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov."

Suddenly, the girl's curious eyes became cold, and Tanya found that her resemblance to the face Tanya conjured up in a mirror even more familiar. She turned to the suited girl to her right and began to whisper. The woman stepped forward, looking at Tanya while speaking to Viktoriya in a very distant way,

_Twitch._

"Her Highness Princess Iris thanks you for the introduction. She desires that we eat a light lunch before the stories are told."

Viktoriya and Tanya both inclined their heads and sat down next to each of the two retainers. Tanya was trying not to glare at the Princess for snubbing Viktoriya like that.

On one hand, Tanya knew that she was royalty and that there was definitely some set of royal procedures for meeting people below her status. On the other hand…

Viktoriya.

Tanya cast her gaze to the other occupants of the room. They weren't talking, and they might not have seemed to stand out much from their surroundings, but various servants seemed to be arrayed around the room, ready for orders.

Tanya turned to Rain. Tanya didn't often get petty revenge that didn't involve ordering her subordinates to do something menial and below their skill, but almost anything was permissible when someone insulted Viktoriya.

She smiled sweetly at the woman.

She would be easiest to exact a reprisal, if her earlier nervous attitude was anything to go by.

"Rain, was it?" she asked the girl. She looked up suddenly, eyes trained on Tanya.

Tanya smiled, as if benevolent. "I'm sorry I didn't say so earlier, but it _was_ you that accosted me and Viktoriya a few days ago, yes?"

She jerked minutely at that, and Tanya saw Viktoriya stiffen out of the corner of her eye. She had been upset that someone had tried to attack Tanya within the first few hours of their arrival and gone on about it while they had found a dingy alley to lie low in.

The woman touched the tips of her fingers together nervously as a faint blush touched her cheeks. "Ah, well, that was in fact me. I… incorrectly assumed that you were actually Iris. Honestly, it was a stupid mistake. Iris wouldn't ever leave the castle unattended."

Tanya hummed as if surprised, took note of the slight shift Princess's posture, and waited a moment more as she saw the servers beginning to bring out food. Perfect.

"It is fine. Obviously, the mistake is easy to make, although I wonder at your dedication if you would think that something so obviously unattainable could be the truth."

As her cheeks reddened more thoroughly and that Claire girl seemed to fight down some sort of choking noise, Tanya hid her smirk behind the bowl of food a servant was lowering.

Tanya began to dig in, stopping only momentarily as Rain apologized for not being able to find Tanya's family.

She shrugged. "It's fine. If you could have found my family, I'd be surprised, considering I'm an orphan" she said, making sure to keep the condescending tone out of her voice this time. She'd exacted a bit of petty revenge, and if they didn't insult Viktoriya, then she'd keep things amiable.

"Really?" asked Iris. Tanya nodded.

"Yes. No mother, no father, and dropped off at an orphanage before I could walk."

The woman in the suit – presumably Claire Entil Shinfornea – spoke up this time. "Nonsense. Some noble family must have adopted you."

Tanya rolled her eyes. The urge to try and make up a backstory entered her mind, but she discarded it. She had enough trouble keeping her last two lives out of general conversation; she didn't need a fake life to keep track of too.

Honestly, trying to juggle a half-dozen lives seemed like a very tiring task. Tanya didn't think even a million dollars and a half-dozen companies – one for each identity – would be worth it. Honestly, what kind of shit would Being X have to pull for that to happen?

She shook her head and glanced enviously at Viktoriya, who was currently enjoying what looked to be some kind of bird. Tanya hadn't tried it yet on account of the inquisition.

"No. I stayed at that orphanage for a long time," she said, digging into the fowl.

The conversation began to stiffen, and everyone began to dig into their food.

Even if the dress was embarrassing, and if these people were about as meritocratic as a communist dictatorship and looked down on the 'suspicious people who know more than how to farm' just as much, she would find something about the day she could enjoy. Hopefully, it would be the food and the way Viktoriya looked.

They quickly finished lunch – apparently something called Onion Duck that was high in experience – and Tanya could tell that the little girl in front of her was bursting with questions. Tanya fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"What kind of stories would Your Majesty like to hear?" she asked as their plates were taken away and getting to the reason the letter had asked them here. Viktoriya gave the woman taking her plate a thank you, and turned back to Tanya, interest sparkling in her eyes.

Iris seemed indecisive, and Rain spoke up for her. "Please, tell of us of your time in Axel, Miss Degurechaff. We understand that you recently arrived from there?"

Tanya felt her eyes narrow, but she rolled her shoulders and leaned back in her chair as she tried to think of an appropriate story from Axel.

Viktoriya spoke up. "Could you tell us about your first quest? You haven't gotten around to telling me what you did…"

Tanya smiled thankfully at Viktoriya. Tanya had been telling Viktoriya about what she'd done in this world so far since they'd set out from Axel. Tanya hadn't realized it, but obviously Viktoriya was trying to ease her into telling her about the much more…

Tanya gulped. The much more… _trying _experiences they'd had during the war.

She breathed in deeply, ignoring the questioning looks from their hosts. "Fine, I don't mind. My first quest involved a very small pond full of alligators and some… unpredictable teammates."

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **ALL RIGHT! Firstly, to those of you that read this before I finished: I am sorry.

I got my first job recently, and I've been reading Harry Turtledove books provided by Christmas, things got away from me, and I posted it before it was done being edited. Again, I apologize.

As for why I put it out before it was edited… I _did _promise to post chapters every Saturday or Friday, and not posting felt… wrong.

Anyway… Tanya invokes the wrath of Eris/the universe by daring to say something so horribly cliche as 'nothing could possibly go wrong.' Aqua proved just how much a horrible Luck stat can be for you, and Tanya continues the tradition.

Also, Tanya and Iris meet, and what do you know, they do look alike. Honestly, I've been imagining this scene for quite a while, and I'm glad to finally share it.

**A/N 2: **Yes, Tanya does remark that her having multiple identities is outlandish, which is a direct reference to how Tanya doesn't often imagine how different her life might be if something happened just slightly to the left, like with _A Young Girl's Delinquency Record_.

**A/N 3: **Responses to reviews on this website (from before January 4th):

**eggyeggygoo: **Have no fear: Mitsurugi will not _remain _your standard isekai harem pretty-boy forever. I have a plan for him that borders heavily on crack and that I _might _be able to spin as plausible and believable anyway.

**Lord of Moons: **Congratulations! You're the first person to speak a positive, _obvious _god damned positive word about Tanya transitioning. Thank you very much, I recently forgot that I should give the trolls and flames as much care as Tanya does Dacia's entire military, and your comment helped me to remember that.

As a reward, I'm mentioning the telescope _explicitly_ when Tanya gets around to it, and I'm gonna work more of Astronomy/Astrology into The Anniversary than I planned. If you have any more plans, please mention them.

**Acerman: **Yeah, I was kind of… unhappy with her breaking her promise so soon too, but even _I _do want to move the story along a bit. Besides, nothing's saying she can't… _delay _talking about it by making sure Viktoriya is distracted.

And as I told **eggyeggygoo**, I have a _plan _for Mitsurugi… hehehe…

**Pyromania101: **You all spoil me with the ideas you give me! But…

Hmm, actually, while I _did _have a plan for a… 'secondary party' if you will – that I can't speak any more of because spoilers – I might do something inspired by _A Young Girl's Delinquency Record _in order to handle the influx of characters…

**cj1of4:** It is a funny gag, and while she seems to gain more friends than she realizes – especially with the various spinoffs to consider – putting her in a permanent team would be good for her growth.

**Nihil Asara: **I haven't read much of the manga either. I don't think any rape actually occurs in any of the canons – it's just something Loria dreams of.

As for your curiosity, wait and see! All will be revealed eventually, one way or another…

**Quaver Ava: **Thank you for the encouragement. Tanya is probably going to keep the same name – changing names mid-story is confusing, in my experience, though she might… I don't know, change her middle name from 'von' to something different.

As for my chapter size and speed, remember: I still have a backlog until chapter 37. After that, I'm going to have to slow _way _the fuck down. Until then, though, enjoy weekly updates!

**Amatsumi: **lol

**SoleReclaimer: **If, by blow up, you meant, Tanya ruminates on just how ungodly Being X is, then yes!

**Xpparda: **She'll start regularly calling her by her nickname… eventually. My outline only extends so far before becoming a mess of unconnected future scenes.

**last admiral: **If you remember Kazuma's first foray into this world, he was quite upset by a lot of things that didn't match his expectations of your average isekai – from his teammates being worse than expected to stuff that was weird, like watermelon being caught in the river. I imagine that this happened with just about anyone familiar with the genre, if to a lesser degree thanks to their cheats.

And, as always, thank you to **Imperial warlord**, **simple405**, **Sprengkamp**, and everyone else who continues to read this story! See you all later!


	25. Royal Dealings

"…and that's how we finished off the last of the Tranquility Girls!"

She smiled widely, showing off too many teeth and stretching her face until it hurt.

That didn't matter. Even the way that the other girl… Viktoriya… was looking at her and muttering something about 'just as scary as her' didn't matter.

All Iris wanted was for Tanya to know how much _fun _she was having.

Alligators? Squirrels? Graveyards? Explosions? Tranquility Girls?

Awesome! None of the other people who told her stories – most of which fell into either the wildly successful adventurer or Hero Candidate categories, if not both – told stories with so many ups and downs and twists and… _FUN!_

Protecting aging adventurers from early graves? Protecting Axel from hordes of insect monsters? Helping to clear out a graveyard for the betterment of the people?

Even better! That…

That was what Iris wanted to do. See tangible fruits of her labors instead of hoping that weeks, months, or even years after she made a decision, things would turn out fine.

She would wait, of course, but…

Sometimes, planning for the future just wasn't enough for her!

So engrossed in showing Tanya her affection and admiration at giving her a figure to so concretely project herself, Iris didn't notice the unhappy looks that Claire and Rain were giving Tanya.

Speaking of…

Tanya tried not to grow concerned as Iris continued to grin at her. While it was obvious that her renown was growing in the Princess's eyes, the fact that she was so fulfilled by four stories about beating monsters into the ground might say something concerning about her mental state.

Iris wasn't a Japanese salaryman trapped in the body of a little girl, after all.

Viktoriya was also smiling, and Tanya couldn't blame her. She'd helped Tanya during the last story, and Iris had even spoken to her directly.

Of course, the atmosphere was somewhat ruined by the two retainers of her's, who seemed to be conflicted for some reason.

Tanya supposed the conflict evident on their faces was probably due to their concern about Tanya's apparent uncaring for the fact that Tranquility Girls looked human, but Tanya knew that the concern wouldn't grow into anything more harmful…

Especially since Tanya had lied about a number of facts.

Nothing too big… just the fact that they killed ten Tranquility Girls and not two, and that they went looking for the things instead of coincidentally running into two.

Regardless of her small… suntractions, Tanya was starting to warm up to Iris a little bit, if only for her apparent innocence.

As Tanya opened her mouth to modestly thank the Princess for her praise, Claire moved to interdict the growing amazement in Iris's eyes. "What is your job, by the way? I haven't heard of one that would allow for a combination of those types of spells."

Tanya smiled, inwardly suppressing her panic. Luna, Mitsurugi, Dust… actually, just about everyone had dispairaged her for her choice of job. And while some, like Darkness and the aforementioned Mitsurugi, had at least let her explain herself, most everyone back in Axel seemed to try very, _very _hard to forget that small tidbit.

Appropriately, revealing that her job was the Adventurer would get her laughed at for her humor and…

Tanya blinked. She didn't honestly know what the punishment for lying to the Princess was, but they would level that punishment on her if they thought she was lying about her stories. She needed to try and… steer the conversation elsewhere.

"Actually, I'm only level 23…"

Claire stood up, an eyebrow raised as she slammed down on the table. "Impossible! Such deeds we have heard of couldn't be done by one so weak."

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled in a show of disinterest. "Levels are not everything. I had to fight before I came to Belzerg, and I think I'll be forced to fight even if I leave this land."

Claire seemed to glare at her, but Iris touched her arm lightly. Immediately, all of the hostility drained out of her, and a… _dopey _smile overcame her face.

Iris turned away from her retainer and smiled. "Your stories are much more interesting than the ones the Hero Candidates have. They always finish off their enemies in a few blows."

Tanya shrugged. "Well, the life of an adventurer isn't always glamorous."

She tilted her head, and Tanya continued. "We are, by definition, meant to be used as spare labor. I worked as a Blacksmith before I could fight as well as I can, and most of the time our work consists of fighting mundane things and protecting farmers and caravans from attack."

Iris let out a soft, "Oh," under her breath, and Tanya began to wonder what she'd said that was so surprising.

Had she really thought that anyone would willingly put themselves in danger if they didn't have to or if they didn't have some greater goal in mind? Had she thought they just adventured for _fun?_

Rain and Claire, meanwhile, were deciding that this was their best decision.

_Ever_.

Iris had been obsessed with adventurers ever since the King had raised the minimum age for military recruitment from fourteen to sixteen. She had realized that he wouldn't ever let her join the fight against the Demon King legitimately, so she had begun to gain interest in the other large group fighting the Demon King she could join: the adventurers.

If this odd noble girl was able to get Iris to focus on her job instead of on adventuring, Rain was going to be giving her a very large bonus.

Claire was imagining just what it would be like to have this version of Iris to instruct the other version of Iris on how the world worked. If Claire got her to keep talking that way, Iris would continue to do things in the castle and ignore the filthy peasantry, and she wouldn't ever leave it and put herself in harm's way.

"Well, what did you do before you came to Belzerg?" Iris asked, voice small and hopeful.

Tanya's expression stiffened. She couldn't say she was a Mage, because then she'd get asked to show off spells.

Tanya – and probably most people with more than a handful of braincells – wasn't stupid enough to do that in a room with this world's brand of Mage, who was undoubtedly advanced enough to know what was and wasn't possible according to this world's magic.

Getting strapped down to a table and medically examined – besides bringing up… uncomfortable memories – sounded like a very fast way to be acquainted with Being X.

"Oh, well, after that orphanage, I got into the military."

Iris jumped up, wonder in her voice. "You were in the military!? Why'd they let you join so young? No one will let me join!"

Claire and Rain, at once, retracted all their praise for the girl.

This was their most horrible mistake.

_Ever._

Claire and Rain's expressions became terribly angry. They needed to get rid of her. Now.

Iris could see a vision of herself in this mysterious, Iris-like figure, and allowing the Princess to entertain thoughts about joining the military was in violation of the King's wishes.

Rain felt her eyebrows come together. Although… how _did _the King play into this? Was Tanya really… _his, _or were her parents _really _polarized in their devotion to Eris?

Meanwhile, Iris was smiling widely. She had been waiting to help her father and her brother fight the Demon King. She had been ten when her father had kicked back the minimum age requirement, and no amount of pleading, back rubbing, and every other tactic she could think of were able to convince him.

Tanya nodded at her question. "Well, they only let me in because of my massive magical potential. They wouldn't have let a child younger than ten to join otherwise. After that, I went through training, trained a few soldiers of my own, fought on a few fronts, and rose to the rank of Major-General in the space of seven years."

Tanya watched as all three of the people opposite of her suddenly froze. Iris was counting on her fingers, while Rain seemed nervous for some reason.

Claire asked the question first. "How old are you, Miss Degurechaff?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. What a stupid question. "Sixteen, just like her. Also, did they change the conscription law again? I thought that sixteen _was _the minimum age for joining the army?"

All three of them were quiet now, and Tanya's head tilted in confusion. They looked rather… sad, and she could see pity shining in their eyes.

Then, before she could spit out an acidic comment about asking a woman for her age to try and figure out why they thought she needed their pity, the truth dawned on her.

Tanya had been underfed at that orphanage, and saying that she got regular, growth-conducive meals while at war would have been a bigger lie than Being X's.

The magic she had subjected her body to when performing aerial maneuvers, while lifesaving, had also stunted her growth.

She was… short, and she looked much younger than she was.

On the other hand, the Princess across from her had likely been spoon-fed as much food she wanted.

Food that, in this place, was full of high-quality ingredients that gave her experience.

She likely hadn't been anywhere near magic that would stunt her growth either. Her father's raising of the age of conscription so that his daughter couldn't join made him sound very protective, and stunting your child's growth wasn't exactly the mark of a protective parent.

How many times had Tanya been compared, sarcastically or ignorantly, to a twelve-year-old?

"…How old are you?" she asked, misery shining in her eyes. She could guess, but she really hoped that it wasn't the case.

"…Twelve."

_Twitch._

Tanya felt pitiful.

The servants in the room were staring at her, saddened expressions glued to their faces.

Her hosts were staring at her, keenly aware that any sixteen-year-old that looked like their Princess at this age was not destined to grow very much.

But _oh_, how they were _wrong_.

Tanya knew that her affairs were rather dismal as far as growth went, and that she wasn't going to become a particularly tall or… well-endowed woman.

That wasn't what she felt pitiful for.

She was supposed to have been over fifty by this point, counting her days until retirement and firing incompetent workers. She was supposed to be counting gray hairs in her short, slicked back hair, not trying to keep blonde hair manageable.

Tanya mused to herself that only Viktoriya felt sorry for Tanya in the right way: Tanya didn't care that she wouldn't grow up to be a beautiful woman; she was angry that she had to be a woman at all.

They sat there for a while, not talking. Then, a sigh escaped the too-small girl.

"Well, there's no reason to keep sitting her in silence, yes? I can't exactly do anything about my situation," she said, trying to keep a scowl off her face and adding a silent 'yet' to the end of her statement.

Hopefully, the Succubi would eventually find the type of 'rare magical artifact' that she wanted.

She'd given them vague instructions about what to look for, not wanting them to see her as a deviant for wanting to change her gender. They'd found a few interesting things, but nothing that matched what she wanted.

The others seemed to want to move passed this just as fast, and Iris looked up from where she'd been staring down at her plate. "Can you tell me about your past? How did you rise to such a high position as Major-General?"

Tanya's grip on her fork stiffened, and the slight tint to her cheeks brought on by the reminder of her forced femininity died. The past…

Images drifted passed her eyes, and she dimly acknowledged that someone had grabbed onto her shoulder. The past…

Small, round glasses and a balding man and the hurried, feverish whispering of people all too familiar with what would happen to her and a sickly, cloying smell that reminded Tanya of unconsciousness and helplessness and weakness and _fear-_

Tanya felt her head shake a fraction before the hand on her shoulder squeezed her hard. Her vision cleared.

"I'm sorry, but I am afraid that we will have to refuse any stories about that part of our past," Viktoriya said. Tanya thanked her friend mentally for taking control of the conversation.

She didn't really feel up for it now.

Tanya gazed towards the three hosts and saw the apologetic expressions – no doubt for her embarrassment at having to reveal her age – fade.

"Why not?" asked Iris, confusion and… a kernel of suspicion flaring to life in her eyes.

Tanya kept her mouth shut, and heard the woman behind her speak. "What is war like here in Belzerg?"

All three of them gave her concerned looks. Tanya wanted, for a moment, to tell Viktoriya to zip her mouth shut for talking about things they shouldn't…

But she couldn't bring herself to, and learning about the war of the past decades would be good, right?

"Conventionally," Claire said derisively, after a moment's pause, "the nobility all call together their peasant levies, don their armor, and ride out under a larger force to combat the opposition in a melee."

Tanya heard Viktoriya draw in a breath, but Tanya spoke up. "Are knights not expensive?"

Again, the three gave the two of them confused looks. "Not all that much. Nobles aren't exactly easy to replace, but the Eris Cult's Allowance of Divorce and Remarriage meant that you can always find someone else to marry and have children with," Rain said, eyeing them suspiciously.

Tanya nodded to herself. That made a… twisted sort of sense, for this world.

She had guessed that Blacksmith's were able to make armor much faster and for much less thanks to their skills, but if everyone could remarry without detonating their religion, the nobles that became knights were much more likely to be born.

"Furthermore, some fighting will happen, then the two strongest fighters or groups of fighters from each side will emerge, fight and kill or wound each other, and then both sides will retreat."

Now, Tanya and Viktoriya were the skeptical ones staring at Rain. Hinging all of your forces on a battle between two individuals seemed very…

Idiotic. Why even raise up peasants or knights or nobles if you're just going to let the strongest person take them down?

Their tactics did explain why this war had taken forty years, though. If all the peasants had to do was show up and survive for the twenty minutes it took for the two strongest groups to kill each other, then this war wasn't exactly taxing on their resources.

Tanya shook her head. Of course, with how powerful some people could get here, it didn't exactly make sense to send wave after wave of weak peasants against something like Verdia, who could probably take out several hundred people without getting scratched.

Viktoriya opened her mouth to continue speaking, but Tanya gripped her hand this time.

She sent Tanya a confused look, but Tanya just shook her head and took a deep breath to answer her questioning gaze.

"War is different in the Empire," Tanya said, gazing coldly at their hosts, "for lack of a better comparison, there are no people that stand out that much above everyone else, barring very few exceptions."

"The war we left behind was on the scale of _continents_. People marched on and killed others just to follow orders, and while I left before the death toll was calculated, it would be a conservative bet to assume that only ten _million_ died in that thing."

She continued to stare at them coldly even as they gasped. "We weren't even fighting for more than ten years and that many died. That battle I fought in two days ago was nothing compared to what we've faced," Tanya said, gripping the hand on her shoulder.

Viktoriya stiffened for a moment, and then seemed to relax.

"We were… affected by that war. Please, drop it."

Iris seemed… heartbroken by her declaration. If there was anyone that was won over by her argument, it was her.

Rain seemed surprised by her declaration, if their raised eyebrows were anything to go by.

Claire _swelled _with anger, and she rose from her seat once more. "Utter nonsense. There aren't that many people in Belzerg, Elroad, and even the lands of the Demon King combined. Were either of you even _in _the military, or are you perhaps a silly girl with an active imagination?"

Both of them glared at her, and she missed the small – hurt – look Iris sent her, but she just scowled back at Tanya and Viktoriya. "You said that the war hadn't ended, which means you _deserted_. We get soldiers like the two of you often: people who can't stand the thought of fighting and try and flee or refuse orders because of their _pathetic cowardice."_

Tanya glared at her, standing abruptly. Before she could decide on whether to leave or to try and insult this pig-headed – or maybe Orc-headed was more apt – noble, Iris spoke up.

"I acknowledge that you don't desire to speak of your experiences of your time in your war… but I want to hear more stories of your time in Belzerg. Or maybe you could show us your Adventurer's Card?" she asked, voice quiet and forceful.

"We said no," Viktoriya said, staring at Iris. The Princess's eyes narrowed, but Tanya grabbed her arm.

It seemed that, between Claire's skepticism and Iris's desire for them to speak, they were being forced back into a corner. Tanya couldn't talk about much more without giving something important away – too much of the past few months had to do with Verdia or her brand of magic or killing Reincarnates.

Leaving could have been an option, but the lack of giddiness that Iris had been showing her was telling of how much her mood would 'improve.'

Tanya would either have to cut off her dealings with the Princess – a waste of the time spent here and the money spent on these stupid clothes – or give up… something.

"We are both adventurers with the Adventurer job."

As Tanya had expected the moment the idea of them sharing their jobs had come up, the three of them grew more angry. "Then your claims are false? There's no way that an Adventurer could do what you claim to be able to do."

Tanya rolled her eyes, trying to keep her anger in check. She might have been able to argue the matter with Darkness, but that was after months of camaraderie. She wouldn't be able to get a word in without derision pouring from their faces.

She was proved right when Iris's eyes became cold. "If you won't speak anymore, and if you both _are _just… silly girls with vivid imaginations, then you'll receive regular reward," she said, speaking as if a reward would change Tanya's decision.

Claire stepped forward, tossing a glance back at Iris and leveling a smirk at Tanya. "Oh please. Princess, don't pay them at all. We can get better stories from Mitsurugi. At least he can back up his claims. Are you even a noble?"

Now, Viktoriya stepped forward, and Tanya felt a headache begin to build from the uncontrolled mana Viktoriya was putting off. "She's worth far more than any of you, whether or not she's from the nobility."

Silence. For a moment.

Before Tanya could ask Viktoriya _why _she felt the need to blurt that out – while also trying to figure out how to subtly express fondness at Viktoriya's stalwart defense of her – Claire had grabbed her sword.

Tanya moved before she thought about doing so, and found herself staring down a shock Claire through the tinted translucent film of an Active Barrier.

She turned her head to check on Viktoriya, saw that she was fine, if a bit startled by the sudden attack.

She turned back around and glared at the hosts. Viktoriya was obviously worth more than her continued relationship with the Princess. If they would try and attack her for a single brazen insult, then they would do it again.

"Goodbye, Princess Iris. Hopefully we'll meet again under better circumstances." With that, she backed away, eyes trained on Claire's blade. She dropped the barrier and listened as Viktoriya opened the door

They jumped around the corner. Just as Viktoriya was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Tanya touched a finger to the girl's lips. Viktoriya reddened a bit, and Tanya whispered "Lurk."

She withdrew her finger and began to whisper. "Hopefully, we'll be able to listen in on whatever they're talking about."

Unfortunately, it seemed that Iris wasn't done with them, even if they were done with her. Tanya heard the three of them muttering, and then flattened herself against the wall as Claire and Rain stepped out of the door.

Both ran passed the two hidden individuals, and Tanya smirked.

"Sleep. Sleep."

Both fell, one after the other, crashing into the ground. Tanya heard the Princess's steps coming from inside, so she leaned the two of them against the wall and then motioned Viktoriya to follow her.

Both made their way through the castle, avoiding the worried looking female knights that had seemed to be everywhere on their way in. They managed, and soon enough, both were outside, watching the knights hurry about on the walls of the castle and in the lawn in front of it.

-OxOxO-

Iris stared down at her two retainers. She had found the both of them knocked out and sleeping in each other's arms just outside of her room. No matter what she did, neither would wake.

The other knights that inhabited the castle had come to her aid, and a few of them whose families had connections with magically-inclined merchants had mused that a Sleep spell had been used on them.

Just as she was beginning to give up hope, both of them woke up, groggily looking around. They were back in the dining room, and Iris was peering at the both of them worriedly.

Claire smiled widely. Iris was showing that she cared for her.

Rain, more cognizant of their situation, sat up in the chair. "What- What happened? I remember we left the room and then…"

Iris frowned. "You both left, and then there was a crash, and the both of you were on the ground, asleep. Some of the other knights thought that you might have been put under a spell…"

Claire sat bolt upright at that, and Rain massaged the side of her head. "I guess that explains the woozy feeling…"

Claire jumped out of her chair. "We need to catch them!"

Iris shook her head. "No. It's almost been an hour, so they probably managed to slip out unnoticed."

Claire calmed down, and sighed dejectedly. "I failed you…"

Iris smiled nervously. "There, there…" she said, trying to assuage her retainer's pride by patting her on the head.

In a moment, her expression had brightened, and she began to giggle to herself. Rain was already pacing next to the table, lamenting the absence of the servants.

She didn't often get to eat food as good as what the royal family had to offer.

"That barrier… was immensely concerning. How did she even…"

Iris tilted her head as she drew her hand away from Claire head and set it on her lap. Claire pouted a bit, but she quickly refocused on the subject at hand. "Why so?" Iris asked.

Rain sighed. "The Magic Research Institute and its scattered offices have been working on that problem for _decades."_

Rain drew herself up, and so did Iris at the sign that Rain was entering her lecture mode. "That institute has discovered how to do much in the course of its existence. From their discovery of how to imbue objects with spells and with attributes by studying Belzerg the First's sword 'Calibur,' to their more recent leaps forward in containment magic, they've done much."

"They _haven't_, however, been able to create a _mobile_ one-man shield. They could theoretically recreate something like the Demon King's barrier for a short period of time, and long-term traps use a mana-barrier to imprison something in one place. The smallest we thought they could be were the ones that are put on the Royal Carriages."

"If we did have such a thing, then _everything _would change. Some of the institutes projections include Mages being able to do quests on their own, since they wouldn't need others for protection and using the freed up forces to bolster the armies. The war might actually be brought to a timely end."

Iris nodded slowly, and then raised her hand enthusiastically. As always, Rain pretended to be looking over a crowd of students, and then pointed towards Iris.

"Doesn't that mean that her claims of her people's war being different were right? If they have shields that can block even a noble's blow, then they must be pretty good."

Rain opened her mouth, and then let it hang open as she absorbed what Iris had said. Claire, sitting beside Iris, let her shoulders fall.

Claire had insulted a noble and called them weak, when she could do something literally no one else could.

Someone who's magic could help bring the war closer to an end. Whose family might have stayed secluded for generations researching the depths of magic to bring forth this miracle.

Rain's panic began to grow as she realized what they had done. Before she could break down, Iris stood up.

"It's fine. We can just invite them back, right? We'll apologize in a letter, and ask that she come back for a proper apology. That should fix things… right?"

Rain shrugged in uncertainty. "Maybe. They didn't really seem like they were all that enthralled by our status. They must be connected to _some _noble family, but… who?"

Iris shrugged and interrupted Rain's thoughts before she ignored all of her surroundings. "Then we'll vaguely offer to give them something as an apology, and just try not to lose too much."

Claire tugged on Iris's dress. "Remember, we don't have all that much in the treasury to give away. Elroad?" she said, reminding Iris of where she would be going in a few short days.

Her expression fell, and Claire jumped up. "We'll get them in here, one way or another, and then you'll have something to remember while you're in Elroad, right?"

Iris felt her expression grow happy, and Claire nearly squealed. Rain just shook her head at Claire's antics.

She sighed as she remembered that she needed to find an adventurer team worthy of taking the Princess to Elroad.

It seemed she might have found one…

-OxOxO-

Both stalked away from the imposing castle. "Can you believe them? I mean, I know that this place is feudal and everything, but we hardly did anything to rile them up." Viktoriya muttered this as she walked, and Tanya could only nod in agreement.

"I guess it's just different sensibilities. Although, how on Earth do they expect her to rule and meet with other people if they try to behead every person that insults her? It isn't like _everyone_ they meet is going to like her."

"Like you?" Viktoriya asked. Tanya rolled her eyes.

"I didn't _dislike_ her. I'm just not going to answer those kinds of questions when I haven't even talked to _you_ about them. Besides the questions about our validity, it was kind of fun to talk about the more… innocent stories."

Tanya heard Viktoriya hum her approval, and the two were silent, wondering if they'd be able to stay in the city or if the Princess could find a reason to get them kicked out.

At least she wouldn't ever have to wear this stupid dress ever-

-OxOxO-

Again.

They had received a letter _again_, they had put on the stupid dresses _again_, and they had made their way through the city, getting stared at by every passerby that cared to look _again_.

And _again_, they were standing in front of the gate, watching Rain approach from the actual castle.

They were pushed open by two knights – Tanya wasn't sure of their gender, considering they were wearing full plate and the armor wasn't deformed like Darkness's was – and Rain stepped forward, bowing at the waist.

"I just wanted to say that I apologize for what we did yesterday. It was highly improper, and we should have thought before we said some of the things we did."

Tanya smirked. "Let's wait until we hear that from the Princess's mouth, shall we?"

Rain smiled nervously, and they took a direct path through the castle to the room they had been in yesterday.

Tanya was fully aware of how much she had just snubbed Rain, but she didn't mind too much. The latest letter they had received had spoken of receiving reparations for the problems they had caused, and Tanya was _very_ hyper-literal whenever the possibility for her own advancement or detriment was present.

As it was, if she 'accepted' Rain's apology, then that could be interpreted as her reparations for the earlier insults, and Tanya wanted something better than words, if she could get something.

Tanya smiled at the Princess, who had the place of mind to look rather embarrassed. Viktoriya followed Tanya, and then Rain closed the doors.

Claire was shooting the both of them mixed stares of distrust and grudging respect. Tanya smirked.

It seemed showing off a bit in escaping and blocking her blow had convinced her of the veracity of Tanya's words.

Tanya crossed her arms, and glanced at Claire, raising an eyebrow.

Iris stood from her seat, walked in front of Claire, and bent down a bit. "I apologize for my words and our attitude towards you yesterday. Doubting the truth you spoke of your power, despite your… choice of job was… out of line."

"I understand your apology," she said, adding 'but I do not accept' mentally.

Even if she hadn't said it out loud, they seemed to pick up on what hadn't been said. Claire's face immediately began to sour, and Tanya could hear Rain sigh behind her.

Iris, thankfully, interdicted before her retainers got offended on her behalf. "Okay. We can speak of your reimbursement – and origin – later. I was wondering… if you had any other stories that you wanted to tell us?" she asked, phrasing the statement as a question.

Tanya sighed. The letter had made it very clear, compared to the vague promises of some kind of apology gift, that she would be telling the Princess another story if she came here again.

She'd nearly had _another _fucking fit as her own memories had assaulted her, but Viktoriya had cut things off at the head in a rather… nice manner.

Soothing cooing noises that didn't mean much literally and meant more for her than she could express in words had saved her from taking an unwanted trip down memory lane, and if everyone in the guild looked at her weird, they denied it when she glared at them, which was… enough.

She quietly walked over to one of the seats and glanced at Claire. "Could you get us a bit of alcohol? I don't care what, just… anything."

Claire looked ready to pounce on her, but the glare Iris leveled at her cowed Claire into compliance.

"A bit of context is needed to understand the war as we fought it. First, while it was true that nobles, on average, produced more powerful mages, they weren't numerous enough compared to the rest of the population to really be anything but an outlier. And nobles didn't ever have massive physical power. It was all just magical."

"Second, we were part of a group of soldiers called mages. We didn't have that job, but we used magic. Which is the third thing: magic in our country was used for imparting force into objects, explosions, and enchanting objects with either of those two things."

Revealing that much was… unfortunately necessary, if she wanted to remain close to the Princess. It would seem rather odd to them, to have such magic compared to the stuff here, and that was what Tanya was counting on.

If she gave them this much and they were satisfied with it, they wouldn't think to ask about any more. Like their ability to fly, or the fact that they didn't have any diplomatic ties to a nation so threateningly called 'the Empire.'

Tanya took a deep breath, and took a swig of the wine she was given. She was sure it looked rather unladylike, but she didn't care. They were getting one of her stories, so they could complain about her manners later.

-OxOxO-OxOxO-

More. More. _More._

No matter how much mana she pushed into her Flight spells, she was still falling behind her targets.

They'd finally managed to corner de Lugo, and Tanya had been seconds away from putting a bullet through the moronic bastard who'd managed to flee from the François Republic and continue this stupid war from their African colony.

Everything had gone wrong at that point. Tanya had been distracted by Serebryakov's voice in her ear saying something about enemy reinforcements, and then the room she'd been in had gone up in flames.

She had protected herself, of course – she wouldn't be killed by Napalm spells that weak – but those 'reinforcements' had managed to get inside the building she'd cornered the idiot in and take him with them, along with a majority of their intelligence.

Tanya had readjusted her new gear – a beige and tan thing that didn't absorb as much heat as their heavier gear and that blended into the vast deserts of this heat sink – and took off, Observation spells already active and searching for any mana signatures.

She'd found them, and now she was pursuing, vainly attempting to shoot them, _any_ of them.

Unfortunately, some of them had skill. They must have been more of the François veterans that Tanya could smugly state were being mowed down to nearly nothing at this point.

Tanya breathed deeply. It seemed she'd have to use that cursed Type 95 if she ever wanted to catch up with them…

"**Oh Lord, grant-"**

And as she tried to complete her prayer, her side exploded into burning pain.

She screeched, and watched as someone _dared_ to interrupt her earnest prayer –

Tanya rapidly shook of the aftereffects of that cursed Computation Jewel as she sized up her newest opponent.

Dirty blonde hair obstructed her vision partially, but Tanya's eyes managed to see enough of her opponent to widen in shock as they recognized an eerily familiar golden glow emanating from her opponent's body.

She threw up an Active Barrier in time to see it get shredded by a spell powerful enough to rival any of Tanya's own.

She cursed as she saw de Lugo retreating – being hauled under the armpits would be a more accurate description of the image – beyond the horizon, and then she ducked under what was obviously Being X's newest pawn.

Shields and Barriers were broken. Every shot she tried to make was evaded, and the few times she ventured close enough to this enemy, her blade had been deflected and Tanya had received a punch or a kick for her every attempt.

Tanya activated her Communication Spells. "Requesting assistance!"

Tanya heard nothing over the spell, and swore as she was forced to move by a barrage of fire.

Tanya let her rifle fall from her hands and withdrew the submachine gun from its holding place. This would burn through her mana, but at least-

The golden light began to grow in intensity, and Tanya let off a barrage of bullets in an attempt to quiet the light.

It didn't fade, not in any way Tanya could measure, and turned from gold-white to blazing, burning _red._ Before Tanya could identify what the hell _that _was supposed to mean, bullets began to pepper the red light from her reinforcements.

Tanya heard crazed laughter coming from the light that her men would later tell her reminded them of her at her worst, and gasped as her opponent let of a burst of unfocused mana in the direction of the battalion.

The 203rd scattered and avoided it easily enough – unfocused mana was never as fast as bullets – but then they began to pour out more.

Literally. An all-encompassing ball of light was expanding out of her opponent. Tanya, of course, did what she did best.

Subverted everyone's expectations.

In this case, she flew towards the massive amount of mana and nearly passed out from the mana her Active Barrier sucked out of her.

She did, however, make it through the expanding ball of red light.

If she'd run, she _might _have outpaced it, but it just as easily could have had more time to weaken her barrier.

She swung around her gun and poured out the rest of the bullets in the magazine, grinning madly as the light began to fade. Finally, she was…

She frowned. Just as the mana had flown _outward_, her Observation spell was telling her it was coming… right back in.

She growled as she continued to pour mana into her attack to finish this pawn before Tanya got finished. Hopefully, she'd be able to make it-

Tanya sensed another mage flying towards her, and spun on the spot, aiming downwards. She was surprised to see Serebryakov flying upwards.

"What are you-"

But she didn't have to finish the thought. Mages, more than Tanya could count at a glance, were fighting far below her and her opponent, and many of them were aiming up at her adjunct.

Tanya bolted flew downwards, cursing the still-laughing mage behind her and trying to reach Serebryakov. Tanya could see from the blood and holes in her flight gear that she had already taken hits.

Tanya snarled.

She pushed herself downwards and found herself next to the woman, casting her strongest barrier.

They waited there for a moment, unmoving. Enemy mages that got so close to her, to where she could begin to make out their faces, usually wound up dead after more than twenty seconds.

She glared at them, daring them to move.

One did. They brought a hand to their ear, and one by one, the mages began to retreat, leaving Tanya flying protectively around Viktoriya, who was gazing up at her with a look of wonder on her face.

Tanya sighed in relief, repressing the urge to bark at the woman for looking so starstruck and for necessitating that she help her, and then looked up to where the other mage – Being X's pawn – had been.

She was gone now. Almost like she'd never been there.

Then her senses began to scream at her about the whole contracting wave of mana' thing and she groaned as it raced back towards them.

-OxOxO-OxOxO-

"…After that, Viktoriya managed to haul me back to the city for a few weeks of getting treated for mana exhaustion and all the other wounds that I'd managed to overlook. I'd spend the next few years trying and failing to kill that woman."

Tanya finished sipping on her second glass of wine, her hand squeezing Viktoriya's once again. Tanya wasn't sure she'd adequately conveyed everything that had happened…

Well, she was sure that she hadn't told them she could fly, instead using the word in a metaphorical sense.

Lorelei looked either very shocked the few times they had demonstrated their abilities in front of her, and Tanya was fairly sure that she might actually get taken to whatever the medieval equivalent of a scientist was and dissected.

She glanced over at Iris and chuckled a bit. Judging by the very… awed expression on her face, she had definitely been able to fill in the gaps of Tanya's story telling with her imagination.

"Wow…" Iris said, trailing off as she turned around. Her expression became a mixture of mischievous and pleading as she looked up at her two very stiff retainers. "She fought against a Mage, and both of them were in the army. Why can't _I_ join?"

Rain and Claire in unison, shot her a very unamused look. "Because the King said that he wouldn't do anything that put you in danger, especially with the alliance with Elroad to consider."

Iris's expression sank once more, but then she turned to Tanya, timidity shining in her eyes and the way she was nervously shuffling her hands. "Um… if you wouldn't mind, do you have another story that won't make you feel uneasy?"

Tanya shot Viktoriya an amused look at the Princess's attempt at being considerate – a change from her actions yesterday – and tapped her chin.

"Well…"

"I think we need to cut this off, actually." Rain stood and began to walk towards the door. They needed to get these two out of here before they put more ideas into the Princess's head.

Claire nodded. "Yes. Although I don't want you to have to see your… _betrothed_, we really need the resources Elroad sends us. You'll have to discuss their reimbursement later," she ground out, trying to keep as much distaste as she could out of her voice.

Although… if Degurechaff had been brought to the castle by promises of a reward, then it wouldn't take too much to get her to sabotage the Princess's meeting with Revi, right?

Claire began to think, and Iris gave a long sigh.

Tanya frowned. Hadn't she heard that name somewhere?

She shook her head. It would come back to her when she was more clear-headed. While she was still here, however…

"What's going on in Elroad?" she asked, mildly annoyed at herself for needing alcohol to get through that story.

She was sure that this was probably a can of worms she regret even _looking _at later, but there was a possibility that she'd get her reward faster if she helped out.

Iris sighed. "I suppose going over the facts with an outsider will help me make sure I've got everything down…"

She stood, standing up straight. Tanya noticed that Rain seemed to be choked up about something with how she was muttering "Just like me…"

Iris began to talk, bringing Tanya's attention to her mirror image.

"All of the nations around Belzerg, from the successor states of Norse to the free cities of the southern coast, provide Belzerg with aid of some kind. Whether its sending over soldiers or weaponry or minerals, all of them help out with the assumption that if we fall, they'll soon fall afterwards."

"Elroad doesn't have very many nobles compared to us, so the military force they could send us would be very… inadequate. Thankfully, they have built a reputation for themselves as the casino capital of the continent, and have a large number of very wealthy establishments throughout their larger cities that cater to the whims of the nobility and the few merchants that rise high enough to contend with nobles."

"However, they've recently cut off all of their funding. Without it, we'll have to begin raising taxes again."

Tanya gripped her chin. She hadn't taken too many economics courses – you didn't really need to know a lot about that kind of thing when you were aiming to have a job where you fire people – but she remembered a few things from the ones that she _had _taken.

"What's so bad about that?" she asked, shifting through muddled memories to try and figure out what could help out Belzerg.

Iris's saddened expression became defeated, and Claire sighed. "While it varies from area to area, everyone has to pay around half of their yearly income to either a representative of the guild or, in the larger cities, the military garrison, during the month of Circle."

She scowled. "Nobles, however, can just take a trip to a neighboring country and wait there until the month has passed. If we can't get them here, they can just say that they were out of town. Enough of them do it that we could never prosecute them for it, and, since most of them travel to Elroad, we've let them because those profits would usually come back to us through the payments Elroad made to us."

Tanya began to nod her head. It seemed that the rich had discovered an equivalent of offshore bank accounts in this world.

She groaned as she held her head. That wine was beginning to come back and kick her.

Just how much of a lightweight was she?

"What about bonds?" she muttered.

Tanya received blank stares, and Tanya nearly growled at them. "Securities? You know, lending out money with promises of interest?"

Iris shrugged. "The banks talk about loans all the time, but we don't take out many, considering it's hard to pay them back with how much we spend on the military."

Tanya groaned, sat up, and began to look around. She sent an unhappy glare at their hosts. "Do any of you have something to write with?"

They shook their heads, and, after an embarrassingly long silence, Tanya punched herself in the head as she realized that she could just use illusions.

She made an unpleasant face as she began to feed mana into her Computation Jewel, and then frowned as a diagram constructed with golden lines wobbled into existence before her.

None of them were straight, and Tanya mused that maybe that second glass of wine had been too much. Still, it was usable.

She gestured to the image. "This is a representation of the money a business, peasant, or wealthy individual has. You need that money to expand your infrastructure, meaning you want to be able to make more money. So, what you need to do is get it. How?"

She pushed more mana into her Type 97, and what looked like a piece of paper with large numbers on it sprung to life. "This is a bond. It records an amount of money that the lender gives the government. It also has an interest rate, which is a percentage of the money that you'll give the holder of the bond annually."

She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face, trying to remember how all of it worked. "At the end of a period of time, they'll get given back the amount of money they gave the government in addition to how much money they made from the interest. This means you get money in the short term to build up your infrastructure so you can gain more resources in the long term and establish your credibility, and they get to earn money from their loan."

Tanya shook her head and dispelled the illusion, opening her eyes to find that all three of her hosts were standing slack jawed in awe.

"Where did you learn these things?"

Tanya shrugged. "School. I needed it in order to get through high school."

They were giving her blank looks, and Tanya sighed again. "_School_ is where a bunch of children go in order to learn the basics of education, decide what they want to do with their life, and learn how to be good citizens. By teaching them, the quality of your human resources will increase, allowing your economy to grow," she explained as if she were talking to five-year-olds.

Tanya opened her eyes to see that Rain was muttering everything Tanya had been saying, while Iris was staring at her intently.

Tanya blinked. Well, they might as well be five-year-olds, as far as the concept of teaching people other than nobles things in a formal setting went.

"Could you… perhaps accompany me to Elroad?" she asked nervously.

Tanya sent her a questioning eyebrow, and she began to explain. "Their Prime Minister recently died, and because nearly every major decision about… anything relating to how the Kingdom was run went through him, they might be cutting off funding thanks to the lack of his steadying hand."

Tanya blinked at the bluntness, but she smirked all the same. Helping the national affairs of two monarchies didn't exactly appeal to her in the long term, but if she helped out the Princess, she'd be sure to get rewarded handsomely…

Maybe she'd even get a house where she could house the tools and supplies she needed to make her weapons instead of having to rely on Blacksmiths?

-OxOxO-

Tanya leaned heavily on Viktoriya as the two of them walked home.

In her case, it was more like stumbling, and in Viktoriya's case, it was more like trying not to fall over from Tanya's weight, but that didn't particularly matter to Tanya right now.

They were leaving the country tomorrow. Both of Iris's retainers hadn't seemed to enjoy Iris's proposal, but neither could doubt that Tanya at least _seemed _like she knew what she was doing, as far as economics went, which was more than they could say.

Tanya had barely managed to suppress a disgusted sneer when they had told them they weren't experienced with money and that Iris made most of the decisions on how the country was run day to day, since her father and brother were fighting against the Demon King and they couldn't really trust many nobles to be uncorrupt.

And the rewards…

Tanya giggled to herself. They were going to be getting _paid _for this. Tanya might have been trying to get to a position in the rear in her last life because she feared for her life, but she hadn't been at all upset about the pay raises that she had gotten with the rising of her station.

They weren't _just _getting paid, either. Iris had promised to vouch for her in getting anything from a house to a mansion anywhere in Belzerg if she was able to fix their relations and economies, if that – which was Elroad's 'official' reason for withdrawing support – was indeed the case.

Tanya had still been hesitant – the Succubi and Wiz and her inventions were still paying nicely – but Viktoriya had said she'd wanted to explore a bit, and going to Elroad would let her do that.

Tanya smiled widely as she remembered the warm feeling that had begun emanating from her small chest when Viktoriya had thanked Tanya after she had agreed to go.

That warmth was a _nice _feeling.

Tanya looked down at herself and pouted.

"At… at least nobody is gonna see me wearin' this stupid thing at night."

Tanya felt Viktoriya stiffen, but the woman quickly moved to continue to support Tanya. How nice…

Tanya groaned as she was hit with a tsunami of dizziness, and she leaned heavily on Viktoriya.

"C- Colonel! I need your help-"

"Just carry me. I don't feel like walkin'."

Hesitantly, Viktoriya picked up Tanya, supporting her back and her legs with each of her arms.

Viktoriya blushed a small bit and tried desperately not to think of what this position was named. And what such a position implied.

Tanya chuckled to herself, and looked up at Viktoriya's cu… face. "You holdin' me _bridal style_, _Vi_sha," she muttered, stressing the first part of her adjuncts nickname.

Viktoriya felt her face light up, and Tanya laughed at the sight. Full blown, joyous laughter.

She hadn't seen a stop sign in _ages. _How odd was it to find one strapped to the face of her adjutant?

Viktoriya continued to give her that unreadable and ever-so-slightly confused expression, even as she stopped looking like a stop sign. Tanya mostly ignored that and began to sing under her breath. "We're gettin' _paid… _and paid rhymes with _laid_… and laid rhymes with… with…"

She had meant to say _Vi_sha again – what a wonderful word and a wonderful person and a _wonderful_ concept, those two words together – but unconsciousness decided to claim her at that point.

Viktoriya sighed, and then, after making doubly sure, began to pour mana into her Type 97. She did have that locket she had bought, after all, and it needed a picture inside it…

And even if she wasn't exactly sure how to reconstitute magical readings as physical pictures, she was sure she'd find a way eventually. Tanya looked just too… peaceful.

When she slept normally, she always had some sort of uncomfortable expression on her face, but now…

Viktoriya was sure that Tanya got nightmares about what they'd experienced on the front, just like Viktoriya herself did.

So even if she never knew, Tanya's image would be forever close to Viktoriya's heart.

She blinked at the images that phrase brought up, and shook her head. No, there was no greater meaning to this action, no matter how much she wished it did. She…

She would move on.

-OxOxO-

Tanya gripped her head, groaning quietly.

She would never touch alcohol again.

This time for sure.

She wasn't sure if this place had some sort of super-grape that made extra powerful wine, but she couldn't have gotten a hangover this big from a measly _two _glasses of _wine_, no matter how small she was.

They must have spiked her drink or something. She didn't know why they _would-_

Tanya heard giggling to her right, and she glared, red-faced, at Viktoriya. The woman had dragged her out of bed, ignored Tanya's protests, _dressed_ her, and then helped her along as they came to the castle.

They had been left inside the castle's courtyard by Rain, who told them that Iris wasn't awake this early in the morning and that she wouldn't be awake until the sun was well above the horizon and the walls of the city.

Until then, they could do whatever they wanted, as long as they could be found. Tanya was tempted to try and find a library, but there were a few practical concerns that they needed to take care of before their trip.

Trying to resist the urge to hold her head in her hands, Tanya began to search the castle for the kitchen. Viktoriya was quietly fiddling with her Computation Jewel as she walked, and Tanya turned her head towards her.

"Anything wrong?"

She shrugged noncommittally. "Nothing detrimental. I think some of the more sensitive parts are starting to get worn down, though…"

Tanya clicked her tongue. They really needed to find a Blacksmith. Maybe they could get Lorelei to find one?

But no, it wasn't the problem of finding a Blacksmith, but finding one that would let Tanya use their stuff without making Tanya their apprentice.

Tanya shook her head. They didn't have time for that, and…

She stopped in her tracks. Her head shot up as she smelled something… nice drifting through the air.

Following the smell through the halls, Viktoriya and Tanya soon found themselves inside of the kitchen, watching cooks and maids, young and old, moving about the room in a flurry of activity. Tanya's expectations of something much more… sedate due to the time of day and the time period were soon found to be wrong.

Tanya stalked in, and the movements of those around her began to fade away. She ignored them – there was only so much she could think of with her headache – and quickly located a few cooking implements she would need. Packing food for this trip would be essential-

"Your Majesty, why are _you _here!?"

Tanya turned to the frantic voice, glaring at the originator. It seemed to be a woman in her middle years with more than a few gray hairs on her head.

Tanya began to survey the woman, and then she smiled happily.

Despite being the person in charge here – who else would have the courage to confront their employer with such an outraged tone? – she wasn't wearing gloves, and her hair wasn't in a hair net. It seemed that Tanya would have to make such things and have the Succubi and Wiz sell them.

The woman's face immediately sank, and her expression poorly masked her fear as her head fell and shoulders began to shake. Tanya suppressed a sigh. It seemed that her looks had confused those around her again.

"I'm not the Princess. I'm going to be one of her bodyguards, and I thought it would be a good idea to pack some food," she explained, walking around the kitchen and dodging past everyone in the room, picking up food along the way.

"Well, you should let us prepare food for you and Her Majesty. It is our duty after all-"

Tanya shook her head. "No, I'm sure you all have your hands full trying to feed everyone else in the castle. I can do this myself, thanks."

With that, she tuned out whatever other complaints the woman had, beginning to prepare the food.

While she had initially obtained the cooking skills in Axel in order to prepare the best approximation of a Ready-to-Eat-Meal, Tanya would be lying if she said she wasn't also interested in recreating some of her first world's cuisine.

Just like the Smith skill, as long as she could imagine it and she put enough points into the skill, she could make nearly everything… and Tanya had spent a good, _long _time imagining tasting the food of her first homeland.

It was with great pride that Tanya, in the course of three hours, made a number of Ready-to-Eat-Meals they could consume while they traveled. She even recreated the ingredients for a number of dinners that they could prepare on their way there.

After seeing just how close to physical pain her presence in the kitchen was causing the maids and cooks, Tanya asked them to pack their things into two mana-powered refrigerated picnic baskets.

After that, they'd left behind a crowd of seemingly happy servants, and Tanya had left behind most of her hangover. They went back out to where Rain had told them the carriage would be to find that all three were already waiting.

Claire and Rain seemed to be wearing their regular clothing – although Tanya wasn't sure, since she'd only known them for a few days.

Iris, however, was not.

Indeed, the dress from yesterday was gone, replaced by what Tanya guessed was supposed to be armor.

Her forearms and legs were clad in heavy, cobalt-blue armor, much like Mitsurugi's, with not an inch of skin showing. Her shoulders and her chest were covered similarly, and Tanya could see that a large sword was hanging from her hips.

After that, however, any protection ended. Her upper arms had only cloth, and, judging by the way it flowed around her as she turned to look at Tanya, there wasn't chain mail underneath.

Both of her thighs were completely uncovered, save for a blue skirt. Most of her hair was unbraided in a fashion that reminded her of Darkness, but Tanya ignored the reminder of her friend to focus on how unprotected she was.

It wouldn't take much to score a hit on her head or on her legs, regardless of whether Tanya was using bullets or not.

Tanya was moved out of her appraisal of the girl's defenses by the white suited woman walking towards them. Face red and steaming, Claire tried to berate them. "Where were you? We looked all over the castle, and-"

Tanya peered at the woman, while Viktoriya spoke up from her side. "We were in the kitchen making food for the trip."

Claire's face curled up, and with how much her forehead had begun to wrinkle, it began to greatly resemble what Tanya imagined that bowling ball of a noble's back looked like.

"Why, _in the name of Eris_, would you be somewhere like _that_?" she asked. Tanya peered over the woman's shoulder to where Rain and Iris were conversing.

Tanya sighed, and glared up at Claire. She seemed to be unnerved, like everyone else always was, but Tanya guessed that it was having more of an effect due to her resemblance to the Princess.

Tanya opened her mouth, but Claire just shook her head. "Fine. I suppose that you are allowed to go to such places. I don't particularly care. I have an additional job for you."

Tanya dropped the glare after another moment of holding it steady, contemplation overtaking her face instead. Another job?

"What is it?" she asked, wondering what the white-suited noble would want.

Claire sent one last glance towards the other two, and dragged Tanya behind the other side of the cart. "First, I want to thank you for taking up the job. Second-"

Tanya shook her head. "Wait. Why are you two trusting me so much? Don't you have tons of other people that could escort her?"

Claire tried to suppress a wince and failed. "We need _everyone _– which means everyone we trust farther than we can throw – we have right now. Letting even one person that has been here for the last few weeks leave could be a detriment to the defense of the capital. You've just arrived, so we can afford to let you leave."

Tanya raised an eyebrow at that – she thought she was probably worth more in battle than many of the Reincarnates – but that solved one question.

"Plus, there aren't many nobles we can trust to take her to Elroad and remain… low-key. If said nobles revealed that they were leaving with the Princess in tow, people might lose some of their motivation to protect the capital if none of the important leaders are here. That's why neither I nor Rain can come, since I need to work to keep the other grand nobles from realizing she's gone, and Rain needs to work to keep the various merchants and their guilds happy."

Tanya nodded, but before she could walk around and talk with Rain, Claire gripped her arm. Tanya felt the arm jolt, and saw that Viktoriya had grabbed the noble's outstretched arm.

They glared at each other, and Tanya turned around. Both unhanded each other, and Claire straightened her tie. "Now… as I was _trying _to say, I want you to keep Iris and the Prince from being engaged."

Her words brought nothing but silence for a few moments, during which Tanya tried to reconcile the mission they were being hired for and the one they were now being asked to do.

Viktoriya tried for a more direct approach. "But-"

Claire cut her off with a glare, and Viktoriya sent one back. Claire looked back at Tanya, and her features softened.

"Rain and the King may want them to be engaged, but… I just can't stand it! He's selfish, spoiled, and is surely no match for Iris! I won't have her be degraded by that nation that looks down of Belzerg despite everything we've done for them!"

She was breathing heavily, and Tanya sighed. "Well, I don't approve of putting your own opinions above the orders of your superiors-"

Viktoriya let out a loud cough to her right, and Tanya turned to her, glaring. What could she _possibly _have to say against such a simple notion?

Viktoriya shrugged, a… dare she say it, _coy_, look on her face, and Tanya blinked in rememberence.

…Right.

Tanya was only technically alive _because _Viktoriya and the rest of the 203rd had disobeyed their orders. "…but I do acknowledge that there are circumstances where they are warranted," she said as an expectant look in her eyes grew as she looked the noble.

Claire sighed. "You will be rewarded for your efforts, if either their relationship does not proceed or he cancels the marriage." Tanya raised an eyebrow expectantly.

Claire sulked. "…And you'll get a larger reward if the marriage does end up being canceled."

Tanya grinned. "I guess the circumstances _do_ warrant an intervention, then. Don't worry, I'm sure-"

Claire cut her off by pushing a small black bag into her hands. "This is a poison that is often used in political assassinations. If you must, find a way to get it in his drink. I am sure that your looks will help you in that regard, so-"

"Absolutely not." She weighed the bag, glaring.

She sent a meaningful look at the retainer as she passed the bag to Viktoriya. "The fact that you said 'often' and 'political' means that Iris and I would be at the top of the list of 'suspicious people', assuming he has no enemies close by."

Claire tried to glare at them, but Tanya pouted cutely, smirking as Claire's glare began to melt.

Tanya cackled internally. It seemed she looked too much like Iris for the woman to stay mad at her for long.

"Fine, fine. I suppose that you should have this, then." She reached into her suit grudgingly and handed her a medallion.

Tanya looked at the necklace, glancing at the image on it. It seemed to be some sort of artistic emblem, like a coat of arms. She glanced up at Claire questioningly, wondering if this was like Darkness's family medallion.

"This," she said, gesturing to the medallion in Tanya's hands, "is evidence of my… favor. It identifies that you are trusted above all others by my household. If you must, use it to secure Iris's freedom," she explained in a pained voice.

Tanya nodded, and then turned to the gate. Claire let out one last warning. "If you abuse the power that I have given you, however…"

She left the threat hanging in the air, and then muttered something about them coming to the front of the carriage since it was near eight o'clock.

Both nodded and turned their heads to the gate. If what Claire said about it was true…

Both grinned. Lorelei was waiting for them, loitering in front of the gate.

If the guards had been around, Tanya was sure that they would have chased her off. As they weren't – they were leaving early to avoid crowds and any onlookers who might spot the Princess – she stuck out a bit with her height, but not as much as Tanya might have thought.

Tanya nodded, and walked with the other two around the side of the carriage to talk a bit with the other two.

"Alright," Tanya said as she walked around the side, bowing her head to Iris. She smiled shyly, and Tanya sent Rain a glance.

She seemed uncomfortable, and Tanya couldn't blame her. She was trusting the safety of the Princess to two strangers without any means of policing them. Who wouldn't-

Tanya tried not to flinch at the sight of a paper being withdrawn from the small satchel at Rain's side.

There was a contract. Why wouldn't there be one? And, if Tanya had to guess…

"This is a self-enforcing contract. Have you heard of them?"

"Unfortunately," she groused. As Rain blinked owlishly – how had she heard of them before? – Tanya ignored her and remembered the one she was currently attempting to toe the line of.

She didn't actually _dislike _the one she was currently under.

On the contrary, it was the only thing ensuring that she would be getting that wish from Being X. No, she disliked them mostly because the things had nearly killed Viktoriya.

As she tried to suppress her growing dislike of this assignment, Viktoriya took the offered pen. Tanya snatched it away from her adjuncts hand angrily, and then grabbed the document.

"We need to read this thing. You never know what hidden clause might exist within them," she muttered, beginning to skim the thing.

Besides, the last time she had skipped over the wording of a contract, she had been blindsided by those Orcs.

For obvious reasons, she didn't want the Princess to be anywhere near Tanya if they showed up again.

After five minutes of reading the single piece of paper with a scowl on her face and a pair of retainers breathing down her neck, it didn't seem like there was anything too bad, if Tanya was honest with herself. She would be killed if the Princess suffered unnecessary harm, and Tanya would only receive her reward if the payments from Elroad were secured.

It wasn't like she was being forced to think traitorous thoughts in the third person, at least.

It also mentioned nothing of upholding their marriage, and Tanya supposed that she had Claire to thank for that. Sighing, she signed the contract with the pen and handed both over to Viktoriya.

That finished, she hopped on the carriage. She blinked at the way it bounced up and down while technically motionless, but she quickly ignored the motion of the floating carriage.

The untrained might have thought it a bit odd for the thing to lack wheels, but Tanya had been told what they would be doing the night before. While she might not have remembered too much, Viktoriya had made sure to memorize everything.

They were taking a modified 'Royal Carriage' to get to Elroad in only a few days. It had no wheels and was to be pulled by Lizard Runners. Tanya hadn't yet fought the Monsters for a quest, but she was sure she could probably speed past them easily.

She was also interested in exactly how this thing floated above the ground, and if that meant she could show off her Flight spells without being dragged to an operating table.

She hadn't had a chance to ask, however, and asking out of the blue might be seen as suspicious if Flight spells didn't exist here.

Presumably, if every Mage wasn't using the spells that allowed this thing to float, then it was probably difficult to constrain the spell to a single spell or to a smaller body. Otherwise, there really shouldn't have been any reason for people capable of flight not to take advantage of the ability.

Viktoriya hopped next to her, and both stared down at the reins that were resting on the cushion the driver was supposed to sit in.

"I don't suppose…"

Tanya shook her head.

She hadn't bothered to learn how to handle horses in her last life – not that she had even ever found a chance to – rightly guessing that she'd never need to be around them in the Empire with her Flight spells and her ability to drive cars.

Here, however, she couldn't show off her flight, and Tanya was sure that neither she nor Viktoriya were concealing something like a car in their clothing, which meant…

"Do either of you know how to ride a horse? Or even how to handle these things?"

Both retainers glared at her, and Tanya held up her hands. "You can't blame, you never-"

The door of the carriage burst open, and Iris happily jumped onto the seat next to Tanya. "Here, I'll help."

She waved goodbye to the two of the retainers, who looked shocked by Iris's action for a moment and then began to break into tears.

Or Claire did, anyway. Tears also might have been an understatement, with how much she was wailing and grabbing at Rain, as if holding onto her would bring back Iris, who wasn't even fifty feet away yet.

Tanya shuddered, and then turned back to the gates they were approaching.

She was _so _glad that she didn't know anyone that… clingy, and that she had properly disciplined the 203rd on how to act in front of their officers.

Clearly, being a noble had made Claire rather uncaring of propriety, if it concerned her Princess.

They soon reached the gate. Iris was grinning happily, and Viktoriya was distracting her with a question about her armor. Before they moved passed the gate, Tanya powered up the Type 97 and sent the door of the carriage open with a simple Flight spell.

Lorelei, hidden in the shadows, jumped in, and Tanya shook her head as Iris looked at her in confusion.

"Must have come undone…"

Iris thought nothing of it, and impatiently began to tap her foot. Tanya closed the door, and they sped off, streaking through the streets. Iris was laughing, and Tanya guessed that she didn't get to do this often.

Tanya sighed, even as they nearly crashed into the gate of the city and Iris gave them her name. Hopefully, this whole thing would be over soon, and she could begin to convert whatever building the Princess helped her buy into a proper assembly line.

They needed to fix their stuff, and the moment they got more and better weapons, the faster they could burn through quests and get experience and decide which side to be on.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **Salutations, one and all! This quickly moves us towards an early confrontation between Iris and Revi, caused by who else but Tanya, and her stopping the flow of Reincarnates to the capital. She really _does _create her own problems, huh?

Anyway, the scene between drunk!Tanya and Visha is cute and cheesy and damn do I love it! They're headed off to Elroad, too, neatly cutting out an entire Volume of KonoSuba before Kazuma even gets here.

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed!

**A/N 2: **Oh, right! Ah, my knowledge of economics was at a high school level when I wrote these next few chapters, and I haven't exactly kept up to date on the subject, so if there's any advice that doesn't actually work on the scale of governments... someone will point it out probably, and I'll incorporate the usage of incorrect economic policies into the story.

**A/N 3: **On another note… I have an announcement: For the next week straight, I will be putting out new content.

That might be in the form of Omakes, chapters for this story, or brand new stories that have nothing to do with this at all! Regardless of what it is, I'll be posting a chapter of something for every day of the next week.

Why, you might ask, would I do this? Well, quite simply: my life is **great **right now!

I got my driver's license last week, and I had my birthday too. I got my first job last month, and people really seem to be enjoying what I have to offer. So, as a celebration, I'm giving you all a lot for the next week!

I hope you enjoy!

**A/N 4: **Responses to reviews on this website:

**cj1of4: **Well, if you've read the LNs for KonoSuba, then you might remember an instance where that would have been supremely helpful in avoiding being robbed.

**reihangima: **How's this for more?

**SoleReclaimer: **I KNOW, right? Oh, there's so many directions I could take that plotline in, and, if I'm quite honest…

Tanya's probably going to be disappointed.

**fwterrorista: **lol

**Quaver Ava: **If only she learned her lesson the first time. Unfortunately, she's still being a bit stubborn about accepting Luck as a quantifiable stat. Seeing as Eris can quite easily mess with that stat, it will be a wonder if she can even take a stroll down the street without tripping and breaking her neck.

Also, *Monty Python intensifies*

Thank you very much, and expect _lots _of drama and pain and feelings in the future!

**Xpparda: **As you can see, Tanya did eventually learn that Iris is younger than her and looks just about the same age. *Mad cackling echoes in the distance*

And, while Tanya's interactions with Rain and Claire have been cut short, Iris _will _have to come to terms with Tanya's resemblance to her.

**PyroMania101: **To answer your questions in reverse order: We are now two weeks until ground zero, and then a few weeks more in order for Tanya to travel all the way back to Axel.

To answer your first question…

Uh…

Well. I do have… ugh…

Alright. Short answer: Not entirely.

Long answer: I've got the story written up until chapter 38ish, and then plans for a few more chapters. Beyond a basic outline and an idea of where I want this to end up, however, I'm lacking in… specifics. I _will _get there eventually, but things will slow down a lot once I finally post everything I've got.

**woodxvii: **Thank you so much for the praise!

And once again, thank you to **Imperial warlord**, **simple405**, **Sprengkamp**, **Haloman6494 **and everyone else who continues to read this story! Have a good week!


	26. Questions and a View

As Alderp moved about in his mansion grumbling about the extra time it took to bribe the inspectors that had popped up due to some small explosion caused by some girl, some observers would liken his massive, ungainly bulk to a bowling ball rolling down a lane about to hit a strike.

Others, if they heard said comparison, wouldn't have the faintest idea what 'bowling' or a 'lane' was, but they would understand the comparison anyway, due to the usage of 'ball' in the joke at his expense.

No one who made that joke in earshot of Alderp himself would laugh, though.

Alderp was dangerous, in certain senses. And, besides…

Alderp didn't care about such comparisons. He'd be out of this body soon enough, and then…

He grinned lecherously as he stepped into his room, well aware that anyone who looked upon him would think that he was quite disgusting. He also didn't care about that, since the only one who would be seeing him tonight would reluctantly feed on whatever emotions Alderp was feeling, even _if _he didn't like their taste.

He moved towards his bed and struggled to get on top of it. Now standing, he flicked the small switch located on his ceiling and stepped towards the cloth hanging from the back of his bed.

He stepped through the secret passage to the musty cellar that not even the servants knew existed, keeping a firm grip on the only thing that let him control the thing located inside.

Its mad ramblings echoed through the enclosed, dusty, stone room. "Yee- Yee- Alderp! You are looking for me? Ah, what delicious emotions!"

He glared at the Demon and sent a kick into its stomach. It was sent end over end, quickly tumbling into the rotting remains of what had once been barrels that had been destroyed long ago from age and Alderp's earlier attacks on this Demon.

To outsiders, the thing might have looked like a well-dressed man, clad in a black tuxedo that _had _looked rather expensive, when Alderp had first summoned the devil.

However, no matter how nice its lower face and hair looked, and how expensive its clothing had once been, it was nothing but a stinking, petty devil.

It was obvious that, no matter how expensive its clothing, it wasn't anywhere _near _as powerful as some of the oddly colored and humongous demons of legend, so Alderp had no problem kicking it around.

Plus, its clothing had long faded in value. The dark purple tie around its neck hadn't been correctly tied in a long time, and its hair was dirty and unkempt. Only its mask was as pristine as always.

Additionally, no matter how much he beat the thing, his face was a passive pout that looked odd. Why would something in its position, bound to do his bidding by the rock grasped in his sweaty, meaty palm, be passive about its situation, instead of angry or upset?

The rock could summon monsters and command them, but he had no choice in who or what it summoned. He would have gotten rid of Max and his annoying wheezing and his stupid expression, but the thing forgot about the deals that they made almost the moment they were finished as long as he wasn't released.

"Quiet! I'm going to be handing off that relic soon, so I have need of your powers," he snarled. The devil made that disgusting wheezing sound again, but Alderp paid it no attention.

"Soon… Lalatina will be mine!" he cried out. It was rather ingenious if he was honest with himself.

Because of the lack of Hero Candidates, more and more knights were being called up from the pitiful reserves the nobles still had and from whatever jobs they had doing light, easy work.

That meant his son – the son he only cared about because he could steal his body and marry Lalatina with it – wasn't present at any of his meetings.

Alderp knew that the formidable, dutiful Ignis Ford Dustiness wouldn't _ever _take Alderp's word about his son's ability and grace and not-horribleness without seeing the lad, however, and without his son there, Alderp had little chance to set something up between his son and Ignis's daughter.

He wanted to kick the Demon at the thought of all the wasted resources he'd spent on his son, but he ignored the desire.

Even Maxwell could count his bruises, and leaving too many might give the idiot a clue as to how long his imprisonment had really been.

Where one opportunity had passed, however, another had risen. He'd take the chance, even if he had to move up his plans by a few weeks.

He had heard from one of the managers in the adventurer's guild that a team of adventurers had been hired by the Shinfornea family. The easily-bribed idiot didn't know _what _they were doing, but he had assured him that the Princess's retainers had asked for their help.

Alderp knew that they must have asked for adventurers because of a need to be subtle.

He often did the same, after all. The only reason he bribed the manager so much was that he used adventurers for much the same purpose, and he didn't want his usage of them getting spread around if he didn't have to.

With his money, he made it so.

After being told so much by that manager, it was easy to put the pieces together: adventurers that lacked the discipline and power of most knights and nobles were good for subtly, so what did the retainers of the Princess need with subtly?

Why, to guard the Princess, of course!

With the economic trouble that Belzerg was going through and the unwillingness of his fellow nobles to help, it was obvious to see that she was probably leaving to meet with some foreign power to beg for cash.

She would, of course, return, and when she did…

Alderp grinned at the necklace in his other hand. It looked like a crescent of rays, as if the wearer's head were the sun or some famous relic shooting out beams of golden light.

This would be a _wonderful _gift to give the royal family. If she returned successfully, then they'd throw a banquet in the Princess's honor for having saved Belzerg again. If she had failed, then the party would be an attempt by the royal family to curry favor among the nobles to get the money they hadn't been able to get from whoever the Princess was visiting.

Not that he cared either way. As he turned to Maxwell, he began to instruct the devil on how he should be interfering with the perceptions and memories of the people at the hypothetical party. He needed to make sure this went perfectly, so simply asking him to do what he needed to wouldn't fly this time.

-OxOxO-

Iris sighed as she spurred on the Lizard runners. Both of her bodyguards had been quiet so far, and Iris didn't like it.

Maybe they felt slighted about the contract? Iris had discussed the pros and cons of using it with Rain and Claire, and her retainers' desire to make sure they had a bit of insurance had won out in the end.

In truth, while they _did _have numerous files about the girl that seemed to be Iris's copy, they didn't know her all that well.

She sighed. If Iris had known her more, she might have ordered that a contract be ignored despite her retainers' worries, but…

She frowned. Again, Iris increased the speed of the Lizard Runners, sending questioning looks towards her bodyguards as she did. They didn't so much as flinch at the increase in speed, though they did send each other halting looks.

Iris shook her head. Most people – nobles included – would have shown some sort of discomfort at going so fast…

Actually, most nobles probably would have beheaded a commoner so idiotic as to drive Lizard Runners this hard.

They were all in the driver's seats, though, so these two – and Iris herself, actually – wouldn't be protected by the barriers that encompassed the carriage itself.

Did they have that much faith in their special shields?

She sighed, wishing that she'd have a chance to see the two of them in action. She really wanted something nice to think about while she was talking to her betrothed about fixing their economic relationship.

She slowed down the Lizard Runners – it would be hard to speak with the wind rushing past them – and turned her head to her bodyguards.

"Where did you say that you learned all that economic stuff?"

Tanya felt her expression stiffen, and then sighed. "Like I told you yesterday, I learned a lot of things in high school. I don't remember everything, though…"

"Why not?" asked Viktoriya. Tanya didn't usually forget much, and even if she was acting… distant, she wouldn't refuse a question supported by the Princess.

Tanya sent a weak glare at Viktoriya, and she tried not to wince. She wasn't _exactly _sure why Tanya was upset at her now, or if it was from one of the previous slights against her.

Tanya looked to Iris, who after looking between Viktoriya and Tanya, blinked rapidly. "Oh, uh… yeah, why not?"

She shrugged noncommittally. "I didn't have to use that sort of information while… we were on the battlefield."

Iris seemed mollified by the simple answer, but Viktoriya only raised an eyebrow. Tanya huffed and continued. "Plus, I wrote down everything I learned – as well as some… insider information – and put it in those lock boxes I hid when we came back from Africa so I wouldn't _have _to remember that stuff if I needed it. It would have been nice and preserved in writing, instead of being subject to the ravages of time in my head."

Iris blinked as Viktoriya's gaze didn't waver from Tanya, who nodded to herself. "Yeah, I think I gave the… _others _information about how to open those boxes if I couldn't, so hopefully, they've used it to the best of their abilities. None of them are stupid, so they should be set for life… if they survive…"

Tanya trailed off, unhappy. Iris looked between the two of them, unhappily pouting. Who was she talking about, and why did Serebryakov look like she had just been told her favorite pet had died?

Viktoriya remained silent and unaware of the Princess's gaze. Weiss and Koenig – the only two officers of the 203rd to survive the Bloody Valkyrie and what had come… _after _– should have been able to use whatever Tanya left behind.

Assuming they believed the letter that Tanya told her she had set up to be delivered to the surviving members of the 203rd in the event of her death.

"Would _you_ have used that economic stuff?" she asked slowly.

Tanya let out a bark of laughter. "Sure! Whether we won or lost, or whether we stayed in the army or left, I would have tried to use that stuff to coast by."

Viktoriya shook her head. That didn't sound all that… ambitious. "With your popularity and ability, you probably could have become the Chancellor."

Tanya scoffed, the glare she leveled at her adjunct only partly playful. "Are you kidding me? I definitely _could _have, I'm sure, but going anywhere _near_ politics with how many people throughout Europa hated my guts would have painted a target the size of Norden on my back."

A short silence between their banter was quickly shot down by their chuckling at the idea that she could have been _more_ hated, and they lapsed back into a – slightly less – uneasy silence.

Iris scowled again, wishing she could have been included in the conversation, or that she had a friend like the one Degurechaff seemed to have.

Iris doubted that she could have that kind of relationship with Revi with how much both Rain and Claire agreed that he was spoiled.

-OxOxO-

Soon enough, they ran into their first obstacle. A herd of Giant Bulls were blocking the dusty dirt road the carriage had been travelling on.

They looked… well, the name certainly fit. They looked like a herd of large, black cows with a wicked set of… _spiked _horns.

Iris stood, placing a hand on her sword. Finally!

Tanya grabbed Iris's hand, trying not to scowl too harshly. "What are you doing? We're the bodyguards, right? We can take care of this."

"What? But… I want to show off!"

Tanya shook her head, jerking Iris back down to the seat. "No. That isn't _your _job."

Iris sniffed a bit and shot a saddened look at Tanya, who rolled her eyes. "Oh please. I've used that look myself, and Viktoriya is _much _better at it than you are."

Iris sent a glare at her, and then sat back down, pouting. Both Tanya and Viktoriya rose and stepped down from the carriage.

"If you don't let me, I won't drive the Lizard Runners," she threatened.

Tanya looked worried, but Viktoriya brushed off the threat. "We can just learn the skill from our cards, now that we've seen you do it some more. We're Adventurers, after all."

Iris seemed to consider it, and she sighed dejectedly, crossing her arms and turning up her nose as she began to pout. Tanya turned to Viktoriya.

"_We can?"_ she asked in Germanian. Viktoriya shrugged. "_No clue, but she doesn't know anything about the job. She might think it's possible._"

Tanya was stunned for a moment, but then she shook her head happily. Her adjunct was, after all, one of the best card players she knew.

She was better at bluffing than Tanya often gave her credit for…

Tanya hid a frown. That was probably why her current attempts at making her uncomfortable weren't working that well. She had obviously seen through Tanya's attempts to remain aloof as revenge for forcing her to wear that dress…

Oh, how she wished she just had artillery to use for training. Power grows from the barrel of a gun, as does a bit of easy revenge against someone used to dealing with that kind of-

"_Should we get Lorelei? Iris will find out eventually, and maybe she'll think she's cool if she sees her fighting?"_ Viktoriya said, muttering the suggestion under her breath and startling Tanya out of her thoughts about her.

Tanya nodded as she spoke. They might as well, and since the beastman needed to get experience anyway, this would be a good opportunity. Giants Bulls weren't especially dangerous – or, she assumed they weren't, compared to things like the Demon King's Army – and she was fast enough that she wouldn't get hit.

Probably.

Tanya turned to Iris as Viktoriya went to the side of the carriage. If anyone got hurt, she had Healing spells, right?

Iris glanced between Tanya and Lorelei, suspicion brewing on her face. Tanya smiled, trying not to look the least bit apologetic. "There aren't actually three of us on this journey."

Iris tilted her head, and then leaned around the side of it to watch Viktoriya open the door. "Then… the door didn't actually come undone?"

Tanya nodded. "Yep. We didn't think that your retainers would appreciate her."

Iris pouted a bit. "Claire isn't _that _bad…"

She turned back to the herd of Giant Bulls, waiting to see who else they would have with them. Was it another commoner? She could understand that… though, what was another one, compared to Viktoriya's words against Iris and willingness to stand against a noble?

After some commotion by the side, Iris saw the two of them walk into her vision, facing the herd. Their third member was tall – almost as tall as her father was – clothed in a more sensible style than either of her comrades, and…

Iris blanched.

Ears? On the top of a head?

A _Monsume?_

She'd been within twenty feet of a _beastman?_

Iris put a hand on her sword, staring out as they began to walk forward.

She'd need to watch her back around them.

Iris didn't blame the two of them; they were from a very different place, if their innovative magic was anything to go by.

It was just a bit disconcerting to see people who didn't distrust that kind of creature, especially considering they were adventurers in Belzerg. Iris would have thought they'd hear what they did and – sensibly – shy away from such a thing, but…

Well, Iris didn't know them that well, did she?

Meanwhile, Tanya and Viktoriya watched as Lorelei did most of the work against one of the stragglers. Attacking the larger group might result in a lot of them becoming aggravated at once, so they were letting her rack up experience against some of the ones the rest of the herd had forgotten about.

She sped around the thing, dodging its spiked horns and continually attacking its hindquarters. Her height and strength meant that she could easily jump up to reach them, and, slowly, it began to tire.

Tanya and Viktoriya sent their gaze towards the rest of the Giant Bulls. They seemed to finally realize that one of their own was being attacked. Both aimed their rifles.

"We just want to draw the others' attention away. Once she's done with that one, we can have her finish off any others that we wound," she ordered.

Viktoriya nodded, and both began taking shots at them. They didn't want to waste bullets, but their Explosive Spells would be sure to make most of them bleed out before Lorelei was finished.

The herd looked towards the loud reverberations of the rifles, and the five of them began to run towards Tanya and Viktoriya.

Neither Adventurer so much as flinched as the ground began to shake in time with their charging, simply sending shots enchanted with penetration spells into their legs.

Tanya scowled at her shots. They were all hitting…

But they weren't hitting anywhere important. Viktoriya's shots, by contrast, were _all _debilitating or killing blows. Tanya and Viktoriya were at least equal shots, so why…

She shook her head. Maybe the whole business with the dress was just distracting her…

Tanya saw that Lorelei was finally finished with the straggler, and she waved her over. "Come on! Finish them off!"

The tilt of her distant ears told Tanya that the beastman was confused, but that confusion cleared as Tanya and Viktoriya snapped off another few shots. As planned, the next few bullets sent into their heads dazed the monsters.

The three converged on the Giant Bulls, slashing at throats and legs, ensuring that they'd not thrash as much as they bled out.

Soon enough, it was finished. Tanya often compared some of the enemies she fought to livestock, but in this case, the comparison was more literal than usual.

Tanya wiped the sweat from her head, and then called out to Iris. "Bring the cart closer! We've got to get what parts we can!"

With that, the three of them began to deconstruct the bulls, taking pieces – the horns and a few of the larger bones, mostly – and setting them aside.

Iris was slowly – _purposefully _slowly – bringing the cart over. Tanya glanced at Viktoriya, a scowl showing her feelings.

"Alright. You obviously have seen through my aloofness, so I'll spell out what I'm upset about."

Viktoriya winced, but, besides a quick glance over her shoulder to confirm that Iris was still far behind them, she paid full attention to Tanya.

"You haven't yet apologize for the dress, Viktoriya."

She blinked, and she sighed in relief. That was-

_Twitch._

Lorelei didn't even look up from dissecting the Giant Bull's horns. "What was wrong with it? It wasn't exactly the best-made thing in the world, but that's what happens when you only have a day to make a dress."

Lorelei was honestly confused as to why she even _wanted _to wear something else. Sure, she might look okay in something less feminine – like the white suit Lady Shinfornea had been wearing – but a dress was best.

Tanya obviously didn't seem to feel this way, and Viktoriya seemed to understand it. "Tanya, didn't you say that it was necessary? Do you have some ideas as to how we could have gotten results this good without it?"

Tanya was silent, for a moment. "No. I do not rebuff those assertions. Instead, I question your refusal to apologize for the necessity."

Viktoriya watched Lorelei imperceptibly wince.

That was not an appropriate enough reaction. Tanya had pulled out her 'no bullshit' tone of voice, and Viktoriya was trying her best not to quake.

"Tanya… it wasn't like any of this was under my control, but if it makes you feel better, I'm sorry. Happy?"

Tanya felt a brief burst of satisfaction… until it faded away. She sighed heavily. "I'm not accusing…"

But it had sounded very much like she _was _accusing her of an entire society's inability to accept less formality, hadn't it?

She frowned, even as she heard Iris call out to them. In her first life, if she'd shown up in anything as comfortable as jeans and a t-shirt, she would have been politely asked to go home and find something appropriate to wear. It would have made her reputation burn a bit, and…

She sighed, relenting. "Fine. Maybe I was a bit harsh… but I haven't exactly had the chance to… express myself. The war didn't allow for that, and now that we're here, in such a comfortable existence, I want to use the freedom I have."

That, it seemed, was the end of that. Iris jumped down, and when Tanya and Viktoriya leaned down to focus on their pieces of the Giant Bulls, they realized Lorelei had already taken care of them.

As Lorelei climbed into the cart, Tanya smirked and smiled at Viktoriya. "Anyway. Sorry for the harshness, thanks for making me feel a bit better about everything… and just know that I do _understand _the need for it."

She whirled back around and shut the door, hiding a smirk. Viktoriya was a smart girl, and would undoubtedly pick up on the fact that she hadn't exactly _forgiven _her for the transgression.

Viktoriya, meanwhile, stared at the door and then sighed as she moped towards the Princess they were contract-bound to protect and wary about being around for fear of letting anything important slip, like their being Reincarnates and Tanya's _other _plans. She supposed that she wouldn't argue, because Tanya would bring up her ideas about her revenge for being forced to wear the dress.

Viktoriya sighed. Tanya hadn't often… scratch that, she hadn't _ever _struck Viktoriya as the expressive type, but the war _had _obviously covered up a lot of their desires under the need to fight.

As she sat down next to the Princess, Viktoriya shook her head. It wasn't like Tanya hadn't acknowledged the need to wear the thing, and she _did_ look cute… not that Viktoriya would think such a thing in her presence.

She could probably tell, and Viktoriya would be given only the slightest twitch of the strand of hair Tanya called an _ahoge_ before she was smashed.

Iris shook the reigns once, and they were sent speeding off, leaving behind a pile of the most useless parts of the Giant Bull corpses.

She looked to the commoner at her side, and decided she'd talk to her a bit. "What do you guys do for fun?"

Viktoriya gazed at the Tanya lookalike curiously. "Fun? What's that?"

Iris looked blankly at her, clearly not believing her attempt at humor.

And then a second passed of staring.

And then a second more.

And then a full five seconds passed.

Viktoriya's confused expression didn't fade in the slightest.

Even when Iris waited a full thirty seconds, Viktoriya's pure, innocent expression of confusion didn't relent, and Iris's deadpan look broke. Did she _really…_

Just as she opened her mouth to ask if she was serious, Viktoriya began to giggle. "You looked so confused! I'd have never gotten that expression out of Tanya!"

Iris glared at the commoner, but Viktoriya just shook her head as her laughter began to fade. "There wasn't much room for fun on the front line, but we managed to squeeze in a bit…"

She trailed off, racking her brain for what they had done for fun that _didn't_ involve flying. Most of the time, they'd goof off in the air for fun, or…

Her eyes opened wide, and a smile began to grow on her face. "Well, we played cards sometimes, but people stopped playing with me because I'd win a lot…"

Iris nodded. "Everyone in the castle always lets me win because they know I'm the Princess, so I stopped challenging people to games. Rain is the only person who'll try and win, but she's no good at chess."

"I just wish I could have a bit of fun…"

Viktoriya tilted her head, confused. "You can't?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I have.. _so_ much to do. I really don't want to insult the Prince, so I'll have to work from the moment we get there until we leave."

Viktoriya glanced at the girl, grinning. "Well, do we meet him the moment we get there?"

She shook her head, and Viktoriya leaned down, grinning widely as an idea worked its way into her head. "How about _we _go out and have a bit of fun?"

She shook her head again, more adamantly this time. "No. I have-"

"We have Tanya, right? We can ask her to take your place! No one would know a thing, and you'd get to have some fun!"

Iris blinked, and then looked away from the path. "Are you sure she wouldn't mind?"

Viktoriya nodded her head, knowing full well that Tanya would _definitely_ mind having to wear a dress and act like a Princess for a couple hours.

Viktoriya, however, felt it was perfectly justified if she was going to sit on the inside of the carriage and make her sit with the Princess.

Even if she wasn't as bad as they had thought.

The Princess wasn't treating Viktoriya like she was scum just because she didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes, and she seemed to be treating the two of them like equals.

It would take time to change her opinions about Lorelei – both had caught the Princess's not-so-covert movement towards her sword when the beastman had exited the carriage – but Viktoriya was sure that if anyone could change a society, it would – easily – be Tanya.

-OxOxO-

Tanya glared at the table.

It was not a bad table, a broken table, a rickety table, or an ugly table. It didn't lean to one side, it wasn't made of solid gold, and it wasn't… some kind of monster in disguise.

In fact, it looked quite plain and nice.

The problem, however, was that it _existed at all._

Tanya had thought, after another few hours of travelling where she and Viktoriya would switch places when the three of them had to stop to fight monsters, that they would settle down in front of a campfire, eat the meals that Tanya had prepared in the castle, and then get some sleep in their bedrolls.

Instead, Iris had jumped up, tried to enter the carriage, realized that Lorelei was inside, stared at the beastman until she moved so she could dart in, and come out with a smooth, dark blue cube that seemed to be made of glass.

She undid a latch on the side, threw it a distance away, and then marveled as it released a flash of light and became a small mansion.

Tanya and Viktoriya had turned to the Princess, staring intently, but she had just shrugged. "Neither Claire nor Rain thought it would be a good idea for me to sleep outside, so they gave us this! It repels monsters and has more than enough room for all of us!"

After another moment of wondering just why the three of them were going with the Princess if she had all of this and could presumably use that sword at her hip, Tanya shrugged and followed her lookalike inside.

They'd divided up the rooms – all of them could sleep separately now – and then made their way to the kitchen. Lorelei and Iris were seated at opposite ends of the table, while Viktoriya sat closer to the middle, facing the kitchen.

Tanya sighed and gave the table a _look _one last time, and then she turned towards the food she had gone through the trouble of making. The magic refrigerator in the kitchen had come stocked with ingredients, so Tanya's efforts had been for nothing.

She glowered at the food she had made, and then shrugged. She'd use it for the trip to Elroad, and then dump the rest. If they had food in the mansion, then she could use that on the way back.

Tanya began to prepare the first meal she had made, her back towards the dining table where the other three were seated. Minutes of silence passed, and even without turning around from her preparations, Tanya could guess what was happening.

She hadn't heard their exact conversation, but Viktoriya and the Princess seemed to have gotten along well when they were in the front. That meant…

Iris was probably glaring at Lorelei again.

While the image of a nearly six-and-a-half foot beastman, whose height was further increased by her ears, getting stared down by a twelve-year-old girl who hardly came up to the beastman's waist was amusing, Lorelei probably didn't really enjoy the experience.

Thankfully, Tanya finished her preparations quickly.

"Alright. Viktoriya, you said you wanted to eat more stuff from Japan, so I decided to make… this!"

With that, she brought forward four bowls of ramen, setting down one in front of each of them.

Tanya put one in front of herself, grasped the fork, and…

She grinned. Oh, what the hell. "Itadakimasu!" she shouted. The others looked startled, but Tanya paid them no mind.

She hadn't had an occasion to say something so… nostalgic in a long time. She would enjoy the food she had made, even if the others were giving the eggs and ham on top of the noodles odd looks.

Tanya rolled her eyes again as they continued to stare. "What are you waiting for? It won't taste as good if you let everything cool down."

Viktoriya glanced at Tanya for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders. She'd faced worse than food, and, if she were honest with herself, she had faced worse food, too.

A single bite filled Viktoriya's mouth with euphoria, and though she would later regret thinking of anything of Tanya's filling her mouth, she didn't really give it two thoughts at the moment.

At the sound of Viktoriya's enjoyment of the food, the other two dug in, and all of them ate, enjoying the food Tanya had made.

Viktoriya, in between bites, asked, "This was supposed to be eaten on a battlefield? This is amazing!"

Tanya blinked, and had the place of mind to look sheepish as she fought to keep her inexplicable blush off of her face. "Well, not exactly _this _type of ramen… this is some of the better stuff, but I'm sure that there was some ramen that was eaten on the battlefield," she explained.

She didn't have a clue – Tanya did not look fondly on the idiotic former imperialist ways of her country, and had educated herself very little on the specifics of the World Wars of her own time – but it was probably true enough.

"Think of it… like our rations. Sure, there was some sausage that tasted… passable, at times, but we weren't given much of that on the front lines. The same applied to this" she continued. Viktoriya nodded her head, and Tanya added, "Besides, even _this _ramen is designed to be easily heated up. That's how we got it here, after all."

Iris looked up at that, ignoring the delicious food for a moment. "Wouldn't a fire attract enemies?"

Tanya smirked, and then brought up her lighter, flicking it open and lighting it. "Not if they're this small."

Iris's eyes widened again, and Tanya handed the thing to her. "What kind of magic does it use?"

Tanya shook her head. "None. You just have to press down on that trigger, and it'll light up. It uses fuel, though, so it isn't infinite."

She pressed down on the trigger and let out a small gasp at the fire. "Amazing…"

They all finished quickly, and Tanya rose once more. "I'll fix dessert, don't worry."

They all smiled at her appreciatively, and Tanya tracked towards the refrigerator, opening the freezer. She hadn't made dessert back at the castle – she didn't have a clue what she would make to be portable, besides maybe cookies or something – and this pop-up mansion allowed for that much.

Sure enough, she could see several deserts. Ice cream, cookies, and…

Tanya gasped, and brought out the grand prize she hadn't known she was searching for, waving it about. "Viktoriya! Chocolate!"

Viktoriya immediately stiffened, and then vaulted the table, rushing towards the kitchen and looking at Tanya's prize. Tanya held it up to the light in an iron grip not even Being X could have broken.

"Finally! I thought that we would find some in the capital, but we never had the time to look for it," her adjutant said, salivating.

Tanya pushed the girl back and brought the bar of sweet goodness towards the table. She channeled mana into her Type 97 and watched as a blade emerged from her fingernail.

Deftly, she sliced the bar into quarters, passing the slightly bigger pieces to Viktoriya and Iris.

Tanya reveled in the warm feeling that the chocolate gave her and the even warmer feeling that bloomed in her chest as Viktoriya sent her a grateful smile for being given the largest portion.

After that, they all dispersed, leaving the table as one when Tanya noted the sun had dipped beyond the horizon an hour ago. Iris headed upstairs to the master bedroom, while Tanya, Viktoriya, and Lorelei all went their separate ways in the first floor rooms.

Mostly. Tanya and Viktoriya faced their doorways, having opened their doors and looked in the well-lit rooms, each with only one bed.

Tanya turned around. "Well, goodnight Viktoriya."

She also turned around, rubbing the back of her head. "Same to you, T- Tanya," she said, turning back to her room. Tanya did the same.

Despite the amenities located within – tables and an odd looking chess set and a bed and a closet and a shower and – the very… lonely room looked oddly intimidating, without a second bed nearby.

They both turned around at once, staring across the hall at the other's room. She wondered if she would…

Their gazes lingered for a moment, and then Tanya sighed, turning around.

No, of course Viktoriya wouldn't want to do something like that.

She knew Tanya was a man, and Tanya knew, from the slightly uncomfortable gazes she sent her during the times they had to take baths together in the presence of Darkness, that she wasn't over it.

Asking something like that would completely demolish whatever progress she had made to fixing their friendship after their fight over talking about Tanya's… experiences and the subsequent cooling related to that stupid dress-

"…Are you two… Axis Cultists?"

The silence was demolished with that phrase. Both spun around, letting out twin yelps of surprise and spinning towards the other rooms.

Lorelei was staring out of her doorway at the two, an eyebrow raised and a faint blush discernible, even in the low light.

Tanya grit her teeth. "Of course not! Why… that's the second time someone's asked me if I worship that stupid, idiotic 'goddess' Aqua since I got to Belzerg! Why the fuck…" she shouted, glaring at the beastman.

The beastman threw her hands up, for a moment, before ducking into her room and shouting, "Alright, goodnight!"

Tanya spun on her heel, turning to see Viktoriya staring at the ground. Tanya cleared her throat. "Goodnight."

She nodded mutely, and walked into her room, closing the door quietly behind her. Tanya did the same, occupying her thoughts with the hope that tomorrow would be as peaceful as the first and nothing else.

Especially thoughts about Viktoriya. She wasn't thinking about her all alone in there, not in a comforting arm's reach. Nope. Not at all.

-OxOxO-

Thankfully, the morning of the second day was more of the first. They woke up, Viktoriya made breakfast and coffee for everyone, Tanya threatened to disembowel anyone that dared to insult Viktoriya's coffee, and then they packed up the mansion and went on their way.

Normal, everyday things.

As the day wore on and they confronted monsters, however, Iris couldn't take it anymore.

She rose from her seat as the other three began to array themselves in the procession of Giant Toads and jumped from the cart.

"Stop! I want to take out these monsters!"

Tanya and Viktoriya gazed at her, amused. "Really, Princess?"

They were just Giant Frogs, after all. Tanya was sure that her – currently annoyingly lackluster – aim wouldn't fail against such easy targets. She just glared at them. "Yes! I was looking forward to being able to battle a few monsters!"

Viktoriya opened her mouth, but Tanya grabbed her shoulder. "Wait. Let's see what she can do."

She glanced over her shoulder quizzically, but the certainty shining in Tanya's eyes told her to drop it. She sighed. "Okay…"

Grinning widely, Iris ran forwards, drawing her sword. All three of them watched, waiting for her to be stopped or frightened by the frogs.

She seemed to be stronger than Tanya was physically, if her easy control of the Lizard Runners that only Lorelei was able to command using force alone was anything to go by. That was expected, since she was a noble.

The blinding light that began to emanate from her sword, however, gave all of them pause.

The massive amount of mana that was building up reminded Tanya and Viktoriya of an untold number of deaths and terror they were supposed to inflict, not be on the receiving end of.

And Tanya, in the back of her mind, felt her Psychic Protection Ring burn her hand as the front of her mind contemplated the… _pulling _sensation she felt in the part of her head she associated with the stupid, cursed Type 95.

"EXTERION!"

In a wave of light, powerful energy began to speed away from the petite girl, carving into a Giant Toad. And another. And another.

In all, it got through three of the bunched-up Giant Toads before it stopped. Those living decided that eyeing up the tiny morsel of a meal wasn't worth the effort, and began to hop off the path, heading for a distant forest.

Iris's face, beaming and unaware of the damage she had done, spun towards them, innocent and full of an unawareness of what she had done.

They waited a moment to collect themselves and ignored the beaming girl.

"…So, we aren't really needed, are we?" Tanya asked the others.

Viktoriya shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Maybe we're supposed to be some sort of status symbol?" asked the beastman.

Tanya snorted. "I'm sure she could get a more impressive group of people to guard her and still remain undercover. No, this is some sort of test for us by her retainers. Iris needs no protection. Obviously."

Iris, unaware of their conversation and happy, ran back towards them, smiling.

"How was that? Was it cool? Was that an awesome battle?" she asked breathless, stars shining in her eyes.

Tanya tried to grin reassuringly while not panicking about the Type 95's… activity. "Well… it was efficient, but I don't think, uh… Bards will be writing about that any time soon."

Tanya had a certain appreciation for what she'd just done – if she could have killed enemy mages that fast the war would have been over in a year – but it seemed that Iris wasn't satisfied.

Iris looked to Viktoriya, and both of Tanya's companions nodded. She looked back at the Giant Toads' corpses, and then an expression of understanding dawned on her face.

"I see! It isn't cool if they're just weak enemies, right? No worries! I'll-"

Tanya shook her head. "_No_. It isn't just the enemies," she began, knowing full well that Iris's retainers would immolate Tanya for letting her fight something stronger than a Giant Toad. "If you can kill every enemy you fight, it isn't exactly a battle."

"It's more like a slaughter," Lorelei added.

Iris looked down at her sword, still shining pristinely, and sighed. "Maybe it's the weapon? It's a Divine Relic passed down in the Belzerg family, so maybe it's too much for a beginner?"

Tanya felt her eye twitch, and she wondered why she had that weapon if she wasn't on the front lines. The General Staff hadn't been stupid enough to keep the Type 95 behind lines if they couldn't help it.

Lorelei asked the question on Tanya's mind, and, after a suspicious glance at the beastman, Iris said, "It's a national treasure known as Calibur that can protect its wielder from all sorts of abnormal effects, and I got it from my father because I like how the sheath looked."

They stood there for a moment, and then they let out a united sigh of tiredness.

Tanya led them back to the carriage, only lamenting that she had been doing so much work when they could just get Iris to kill the various monsters they encountered. Though, she did want Lorelei to level up…

Tanya sat down in the front, leaving behind the Giant Toads' corpses. They couldn't get much for anything from them, and the time it took to wade through their body parts and slime honestly wasn't worth the energy she'd put into the task.

Iris sat next to her, and with that, they were off, destroying what didn't move out of the way and generally relaxing as the cart sped along.

-OxOxO-

Tanya narrowed her eyes as she gazed behind them. It was distant, and if Lorelei hadn't heard them when they'd stopped for a quick afternoon lunch, Tanya wouldn't have been able to see them.

As it was, she held out her hand in a fist, and Viktoriya, sitting next to Iris, told her to stop. Tanya trained her eyes and Observation spells on the distant dust cloud, and saw it fade into the air.

"We're being followed," Tanya said as she got down from the roof of the carriage. Lorelei hopped out from the interior of the carriage, crossing her arms smugly.

"Told you so."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "You were right, and I'm sorry for doubting you. We took plenty of precautions in coming here, though, so I wonder who could be tracking us…"

Tanya heard Iris speak up from behind her. "I guess you people have uses after all."

Tanya turned around from surveying the horizon to level a glare at Iris, who looked surprisingly confused at the scorn.

Tanya rolled her eyes. Maybe she'd give her a lecture on the idiocy inherent in racism later – could the two words 'you people' be uttered without being racist? Tanya didn't think so.

For now, though, they needed to focus on the possible threat.

"Iris. You start heading down the trail with Viktoriya, who'll look behind you. Lorelei and I will wait in hiding in that forest, and then make them stop. When they do, Viktoriya will tell you to stop," she ordered.

Viktoriya and Lorelei both began to move, but Iris hesitated. Tanya raised an eyebrow, and Iris breathed in huffily. "You won't be able to do that. If they can keep up with us, then they have Lizard Runners too. You can't-"

Tanya glared. "I didn't ask for your opinions. I've taken that into account. Go drive the cart."

The Princess clenched her hands together, but she spun around angrily and did as ordered. Tanya narrowed her eyes at the retreating figure, and then dismissed the idea to discipline her.

Tanya doubted that either of the girl's retainers had given Tanya that power, and she was bound by a contract.

Tanya followed Lorelei's towering form into the forest, and both crouched down behind the various bushes and trees, waiting. They watched as the carriage that Iris and Viktoriya were on sped off, and then they began to wait.

She began to go over why anyone would be following them. Tanya knew that the two retainers didn't trust her, but she had signed that contract, making it unlikely that they were supervisors.

After all, having two groups set out from the capital instead of one increased the chances of them being caught or for people to think they were royals fleeing the capital, which was what they said they _didn't _want. The retainers weren't at fault, and since they were supposed to be keeping the fact that Iris was gone hidden, no noble was likely to know, either.

More likely, they were a group of criminals trying to accost the Princess, who had seen her driving the cart out of the capital. Since 'everyone' knew that nobles were strong – she hadn't when she'd come here, disproving that particular fact – if they were trying to fight or kidnap the Princess, they were _also _strong.

Soon enough, Tanya and Lorelei began to see the next carriage come into view. It looked just like theirs, and it seemed to be keeping a steady, if slightly more erratic pace, likely due to the driver's struggle with the Lizard Runners.

As it loomed closer, Tanya could just pick out just who was driving the thing, and, as they came closer and became more recognizable, she began to grin malevolently. Lorelei shot her a confused expression, but Tanya ignored it.

She nodded to herself. She'd been wondering how long it would take her to run into these four again.

There was no way that people like this would be hired as supervisors – Tanya didn't imagine people willing to rape someone had squeaky-clean records in every other area – so they were likely trying to get revenge.

Now, she had the chance to get her own revenge. Ever closer, the carriage rushed, until it suddenly passed them, speeding by.

"Reinforcement spell: Agility."

At Tanya's command, her speed on the ground was shot through the roof. An extended hand and another intonation later, and Lorelei's speed was increased too.

She began to run, and Lorelei, after a moment's hesitation, followed, streaking after her towards the carriage.

Despite the speed of the Lizard Runners, magic still seemed to trump all. They began to gain on it, and Tanya reveled in the solitary sound of the wind rushing past her ears.

None of their prey had so much as glanced backwards, too focused on the unsteady handling of the Lizard Runners.

She didn't particularly care about the screaming she could hear at every slight jostle of the carriage, besides how it would affect her performance in taking the thing over. Killing all of them was an option, as always, but she did want to know if anyone would come looking for the four of them.

She took a deep breath, and she activated a Flight spell and leapt onto the carriage, stalking towards the front steadily.

It rocked again, and Tanya turned around, noting that Lorelei had managed to jump on without the aid of a Flight spell. She looked decidedly less stable, but Tanya supposed that her Flight spells allowed for stability that not even Lorelei's enhanced physical ability could match.

She stalked forward and watched as both people in the drivers' seats looked back at her, shocked. She smirked. The brief urge to repeat her trick of tossing a grenade at those pilots above Norden flashed through her mind, but she decided on something much simpler.

"Sleep. Sleep."

Both went out faster than a light, and Tanya ran forward, taking hold of the reins and pulling back on them. The Lizard Runners cried out and immediately stopped. Now to-

Unfortunately, Tanya was not used to physics affecting her all that much while travelling at high speeds – Flight spells were very helpful for forgetting about gravity – and she was thrown off the carriage, along with Lorelei and two of their assailants.

All four of them were sent flying forward, and Tanya heard herself groan as she rose unsteadily. She shook away the unsteadiness and found that Lorelei had been flung next to her, and that both drivers were still snoring.

As two more adventurers exited the carriage and Tanya cast the spell two more times, Tanya marveled at the efficiency of the spell. She would have _killed _to have access to it in her last life, if for no other reason than how much easier it would have been to fall asleep on the front lines amid all the artillery.

She walked towards Lorelei and snapped off a quick, "Heal."

The beastman shot up, looking around wildly. Tanya smirked at her, and then gestured to the captives. "Recognize them?"

It took her a few moments, but the woman's eyes widened and then narrowed as she did. Tanya smirked as Lorelei reached for her sword.

"They… They're the ones that tried to…"

Tanya shook her head, smiling. "You don't need to say anything. Since they're here for us, I think you get first dibs on what we do with them."

Of course, Tanya would try and steer her decision towards what Tanya wanted… but that she was giving someone she had years of experience in battle over decide what to do with enemy combatants was generous enough.

Lorelei nodded, and then shook her head sharply as she fully comprehended what Tanya said. "For us? Why would they be looking for us?"

"They feel as if we've humiliated them, obviously," Tanya said, images of Mary Sioux flashing across her vision.

Lorelei's expression became confused. "But... those carriages are reserved for the nobles. Would they really do something like steal from a noble to get back at you and I?"

Tanya shrugged. "I have known of people willing to do much more because of much less."

Indeed, both Being X and _that woman _had both done a lot to her for very little reason. She didn't believe in god, and he thought sending her to some alternate reality in order to get her to convert was in any way appropriate?

Admittedly, Sioux had a _bit _more reason to despise her, and even if she should have been a lot less angry that a soldier had died in a war, Tanya could understand her hatred.

She would want to eviscerate anyone that tried and failed to kill Viktoriya, after all, to say nothing of what she would do to someone that was successful in that endeavor.

Shaking her head, she pointed her rifle at them. "Well, what do you want to do?" she asked, bringing her thoughts back to her current objective.

Lorelei looked a bit lost, and Tanya sighed.

Tanya knew what she would do. She'd kill them and take the carriage. But…

"I'll give you a few options, then. One, we could simply kill them, burn the bodies and the carriage, and then bring the Lizard Runners to our carriage," she said, tilting her head towards the growing cloud of dust. They had seen the one behind them fade away, and they were coming back to see who it was.

Lorelei looked like Tanya's suggestion was unpleasant, and Tanya sighed. She supposed that someone who had wanted to become a clothier and was forced into becoming an adventurer might have objections to killing something that was human.

"Secondly, we could wake them up, give them back the carriage, and then hope they listen to us."

Thankfully, that idea seemed to be even more repulsive. Tanya nodded; she could work with that.

"The third option is to take their valuables, take the Lizard Runners, and let them fend for themselves. They might learn a bit of humility fending off monsters while either trying to get to the next town or waiting for rescue."

Lorelei's face seemed a bit indecisive, but Tanya was willing to let her make the decision.

Tanya would have loved to be given the decision of what to do with her attempted rapist, but Viktoriya's… revenge on…

Before her thoughts could spiral towards _that_, however, they were interrupted. "You!"

Tanya turned her head and found that the four adventurers had managed to break out of their slumber. She turned to them, a smirk on her face and her rifle in her hands.

"Yes?"

Their apparent leader stepped forward. "You put us to sleep that night, didn't you!? We were told we were going to be held back from quests because we couldn't be trusted!"

They began to spread out, gripping their weapons. Tanya didn't mind too much; a bullet to the head might not have killed undead, but she had no illusions about its effectiveness on humans.

She rolled her eyes and made the decision for the beastman. "Yes, and I could do it again. Now, if you give up your valuables, we'll let you try and walk to the next town and fend for yourself," she said, eyeing them.

If they were smart, they'd do what she said.

It was obvious that she could beat the four of them, as she had already done so twice, and while she might not have been a noble, they didn't know that.

They all looked at each other, and the leader, who faced Tanya with something that resembled determination in his eyes, shook his head. Tanya didn't wait a moment more.

People who had personal reasons for revenge were very, very tiring to constantly battle. Best to nip some sort of long-term enemy in the bud. _Now._

Two shot rang out, and their leader collapsed. Conventional comparisons would say he fell like a puppet, but in all honesty, the way his head jerked back and carried the rest of his body to the ground in a wet slump didn't look like a puppet collapsing at all.

Surprisingly, she noted that the two adventurers to her left and the one to her right began to move immediately, instead of staring at their leader in shock.

The two on the left moved towards Tanya, and she was sure that the one on the right was being countered by Lorelei. Tanya squeezed off another shot, and the last one, a spearman, managed to get close to Tanya.

She just smirked at him as his attack bounced off her light blue shield. He blinked, and tried again, throwing his whole body into the attempt to skewer Tanya.

She picked at one of her nails as he was sent flying, and then she shot the man. He began to shout, but Tanya ignored him and turned to see that Lorelei had incapacitated the swordsman trying to kill her.

She sighed, and then walked forward. Lorelei looked over her shoulder at her, a relieved expression coming over her face.

Tanya smiled at her, pointed her gun, and fired.

The man Lorelei had knocked out would never know consciousness again.

She cast her eyes about for another moment, making sure that they were down, and then…

"Phew!" she said as she sank to the ground and began to rummage through their pockets. She heard the beastman make some choking sounds, as if she was surprised.

Tanya cast a blank look back at her. "Don't bother feeling bad. If they were willing to kill us now, one survivor would have been willing to kill us later. I've left too many potential enemies alive to feel safe continuing the practice."

"Besides," she added, standing with the adventurer's money bag in hand, "They tried to rape you. What do you think they would have done to our corpses if they'd won?"

She was silenced by that, and if Iris and Viktoriya thought it was odd that the only signs of battle was the burning carriage, a notable lack of bodies, and the smell of burning flesh, they didn't say anything.

-OxOxO-

Tanya grinned as they arrived at the gates of Elroad's capital. With the extra pair of Lizard Runners, they'd managed to get here before the third night.

Last night had been pretty much the same as the first, with the notable exception being Lorelei's inclusion in some of the Princess's conversations.

Oh, Iris didn't like the beastman by any stretch of the imagination, but Tanya was pleased to see that the two of them could get through an entire conversation without either of them glaring at the other too much.

And here they were, arriving in the afternoon and getting hurried through the procedures. Or, that was what Tanya assumed was happening.

Iris was, after all, in the front, and while the guards didn't know what the Princess looked like, they knew what nobles looked like.

The four Lizard Runners in the front were probably just as impressive, and while Tanya was a bit upset that they could just breeze through the rules because of how they looked, she'd used her appearance to her advantage before.

She wouldn't decry someone else for doing the same… unless it helped her.

They wound through the roads, and Tanya glanced out occasionally. She could see that, for all its reported wealth and excellence, it seemed to be deteriorating. It looked to be less busy than the capital, and Tanya guessed that it might be less active than even Axel.

She shook her head. It seemed that they were falling on hard times, then. She sighed, hoping that Iris had memorized what Tanya had told her.

Apparently, she had to do some preliminary meetings with officials when she got to her room. She'd gone into more detail than Tanya thought the explanation warranted, but her last shift riding in the front with her had been boring and Tanya hadn't minded.

Obviously, the Princess was a bit nervous and wanted some reassurance.

Soon enough, they stopped. Tanya peeked out of the window and found herself looking up at what passed for an opulent inn in this time period.

To her, it looked like this world's attempts at flaunting wealth unnecessarily was emulating Roman and Greek architectural styles. Tanya could make out that nearly everything was made of some sort of stone, and the entire thing looked more like a church than an inn.

She shrugged and opened the door, stepping out into the light of the setting sun. The entire town was cloaked in shadows from the walls and buildings, and Tanya sighed happily.

She might have a mission, but she was sure she would be getting at least a little bit of relaxation.

Tanya walked forward, but found her motion stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She turned around, and found Lorelei staring at her apologetically.

"…What is it?" she asked, nervous. Lorelei wasn't often apologetic. She looked guilty if she knew she was in the wrong, and she looked positively enraged when she was being accused of something if she wasn't in the wrong.

In the time Tanya had known her, she rarely did things that she would need to apologize for, and the fact that she hadn't been even remotely sorry for dolling Tanya up in a dress meant that this was probably big.

"Well…"

_Twitch_.

Tanya felt that stupid fucking piece of hair on the top of her head wave about as Lorelei explained what had happened.

Viktoriya and Iris had made plans to go out and explore the town, and Iris had asked Lorelei to break the news to Tanya when they got to the inn and left.

Tanya took a calming breath.

Well, that explained why Iris had been so insistent on trying out some of Tanya's clothing this morning and why Viktoriya had begged Tanya to let her to let the girl wear Tanya's adventurer gear.

That did it. Tanya was going to figure out the deepest, darkest secret Viktoriya had in that stupid diary, and then she was going to blackmail her into becoming her personal maid.

Tanya wouldn't even going to feel bad when she made Viktoriya bend over to pick something up she deliberately dropped, or when she made her do jumping jacks in as little clothing as possible.

Muttering under her breath, Tanya retreated into the carriage and opened Iris's clothing bag. She felt her eye twitch as she gazed at the dress Iris had worn during their first meeting with a note that said 'Sorry?' on top of it.

Tanya couldn't let the Princess come to 'unnecessary harm,' but she could easily justify any pain she delivered on Iris as necessary.

If Tanya harbored any ill will towards the Princess because of her trick, Tanya might be tempted to betray her, after all. A bit of tough love would balance the scales.

Muttering to herself, Tanya was starting to wonder if this trip would be worth it. Sure, getting a house in the capital or elsewhere where she could make bullets and weapons would be pivotal to her continued existence, but she could have just purchased her own eventually, right?

Sighing, she exited the carriage, noting that a boy was sitting in a seat at the front, warily eyeing the Lizard Runners. Tanya ignored him, and strode forward.

"Well, at least I have-" Tanya said, cutting herself off as she realized that Lorelei wasn't walking next to her. Feeling her eye twitch, she marched towards the back of the beastman and tapped her on her forearm. She turned around to find Tanya glaring at her.

She shrunk back, and Tanya continued to glare. "Where are you going?"

She raised a single eyebrow. "You really think they'll let me in?"

Tanya smirked. "Of course they will."

Tanya was, after all, dressed as the Princess. She could probably get away with murder if she sounded sorry enough, kept the disgusting dress on, and picked someone low enough down on the feudal totem pole.

Lorelei seemed unconvinced, and Tanya grabbed her arm and began to walk towards the front of the inn. As they neared it, Tanya felt Lorelei try to break away. Tanya just rolled her eyes and began to pour mana into her Computation Jewel.

Oh, she didn't like going along with Tanya's plans? If she so much as mentioned being unhappy, Tanya would remind her that Tanya was the one having to pretend to be a Princess.

She walked through the front doors and up towards the front desk where a woman was eyeing them warily. Lorelei was glancing around nervously.

They were getting stared at. Thankfully, most of them seemed more baffled or curious than hateful. Tanya nodded to herself and walked towards the receptionist.

Once more donning that stupidly high-pitched voice, she smiled widely at the woman. "Hello! I believe you have rooms for Princess Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg?"

The receptionist's eyes were dragged off Lorelei by the declaration, and, eyes widening, she surveyed Tanya. She continued to smile, waiting.

She wasn't disappointed. "P- Princess Iris! I'm sorry I didn't recognize you! We have your rooms ready, but…" she trailed off, offering Tanya three keys.

Tanya grabbed them, still keeping a smile in place. "But what? Is there something you wish to deny me?" she asked, knowing that the woman in front of her wanted to kick Lorelei out and that 'Iris' knew that she wanted to do this.

Her head sank. "N- Nothing, Your Royal Highness," she muttered, her scratchy voice losing most of its fight.

Smirking, Tanya walked towards the stairs, Lorelei quickly following in her wake. They navigated through hallways towards the rooms, and when they reached them, Tanya began to chuckle.

"See? What did I tell you?" she asked rhetorically, turning to look at the beastman. She shrugged, and Tanya handed her a key.

Lorelei looked at it, a question on her lips. Tanya spoke before she could ask. "Iris told me that each of these rooms have their own facilities, and that you can order food by placing a slip of paper on the front of the door in the box hanging from it. They all have their own washing facilities, so you don't need to come out if you don't want to."

Lorelei nodded hesitantly, slipping the key into the lock on her room and then retreating inside. Tanya smirked, walking into the Princess's room.

Iris had given Tanya a rundown of what her preparations for the meeting tomorrow would include, and, while she had been confused as to her insistence at the time, Tanya was now sure that she had been so thorough with the hope that Tanya wouldn't deviate from the plans.

'Iris' was supposed to do a few preliminary meetings with the major officials and nobles of this nation before meeting Prince Revi tomorrow.

Unfortunately, 'Iris' was also supposed to sit there and get berated for not ending the war by now, and to justify why Elroad needed to keep sending them money.

A knock sounded on Iris's door, and Tanya grinned, giving permission for the man on the other side to come through. In stepped their Prime Minister.

The standard golden hair framed a long, pointed face. The man's clothing looked to be very high quality, and Tanya frowned.

He looked to be very well dressed for someone in a nation that had supposedly fallen on hard times. However, Tanya was supposed to be the Princess of a neighboring nation, so it wasn't exactly unexpected that they'd dress themselves up nicely, no matter how bad their finances were.

Shaking her head, she smiled. The man bowed his head a fraction of an inch, and then he brought out a piece of paper that listed whatever petty grievances he had.

Tanya rolled her eyes. She wasn't about to sit through this. "Prime Minister. It's wonderful to meet you. Now, before you start offloading your questions on me, I have a few of my own."

He raised an eyebrow, but before he could respond, Tanya began. "If you are wondering why we haven't ended the war, it's because we don't have the funding. If you wanted the constant drain on our resources removed, then you should be helping us more."

An eyebrow of the man twitched, but Tanya continued. "Additionally, I would like to inform you that if you cut off your support, Belzerg will have to take drastic actions."

He glared at her. "What could be more drastic than what you've already done?"

Tanya paused, wondering what Belzerg had already done, before dismissing it. She'd find out later.

Probably.

"For starters, we could ban travel to your country. I'm sure you're aware of how much you earn from our nobles trying to flee their taxes?"

He nodded slowly, and Tanya smirked. "While I'm sure they would be upset, the nobles could be convinced to travel to another nation to waste their money in if you won't support our war against the Demon King. They won't like your lack of help, so I'm sure they could be convinced to go elsewhere."

He blanched at her declaration, and Tanya continued to press forward. "Furthermore, I'd like to hear what kind of plans you have for saving your economy. If you dare to wear such expensive clothing in my presence, then you obviously feel that conserving resources will be a waste of time. Surely it's because of some economic plans?"

Now, the man began to sweat. Tanya sighed, and leaned back in her chair.

This would be easier than _any _meeting she'd had in her past lives, including the one that had gotten her killed. This man didn't seem to have heard of a poker face, and Tanya couldn't honestly say that his stammered report was reassuring.

Another knock sounded on the door, and as the Prime Minister's face lit up, Tanya called out, "Just a moment. I still need to speak with the Prime Minister."

His face fell and became ashen, and Tanya scowled. Honestly, did he think organizing a country was as easy as handing all of your problems to your subordinates? She still had to grill – er… _inquire_ about the economy, their military, and anything else she wanted information on in order to waste time and get back at Iris for.

-OxOxO-

Iris smiled warmly as she held Viktoriya's hand and danced about the street. Today…

Today had been so _fun!_

She'd gone to the casinos, where her ability to win was the deciding factor instead of her status! She had eaten at a restaurant, where the money she and Viktoriya could spend determined what kind of food she got instead of getting given the best possible food for free just because she was the Princess.

She had been able to speak improperly with only a few raised eyebrows shot her way instead of shocked cries of outrage or disappointed reprimands.

She had taken her hair out of its customary braid and instead let it hang and fly however it wanted.

She had chewed her nails, smudged what little makeup she had on, and _done what she wanted_.

She sighed happily, coming to a stop in front of the inn that had been rented for them. She tossed a smile towards Viktoriya, who returned it.

The commoner might have acted awkwardly at first, but after the casinos, she had seemed to gain confidence and stop worrying about Tanya.

In those casinos, Viktoriya had won against everybody. There were a couple of close calls, but she pulled forward in nearly every game, regardless of whether money or jewels or clothing or food or weapons were bet.

Of course, there was a surprising lack of people inside the casinos. Instead of cries of anger or elation and loud conversations that could barely be heard over, an occasional shout about bad luck would happen, and then a low, murmured din of conversation would take over once more.

Through all of Serebryakov's winning, Iris had even heard a few whispers that some thought she was better than the Prince.

Since the sun had long since set, they had gone to an upscale restaurant, enjoyed their food, and then they'd gone to the Onion Duck pond and watched the ones that were still awake play in the water.

Iris sighed. She'd have to prepare for Revi tomorrow, but for now, she was sure that she'd have plenty of memories to keep her distracted from the monotony and derision.

They entered and ascended through the inn, soon finding the rooms assigned to them. As they approached, they could hear a soft whimpering coming from one of the doors.

It was the door to Iris's room.

Before Iris could think about why Tanya would be crying, Viktoriya bolted away, throwing open the door. Iris ran after her and breathed a sigh of relief.

Tanya wasn't the one crying.

Instead, it was a man with faded golden hair and pompous, if disheveled, clothing. He was plastered against the ground, while Tanya stood above him, glaring.

"Why can't you answer me? These are simple questions that anyone with even an _inkling_ of economic knowledge or even just a general awareness of events. Are you even the Prime Minister? What leader of a country can't answer questions about your Gross Domestic Product and inflation?"

Questions about the man's sanity, prestige, and manhood followed, sending the man into a downward spiral of whimpering and pleading for mercy. Tanya gave him one last glare, and then turned to the two of them.

"Hi. I think that this man is an impostor, since the only answer he was able to provide to me about the affairs of this country was that the casinos have been falling in quality. What idiot measures the wealth of a country by such a variable thing as a _casino?"_

The last part was directed at the man sniveling on the ground, and, for once, he jumped up.

"I'm not even supposed to be in this position! Without the old Prime Minister and his people, less trustworthy people were chosen for his job! We've embezzling money! " he wailed, gripping onto the dress Tanya wore.

She shook her head and jerked the cloth away from him. "Pathetic."

Iris stepped forward slowly, gently pulling at the edge of Tanya's sleeve. "Maybe we should meet privately?"

Tanya nodded, still glaring at the man on the ground. "Leave and send in someone who can answer those questions. If I were you, I'd run before the Prince learns of your dealings."

He bolted, leaving the three of them alone. Tanya glared at both Viktoriya and Iris. "Have fun?"

Both hung their heads, and Tanya sighed, shaking her head. "Why did you think it was a good idea to leave me in charge? I expect results from my subordinates, and if they're just going to cower ineffectively, why are they even _employed?"_

Iris shrugged helplessly, and Tanya let out a huff of annoyance. "Well, whatever. There are a few more people in the hall, so-"

Viktoriya shook her head. "There wasn't anyone, actually…"

Tanya's eyebrows rose. "…So they were scared off? Why did they come here then? I look like a twelve-year-old and they were _scared?"_

Both women nodded to her words, agreeing without speaking that leaving Tanya in control had been a terrible idea, and that no amount of fun could make up for that.

Tanya, retreating from Iris's room and walking towards her own, smirked. She hoped that her demonstration taught the Princess a lesson about leaving people she didn't know in charge of her affairs.

Tanya could have been nicer about things and not insulted the Prime Minister, sure, but she suspected that this was much more impactful than any amount of 'unnecessary harm' she could deliver on Iris without killing her.

Tanya shook her head. "I wonder how you deal with so many idiots, Iris."

Tanya watched as Iris seemed to sigh. "With more patience than I think should be possible and a severe lack of free time," she said, closing the door to her room. Tanya nodded, and turned towards the third room, bringing out the key to it.

Now, Iris was in her room, likely writing furiously to call back at least a few people. Tanya and Viktoriya stood in the hallway, looking at the key held in Tanya's hand warily.

The single key for the third room that Tanya had been given.

…Right.

Rain and Claire hadn't been aware that Lorelei was coming, meaning they hadn't arranged for more than three rooms.

Tanya looked to her left and was surprised to see that Viktoriya wasn't there. She blinked, and then turned to Lorelei's door and the knocking sound. Viktoriya was standing there.

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Come on. Let's not bother her. I'm sure that one of us can just sleep on the floor," she said.

Viktoriya sent a confused look towards Tanya, and then blushed a little, turning back towards the door to continue knocking.

"Come on, Lorelei! Can I sleep in there?" she called out, and Tanya rolled her eyes, opening her own room. Maybe she _should _have tried to lie about her past?

It would have made _some _things a bit less complicated, at least.

Tanya heard a muffled shout from Lorelei's room that sounded suspiciously like 'Hell no!' and shook her head as she heard Viktoriya trudge in, looking between Tanya and the bed with a… _questioning _look on her face.

"Don't worry, Viktoriya," she said as she heard the woman close the door, "I'll just sleep on this chair." She gestured towards the plush chair in front of a writing desk.

There weren't any couches, and Tanya supposed that without a TV to stare at, there didn't need to be much furniture in a room that the owners expected to house a single person.

She wouldn't make Viktoriya uncomfortable, though, now that she knew what Tanya truly was.

She wasn't inconsiderate of – or worse, _blind to _– the feelings of the people around her.

Viktoriya looked conflicted and hadn't stopped looking between her and the bed, but before the woman could protest, Tanya ripped one of the blankets off the king-sized bed and curled into a cocoon on the chair, steeling herself for tomorrow and missing the dejected, conflicted, and guilty look on Viktoriya's face.

As she heard the other woman settle into her bed, Tanya wondered where Viktoriya kept that diary. It was probably somewhere in the bag she had brought, so Tanya would search for it and a bit of revenge at the first opportunity.

-OxOxO-

He looked into the room, standing around nervously. He was supposed to just be a messenger, but this…

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

He winced again as the Goddess on the ground clutched at her stomach.

He was just a messenger for Eris, assigned to this post by Gautama. He had come here when her daily 'I want to go to talk with other Deities, so do my work for me' call didn't come in.

He'd assumed she might actually be doing her work for herself and come to see if she had anything else she wanted him to do.

Instead, she was curled up on the ground, clutching her stomach. Her work had been scattered, her pens broken, and her chair on the other side of the room.

He had immediately sent word back to Gautama – this was _way _above him. He didn't even know what this could _be._

They were in Heaven, after all. Only souls and, to a limited extent, Deities could leave. How an _attack_ could get here, he had _no_ idea-

"Move aside."

He blinked and jumped out of the doorway, whirling around to face the stern-voiced being-

Only to wish he had the ability to profusely shit himself.

It would have relieved some tension anyway, even if it would have made everything about being an Angel more complicated.

It was _him._

Or, rather, it was _Him._

He moved inside, and he began to try and clear his mind. If the Boss got wind of what he was thinking…

And he could do that. He could look into the mind of anything that wasn't _at least_ a God or Goddess with very minimal effort, though control was easier if they were his adherents and harder if they were someone else's faithful.

Duke, a simple Angel, would have his thoughts – his oh so _traitorous_ thoughts – put on full display. His wings would be sheared and recycled into new souls. His body would be-

He swept inside, staring down at her. Duke couldn't see His face, but He looked… troubled, based on His body language. He raised a hand.

Duke flinched away. Was He smiting some unfortunate soul for this transgression? Was He punishing Eris for falling from her desk?

His hand fell, and-

_CLANK!_

A metal bucket appeared next to the girl. Her screaming paused for a moment, and His voice echoed through the room.

"You'll want this, young one."

"Wh-" Eris managed to get out. Then, her cheeks began to inflate, and-

"_BLLLLLEEEEERRRRGH!"_

Duke jumped back as a flood of rainbow colors flew from her mouth into the bucket. More continued to fall out, and more, and…

Duke's concerned gaze faded into a confused one as it still didn't overflow. How-

"It's a functionally infinite bucket," He provided with but a glance. Duke nodded and backed out of the room, hoping that even the extra few inches of distance might protect him.

Or rather, protect his mind.

Duke continued to watch. He watched her. And, when she finally seemed to stop throwing up, she looked up at Him.

"Wha- what _is _this? Who-"

She bent back over the bucket, retching, groaning, and grasping at the metal bucket, and then Duke watched, amazed.

Gobsmacked.

Completely sure that even if the Boss had entered his mind, he would have found nothing, so shocked and consumed was he by the sight in front of him.

It was _not _Eris that surprised him. She was still hunched over the bucket, trying to get rid of whatever feeling was plaguing her horribly tortured being.

It was _HIM._

He…

He sank to the floor.

He turned around so that he was facing Duke and the exit to her office. He let His robes touch the floor.

He…

He sat with her. His back was against the tastefully wallpapered wall of her tiny, overstuffed office. He reached out one of His hands and…

He rubbed her back. She was stunned by this too, if the short pause in her retching was anything to go by, but she soon found more to throw up.

Duke backed up again. He hadn't thought that Deities – or, such an _important _Deity – could do such a… _mortal_ thing.

He took a deep breath.

"They are called many things, by the mortals. Reformations. Schisms. Disagreements. Realignments. Reawakenings. We Deities, however…"

"This is your first Break."

He probably thought – or maybe he'd looked in her mind and he _knew _– that she didn't understand, so He continued speaking. "It almost always happens. Either the number of your followers grows large enough, or technology advances, or some landmark historical event occurs or is reinterpretted. There are dozens of reasons, but…"

He sighed, and Duke took another step back. His eyes were-

"You are young, only a few thousand years old, and even though I am trillions of years old, I still remember my first…"

She was able to stop it long enough to send an angry glare at Him, and He sighed as He wiped His eyes. "Ah, I suppose I am rabbling, as always…"

"Your _followers_, Eris. Both Heaven and you yourself gain power from them, from their faith, and you return to them bonuses. You are a fairly simple Goddess – Fortune and Luck are always popular, and very few can argue that either is a bad thing."

He gave the back of her head a joyless smile. "Just as us Gods and Goddesses, mortals will quarrel over anything. Your followers are arguing over some aspect of the religion that worships you."

He leaned back against the wall, looking into the distance. "Maybe it is whether you are a single aspect or three. Maybe they believe your Cult is corrupted by those that seek to advance their ambitions instead of the faith."

He shook His head. "Maybe some Queen has declared herself the head of the religion so she can remarry. Regardless, this _will not_ stop until they resolve the conflict."

She looked up again. "Please don't-"

She bent down again, and He smirked at her back. "Say something so ominous? I'm sorry, but this is _not _going to be fun."

He rested His head on the wall. "At best, this will die out. The Priests or commoners attempting to incite change will fail or succeed quickly, leaving you altered very minimally."

"If this results in an offshoot of your religion, you'll likely have a bit more work to do when managing two branches, but you'll again remain mostly unchanged."

He sighed, continuing to rub circles into her back. "At worst… at worst, if the grievances go unresolved for too long, or if an offshoot is too radical…"

He sighed again. "Your very being might be split in two. I am very, _very_ lucky to not have ever had this happen to me, with the hundreds of thousands of Breaks I have felt, but far, _far _too many of us have been split. I pray that you will have a fast recovery, but that is all I can do."

She began to shake as she was retching, and He just… continued to pat her back. "I am sorry. You will have to contact your Most Faithful if you wish to take a more active approach than waiting it out."

"I am sorry."

Duke felt his wings nearly wilt as tears began to mix with the rainbow colors spewing from her mouth. He-

"You! Go find some work to do!"

Duke stiffened his posture, nodded, and flew away without sparing either of them a look.

No.

_No._

No, even if… even if the Deities could show emotion and empathy, it was _not_ towards the Angels.

No one cared about them much. They did so much work behind the scenes, and they never got _any _thanks for it.

Though… maybe he would complain less about Eris. He couldn't imagine what she was going through, but he was sure it exceeded any pain Duke had been forced to feel.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **So.

Uh… Yeah. I promised to upload once a week and stuff and… well, isekai quartet season 2 came out and…

Oh, whatever. I'm sorry for the wait, but this is a _very _big chapter, so I hope that makes up for it. Anyway…

Alderp gets some time in the spotlight, Tanya and Viktoriya finish mending quarrels caused by the dress and their disagreement, they grow closer to Iris and Lorelei, they murder a couple of jerks who deserve it without realizing that that will have repercussions, and humor is sprinkled throughout. Fun times, right?

Also, Eris is not feeling too hot. Perhaps I've hidden a hint as to what's happening in a chapter between 19 and 21? I don't know. (I do know)

**A/N 2: **If you're interested in what's been going on with Eris, by the way, you should check out Charming Omakes. It's got some info on what she's been up to while Tanya has been running around and slowly growing more unlucky.

On that note, check out some of the other stuff I've posted, too. I might update something soon ;)

**A/N 3: **OH! And for those of you that might care, these 26 chapters take up 563 pages in Google Docs, and I had to make a second document in order to contain it. Neat, huh?

**A/N 4: **Responses to reviews on this website.

**Amatsumi: **Got what you wanted, huh?

**Pyromania101: **In a move that will probably upset many… I reveal that I have only watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail… a few years ago. So: your joke(?) is probably funny, but I am uneducated and don't get the joke XP

**YuukiAsuna-Chan: **As has been stated, with the relative 'ease' of Belzerg's war compared to the Empire's, Tanya and Viktoriya are have the time and energy to worry about other things than trying not to die in any number of ways. Plus, the thing Tanya won't talk about forced her to become more aware of her being a girl.

Also… this website doesn't like it when you put links into your text, but if I search it with google…

Well, I _think _I found it in a thread about IQ, and it looks like it's probably something about guns and size comparisons. As for addressing your question more directly…

The answer… is *CAR HONKING LOUDLY*

Huh? Hey, wait, it's *BASS BOOSTED VERSION OF THE LAUGH TRACK FROM SEINFELD*

Well, I guess I can't tell you. You'll have to wait and find out.

**Honest Lunar Raven: **Thank you! :)

**SoleReclaimer: **Yeah! I thought it would be interesting if Tanya caused the Elroad incident to happen early.

**GrumpyGrue:**

CH 003 Comment: Then you'll probably be happy with this!

CH 011 Comment: I thought it was fitting too.

CH 016 Comment:If you're interested, Chris's party members get their just-desserts in the Omake Companion series.

**LuciusRedhand: **I _know _what I said, but…

Well, as I said above, Isekai Quartet Season 2 came out, and I didn't have an Omake prepared to celebrate that fact…

But! I did upload this, and I've (probably) got something else, so… balance restored?

Regardless, thank you for the encouragement.

**Silly Thoughts:**

CH 001 Comment: Yeah, I wouldn't deprive Aqua of Kazuma, and, more importantly, if Tanya _had _chosen Aqua, she would only get Aqua for the week she put up with her (nonexistent) standards and belly-aching.

CH 002 Comment: Have you been reading ahead?

**NoXVZhuusox: **His name was first given at the end of chapter 13, and he's one of the reincarnates that Tanya takes care of during the 3-week intermission.

**Shade E. Midnight: **Firstly, thank you for the praise. It's… well, not to sound too sappy, but heartwarming to find that people genuinely like what I have to write.

And secondly… yeah, Konosuba _is _really goofy, especially at the beginning. I could hardly actually read the first Light Novels because it was lots of magic and insults and humor and not much else. While I do want a bit of mindless reading sometimes, it did get a bit… overbearing, sometimes.

But the later parts of it – at least, the Light Novels – might surprise you. There's less goofiness and more meaningful interactions going on with the Demon King approaching and a continued development of their relationships… though it _also _starts to teeter towards filler more than once. If the anime actually ever gets to the later Light Novels – hopefully before the sun expands and destroys the planet, but who knows – I'm sure I'll like it more than the first seasons.

**Starlight Naruru: **I haven't actually decided how much she'll change her appearance, though Meliodas is a great reference.

It'll probably depend on what I'm feeling when I get there and how much hilarity would ensue if some wack-ass Japanese dude started claimed to have been a small European girl a week earlier versus if Tanya just started using male pronouns and absolutely nobody questioned it out of fear for a reprisal.

And, though it was a bit late, I'd like to thank **Imperial warlord**, **simple405**, **Sprengkamp**, **Haloman6494**, **reihangima**, and everyone else who continues to support my work (despite the upload schedule).


	27. A Prince and a Quest

Tanya grinned.

It was just a little bit forced – she was, after all, being forced to meet some snot-nosed brat, if Claire's words to be trusted – but she _didn't _have to wear a dress.

She had insisted that, seeing as they were there as _bodyguards _and that wearing something frilly – and wholly unnecessary in Tanya's unshared opinion – would be disadvantageous, if a fight were to break out.

Iris had claimed that a fight _wouldn't _break out, and Tanya had asked her if it was impossible. She hadn't answered immediately, and Tanya took that bit of leeway and took it as far as she thought possible.

Viktoriya, too, was wearing her regular ensemble, and Tanya smiled genuinely at the happy and curious expression she wore as she looked around while they walked towards the castle in this capital.

It was nice to see that she could be so upbeat despite having to do this job.

Lorelei, unfortunately, wasn't there. She'd asked to go exploring the city and sell all the monster parts they'd accumulated, and Tanya wasn't going to insist that she attend this meeting with them if she didn't want to.

There was probably a limit to how high Iris's blood pressure could go without dangerous medical repercussions, and Tanya wasn't sure it could survive much more after seeing the confused and indignant expression she'd worn when she'd exited her room to see Lorelei come out of one room and the two of them come out of the other.

Now, however, after some of Viktoriya's coffee and a walk through the city, the Princess seemed much calmer. A bit frazzled, but nothing more than that.

Tanya shook her head and turned towards the looming castle. Where Belzerg's capital and castle had been built to withstand - very common – sieges, this one seemed to be built to show off its wealth.

It was taller than any other building Tanya had seen, and had more flags, paint, and glass than she thought could have been possible in this time period.

Tanya gazed at it dispassionately. Sure, it looked a bit nicer, but it also looked like an even _easier _target than the one in Belzerg's capital.

With how destructive magic could be, it was a wonder that the Demon King hadn't simply gathered a bunch of Mages together, trained them to use destructive spells, and then blown away the castle… and everything else in his path.

They reached the gates. Tanya looked around and found that no one was there to open them. She shrugged; if they wanted to insult them, then she had no problems getting revenge, if need be.

Iris stepped towards the gates, staring through them. "This might be my first meeting with the Prince, but I don't really feel that nervous because of you two. Thank you both."

Tanya shrugged. "It's no problem, Iris. I-"

"Geez, this is why Belzerg is so barba- I mean, making a fuss in front of a castle? Do you even know what etiquette is?"

Tanya gazed at the boy that had come out of the doors of the castle. He was taller than her – which was not exactly a hard achievement to acquire – he had a mane of red hair on top of his head, and he wore a small, golden crown that looked to be a bit uncomfortably small.

Freckles dotted his face, and a shrill, tiny voice exited his mouth.

There was, however, something odd shining in his eyes. Tanya peered closely towards the distant figure and his surrounding entourage, gauged their stiff statures and the way that he had more guards surrounding them than Tanya had seen in the rest of the capital so far, and judged that he was scared.

Tanya was unimpressed by his retinue. "I don't think _you _have any, considering you felt it was proper to point that out blatantly instead of, at least, subtly weaving it into conversation. Also, you used the word 'geez' when talking to a foreign delegation, so I'm surprised you can even pronounce the _word _etiquette."

Tanya felt both Iris and Viktoriya stiffen next to her, but before the Prince's face could get as red as his hair or Tanya could continue to insult him, Iris stepped forward, making her introduction.

Tanya tuned her out. Really, it felt kind of… _mean _to be bullying children that hadn't even hit puberty yet. Sure, she had killed… _many _people, but at least her usual opponents were somewhat aware of what they were dealing with.

Everyone around her right now hadn't the faintest idea of what she was. Besides Viktoriya.

"Are you the first prince of Elroad, Revi? I am the first Princess of Belzerg, Iris. I came all the way here to see you, so I'm happy that we were able to meet today." Iris spoke clearly, with a small, unassuming smile on her face and a voice that was mature for her age.

She bowed deeply, letting her hair fall from her shoulders and hang down.

"So, you're my fiancé? Although I heard that all the children from your family are militant muscle-for-brains, you look pretty pathetic. I thought I would see something cool today, but I guess not…"

He pointed down at Iris, only barely not glaring. "And so few bodyguards… instead of training your muscles so that you might look strong, maybe you all should train your minds to try and earn some money?"

He began laughing, and his retainers followed his lead. Iris was beginning to look pretty lost, and Tanya glared at the brat.

No one was actually stupid enough to insult someone so close to the power of another nation just because of how they looked, which meant he wanted an angry reaction out of them.

His laughter petered off, and he stepped a bit closer. The knights around him moved, as did his retainers. He pointed a finger at Tanya. "Your twin looks like she might be a bit stronger, even if the clothing she's wearing is complete trash," he said, turning to Viktoriya.

"It goes without saying that _she's _deplorable," he said with a flippant wave of his hand sneer.

He began to laugh again, and Tanya narrowed her gaze.

She heard Viktoriya make a sound that seemed like a groan, but she put it out of her mind. There was no reason for her to feel upset enough to groan; not as soon as Tanya talked a bit of… _sense _into the brat.

Smiling sweetly, she said, "Aren't you going to let us in, Prince Revi?"

The laughter stopped, and he raised an eyebrow. "I don't see why. If you all can't even open a gate, then-"

Taking his lackluster response as permission, Tanya cut him off by pumping mana into the Type 97, ignoring Viktoriya's whispered pleas to ignore him, and ripping through the chain holding the fence gate together.

Then, instead of _opening _the gate, she pushed the left gate inwards, into its hinges, bending bars of steel and making an opening. Then, she did the same to the right side, stepped through the hole, and bent at the waist, holding her hand out to her side to invite the Princess inside as if she were a menial servant.

Tanya wasn't looking, but she was sure that the Prince was reevaluating his maneuver to get them enraged.

Before he could open his mouth again, Tanya spoke. "Perhaps you should invite us inside the castle? I'm sure that we could stand here all day, but I think that your tiny heart might give out before the three of us so much as sweat."

An expression of rage surface, but he suppressed it quickly, gesturing to one of his retainers. "You will be invited inside, of course, but considering the… suspicious circumstances of our Prime Minister's death, we insist that you leave your weapons here."

All three of them strode forward. Tanya went first, took the bayonet off her rifle, and took off her gloves. Revi looked amused, but the knives that poured from them quickly washed that expression from his face.

Tanya stepped forward, but the knights stopped her. "What is that?"

Tana didn't even have to look at what they were pointing at. "It's a… staff," she finally said.

In this place, a long stick that channeled mana was called a staff, not a scepter like in her second world. She might as well settle into the change.

That didn't mean she was going to tell them it's real function, and if they assumed that is was _just _a staff, then it was there fault for not getting more information.

The knight turned a bit red. "I said all weapons-"

"Look, taking away the staff isn't going to impact my ability to do magic much," she said frankly. Tanya saw an eye twitch through the face guard, but he waved her through angrily.

Viktoriya came next, and she did as Tanya had, taking the bayonet off her rifle and taking the knives out of her gloves. Unlike Tanya, she also took a few she had stashed in her coat out, though Tanya attributed that to a mix of her preferring shorter gloves and still wanting to be as prepared as Tanya was.

Iris was last, and she took the shortest time, considering she had no weapons on her. Tanya nodded approvingly; even if she was powerful, _they _were supposed to be guarding _her_, and Tanya was sure that it would reflect badly on them if the Princess had more weapons than they did. Or any weapons at all, really.

Finally, they were inside. Just like the outside, there was opulent wealth everywhere, coating every surface, blinding everyone with working eyeballs and curing the blind thanks to how _shiny _everything was.

While Tanya might have thought that the last castle didn't have nearly enough art with how much it looked like a museum, this one seemed to be completely barren regarding anything that resembled security. Open windows, lots of area for invaders to overrun choke points…

Tanya wouldn't want to defend this place in any way, and she wondered how they planned to defend from the Demon King if he overran Belzerg because they wouldn't pay their dues.

Unless…

Contemplating the merit of the idea that had just come to her, they were dragged through the entryway and into a small antechamber with enough room for all of them. It was…

Well, it might _barely _constitute as a party.

There was certainly _food_, but Tanya had seen better fare in the one the Succubi had thrown her, and they didn't have the vast resources of an entire nation behind them.

The furniture and lighting were also _present_, but it seemed that it was intermittent, casting areas into shadow. With how open the other rooms had been, this one was surprisingly closed off.

Everyone sat down, and Tanya sighed at the hostile looks Iris was being sent. It wasn't like she'd done anything to offend them…

Tanya blanched a bit as she sat down. Right.

'Iris' definitely might have offended them by berating their Prime Minister, and Iris would be hard pressed to emulate what Tanya had said about economics if pressed to.

A bead of sweat formed on her forehead. What had those been thinking sticking her with duties so important, and why had she thought it would be a good idea to insult their Prime Minister as revenge?

Things were quiet for a moment, and then Tanya stood. She might as well act as an icebreaker, and she hoped it was some consolation to Iris.

"Seeing as you all are so… _very _warm, I suppose I'll get introductions out of the way. My name is Tanya von Degurechaff, and I'm a simple adventurer."

She sat down again, now followed by scrutinizing gazes. She had been faced with worse in her last life, though, so she didn't panic.

Revi scoffed. "A bold-faced lie. There's no way you two just happen to look so similar."

Tanya shrugged helplessly, wishing that she could shout 'You're right, not-god Being X did this!' and knowing that she'd probably get tossed in the looney bin by Revi and broken out by Viktoriya.

Speaking of who…

"I am Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, friend of Tanya and also an adventurer," she also said this, bowing down and sitting quickly. Revi rolled his eyes, and Tanya narrowed hers.

He turned to one of his retainers. "Should I be worried about her?" he asked, whispering loudly.

Tanya raised an eyebrow, wondering just what he hoped to accomplish by making them so mad, unless they had a death wish.

From the way Tanya was gripping the table, they were certainly headed that way.

They shook their heads. "No. She's probably some kind of pack mule, considering how ugly she is."

_Crack_.

All of them looked towards Tanya, and she dusted off her hands, smiling apologetically. "I apologize for that. It seems that I don't often realize my own strength."

She ignored the look Viktoriya was sending her, because they _both _knew that Tanya knew exactly how much mana she needed to pump into her Type 97 in order to crack tabletops, wooden or otherwise.

She'd pulled the stunt a couple times near the end of the war when no one had believed her when she remembered a few wisps of information from her old world's history classes that involved Germany during the World Wars.

The General Staff had quickly changed their decisions whenever she did that to… highlight the infallibility of her logic.

Revi cleared his throat, and as one, they began to dig into the food. As expected, it was… food. Not particularly bad, but Tanya could probably make something just as good, if not better.

Considering her culinary skills hadn't been trained like the ones the chefs in the castle certainly had – she'd picked hers up second hand to make rations, of all things – that fact was concerning.

Through all the lunch, Revi only spoke in low tones to the people around him.

Nothing but disparaging comments about Iris and Belzerg flowed from him, but the few times that Iris had tried to bravely ask about the insults, his retainers wrote off her concerns as her not hearing correctly.

Halfway through the meal, a man burst in, bowed to the Prince, and sat down next to Tanya. He spoke to them briefly, apologizing for the 'aide' that had been sent in his absence, and then ate a small portion of food.

Tanya rolled her eyes as lunch ended.

An utterly baffling attempt at deflecting blame. Who would hire a Prime Minister that let his subordinates to claim to be him? Perhaps he was trying to insult their intelligence for not realizing something so obvious?

They finished their meager fare soon enough, and Iris began the main topic of this meeting. "Prince Revi, I was wondering if you would consider-"

"No. I have no need to speak to the barbaric Princess of Belzerg about something that has already been decided," he said, stiffly frowning. Slowly, the conversation that had been going on between his retainers quieted, and all attention was on him, the Prime Minister, and the three delegates from Belzerg.

Tanya suppressed the urge to glower at him, and then she suppressed the urge to sigh. She had seen the lack of defenses in the castle and in the town, and if they planned to stop providing defense funding and risk Belzerg falling, then…

"You see, my nation has no intention of opposing the Demon King's army. Thus, if we support you, we'll be opposing them," he said simply. Tanya sighed as Iris began to stutter.

She couldn't blame them.

Oh, she might be warming up to Iris personally, but she had no doubt that, if she needed to secure her and Viktoriya's safety among the ranks of the side that would win, she'd do what Elroad was doing.

Getting that wish would be nice, but surviving was more important than that. If Belzerg fell and she was on their side, she might get targeted by the victorious Demon King because of her association with them.

Iris finished stuttering out a confused reply, and the Prince shrugged noncommittally. "We have our own circumstances that supersede the alliance. We need all the extra cash we can get, and we don't want to incite the wrath of the Demon King's army. Also, while we're at it, let's dissolve our engagement. It was decided by my… _parents_, and I don't want to marry the barbaric, Orc-like Belzerg Princess."

Iris's face fell, and Tanya raised an eyebrow, wondering if the kid had even _seen _an Orc.

She wouldn't bet on it.

He added, almost under his breath, "When I found out that the ladies were stronger than the men, I decided that there was no way I would marry you."

Tanya looked to Iris, wondering if she would be upset. For a moment and no longer, it seemed she was happy.

Truly happy.

Tanya could relate a little bit. She shuddered to think of how she would feel if she were forced to marry someone she didn't want to, especially considering how she would be marrying a woman zero times out of a hundred.

Tanya stood, shaking her head. Iris had also stood, but Tanya began to talk as the Princess made her way towards the Prince.

"Honestly, Prince Revi considering…" Tanya trailed off, gesturing with a hand towards his general direction, "_you_… I would be surprised if you were _ever_ able to find a woman that _wasn't_ stronger than you."

The Prime Minister next to her seemed to be choking on something – Tanya couldn't _possibly _imagine what it could be – but before she was reprimanded, Iris gripped the front of the Prince's clothing.

"I don't care in the slightest about the marriage, but as for your complete refusal to support us…!" she trailed off, pouting and sniffling slightly.

He scoffed, whatever anger he felt towards Tanya and her insult momentarily forgotten. "The answer is _no_, and if you consider yourself a member of the royalty, then…" he trailed off.

Unlike Iris, he wasn't making a cute expression in an attempt to convince her, but one of panic as Iris's grip on his shirt tightened and she began to move him about.

The retainers quickly moved into action, prying her off. The knights moved to surround him as he recovered, a genuinely fearful expression on his face.

He began to speak again as Iris let her gaze fall to the ground, his earlier superiority gone. "What a barbaric girl! I _was _right to dissolve this engagement. Since you've said your piece, scram! And don't come back!"

Before Tanya could insult him again or attempt to get that dissolution in writing as a part of her deal with Claire, and before Viktoriya could move to stop Tanya from doing either of those things while tension still riddled the air, Iris sighed dejectedly.

"…I understand."

His distrustful expression faded a bit, and as he opened his mouth to say something, no doubt some platitude about being relieved, but Iris interrupted him.

"I'll come back tomorrow."

He seemed to jolt violently, but Iris puffed out her chest. "Yes. I'll come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. I'll come back until I receive the support that we need!"

He glowered at her, and as she left the room, hastily followed by Tanya, Viktoriya, and everyone else, he began to shout after her. "F- Fine! Come back! You'll never receive that funding. A- And… don't bring both of them! Leave your twin home!"

She crashed through the front doors as he spoke and stepped through the hole that Tanya had made in the iron fence. Viktoriya hastily followed her, the weapons she and Tanya had given to one of the members of the Prince's staff in hand, but Tanya turned back around.

"Just to confirm, do you have that marriage dissolution in writing? There are interested parties in our capital," she said.

He glared at her, but he gestured to one of his retainers. They stepped forward, thrust a hand into a bag at their side, and withdrew a sheaf of paper.

"You'll find that the last shipment of money we sent was larger than others due to the annulment money we attached to it. You accepted, so the marriage is void," he said briskly.

Tanya turned to him an eyebrow raised. "Do you really think Belzerg's royalty will accept that?"

He blinked owlishly, and Tanya grinned. "Look, I respect you for your decision to keep your nation out of this senseless waste of a war, but I think I should warn you that, while Belzerg is distracted by the Demon King's army _now_, they might not always be. When they aren't, what do you think a nation as militarized as Belzerg will do with you stealing their money?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, sounding genuinely hesitant and unknowing instead of his insulting comments from earlier. Tanya rolled her eyes.

"A lot of that money you send us is the taxes we want to collect from our nobles. We can always ban them from travelling here and tell them to make do with casinos in other nations, if you won't be helpful."

He seemed shaken for a moment, but he rolled his eyes back at her. "We'll cut off trade. We have resources that you need."

Tanya just smirked. "You all are going through a recession, apparently. If you cut off trade, you'll be hurting yourself more than anyone. We'll just start trading with other nations. You don't exactly have many trade partners to go to, and with how… _inexperienced_ your Prime Minister seemed last night, I doubt you have the knowledge of how to figure a way out."

"Of course," she added as she walked down the steps towards the gate, "Things don't have to be like this. Elroad and Belzerg apparently have a very good relationship. You don't have to throw that away on the bet that we'll suddenly lose a war that's been going on for over thirty years."

With that, she left, leaving behind an intimidated Prince and his retainers.

She was patting herself on the back. She had accomplished her auxiliary goal already, and Iris's insistence on coming back meant that she could try and use her economic knowledge to improve relations enough to achieve her main goal.

Suddenly, just as stepped through the gate, he called after her. "Ignore my order about not coming here."

She glanced back at him, staring at the Prince's rather… unreadable expression. She shook her head as she turned back around, supposing that that would help her get into a position to negotiate.

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed as they walked towards the castle once more. Iris had been insistent that they leave the first thing in the morning, meaning that Tanya had no time to look through Viktoriya's things for that diary.

As it was, she hadn't had a chance to find it, even during the girl's ten-minute-long shower. That meant she probably had it on her body, or that she had hidden it in the room somewhere.

Tanya had been tempted to ask Lorelei to look for it while they were gone, but she wasn't confident that she would keep Tanya's request to herself. Maybe if she promised her that she'd forget about training her as hard as she could…

She shook her head as she trailed behind the other two, wondering why she was going along with this whole parade.

Then she remembered. She would be getting a house and money if she did this. Somewhere to make as many weapons and bullets and munitions as she wanted without oversight.

Steeling her nerves, she walked forwards and with the other two as they walked through the gate. The Prince was standing in front of the castle with several of his knights around him, ever vigilant.

She wondered if the old Prime Minister's death had shaken him that badly. The guards didn't look especially sure of themselves like the ones around the Princess had been back in Belzerg…

His regular arrogant smirk was back in full force, and he gestured to a side path around the side of the castle. They followed the path, and soon found themselves in a courtyard of sorts, surrounded by knights and adventurers that looked… hardy.

Iris's eyes lit up, and Tanya supposed that she was probably happy to wear her armor and bring her weapon today. She had argued to Tanya that the Prince, known for his love of gambling, might ask them to do some menial task for them.

She had seemed to be rather sure of it, and Tanya was tempted to force the information as to _how _she knew out of her, seeing as she was right.

She'd stayed her hand, however, and simply accepted her words. She was, after all, the Princess, and as a bodyguard, it was logical that she be allowed to be more prepared.

Revi grinned at them as if twenty knights – who were likely of poor quality, considering the rumors about this nation's military… _prowess_ – and a few adventurers that looked weaker than some in Axel were anything to get worried about.

Tanya raised an eyebrow as Iris drew her blade. The Prince began to monologue. "I thought that our negotiations were over, but you guys said you wanted to continue, and…" he trailed off, sending a glance towards Tanya. She raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway. I like interesting things, so if you win against these elite forces, I'll listen to what you have to say."

Iris grinned and leveled her sword at them. Tanya felt something begin to lightly singe her chest and, she cursed the stupid contract.

Or, the _newest _stupid contract.

She stepped forward. "Allow me, Princess Iris." She drew her rifle from her back, and smirked at the knights, who began to look a lot less sure of themselves at Tanya's expression.

Iris made to protest, but Tanya shook her head. "The contract your retainers put me under asks me to make sure you don't suffer unnecessary harm."

She seemed conflicted, but she sighed and backed away. Revi grinned, and his knights began to quarrel about who went first. Tanya rolled her eyes and turned to the Prince.

"Hey, these guys all seem like weak trash, so how about I fight all of them at once, and in return, you discuss – not _ignore _– Iris's proposals in the meantime?"

The knights began to back up a bit, but Revi rolled his eyes.

"To think that you are so arrogant…" he trailed off.

Tanya smirked as she began to approach them, slowly, deliberately, placing a hand behind her back. "_My_ 'arrogance' is justified by my strength, abilities, and mental fortitude. What excuse do _you _have?"

With that, she jumped forward, slicing into the leg of the closest man. He screamed in pain, but Tanya ignored the grating sound, pumping more mana into her Type 97 and pivoting towards the next man.

That's how it went. Her speed, increased with a Reinforcement spell, outmatched the knights. She had incapacitated them quickly, and she was left with the adventurers.

They seemed slightly more capable, if drenched in fear. She craned her neck towards the Prince, who was staring in awe.

She gave him one of her most terrifying smiles. "I'm not hearing a lot of discussion!" she sang.

She turned back to her opponents to find that one had shot an arrow at her, while two were advancing on her with swords. A Mage was in the back, chanting softly.

Tanya smiled, and relaxed her stance as their attacks came forward.

The arrow – easily rebuffed by a second of her Active Barrier, which could be mistaken for a trick of the light.

Both swinging swords – similarly ignored as she ducked underneath them with the help of her Reinforcement Spells.

The Mage – quickly incapacitated by a muttered 'Sleep.'

The other three looked at her in shock as their Mage fell to the ground, and she took advantage of that, slicing through the legs of both vanguards. They collapsed, and she took a single step towards the Archer.

He dropped to the ground voluntarily, tossing his bow towards her, and Tanya surveyed her work.

She extended a hand. "Heal."

Immediately, the groans faded, and Revi's discussion was interrupted again. Iris, too, seemed stupefied, while Viktoriya was smiling at her. Tanya bowed at the waist, and then walked towards them.

"You… are a Priest?"

She groaned. "No. I'm an Adventurer," she said, noting that all the downed men seemed to be in denial.

Revi walked towards the scattered men, ignoring the quiet protests of his entourage, a look of fear on his face as he glanced back towards them. He hung his head.

"Fine. I'll listen to you. How about… one-tenth?" he suggested.

Tanya ignored the look on Iris's face and stepped forward. "How about you give us more? How about… twenty?"

His fear forgotten, he glared at her. "No! While it would be a problem if we cut support all at once, you'll have to work harder for more!"

Tanya rolled her eyes, gazing into his blue ones. "It's called negotiation…" she said, trailing off. She sighed for what felt like the millionth time.

It seemed like she would have to do all of the negotiating on behalf of the inexperienced Prince.

"Fine. You seem to be interested in bets, right? If we win a game, you give us twenty percent. If we lose, then you give us ten percent," she offered.

"…What will the game be?" he asked with trepidation on his face and greed in his eyes. Tanya gestured to Viktoriya, who looked surprised to be called upon all of a sudden.

Tanya pulled a bullet out of a pocket in her bandolier. "If you can guess where she puts this, then you win."

He glared at the three of them. "I feel like I'm being manipulated…"

"Congratulations," she said as she layered as much sarcasm as she could into her voice, "you aren't _completely _brain dead."

His face grew red, and he drew himself up to his full height. Not particularly intimidating considering Tanya had hung out with Lorelei, Viktoriya, and the members of the 203rd for a long while, but he was taller than she was.

How adorable.

"How about the support funding goes to zero if you lose once? I followed through your selfish desire to continue 'negotiations' despite the risk, so I need to be reimbursed for my time."

"How much could _you _be doing? You're twelve, and your parents don't have the convenient excuse of fighting a war to distract them from running the country," she replied.

His face fell, and Tanya kept her face passive as a kernel of guilt bloomed at his dejection. She wasn't going to feel guilty for this arrogant toe-rag, especially since he could easily be faking it.

He closed his eyes and turned his face away. "If you continue this, then those will be the rules. Knowing my Luck, will you continue?"

Tanya smirked. People who believed that something as variable as Luck would stick with them forever were bound to get played by people smarter than they were.

Tanya was happy to be the one to introduce the sore loser to the concept.

"Fine."

She turned away, turning to Viktoriya and holding out the cartridge.

Since Luck was a measurable quantity here with a 'goddess' to boot, trusting in it was probably possible, for a little while. Viktoriya's Luck stat was much higher, and her's would hopefully offset Tanya's own terrible Luck.

"_Hide this somewhere other than your hands, and then hold out your hands like you have it in one of them_."

It took a moment, but the understanding and scheming expression that made its way onto her face filled Tanya with pride.

Tanya turned around, stepped away from Viktoriya, and gestured towards her adjunct. "Where is the cartridge hidden?"

Needless to say, the anguished screams that echoed from him were music to their ears.

-OxOxO-

And that was how the next two days passed. Tanya would search the room and Viktoriya's bags for the diary, consider bringing in Lorelei, have a quick breakfast, walk to the castle, and beat both of his challenges.

They'd had lunch with him as well, and then they'd leave, a promise to come back to beat him lighting his face up like a stop sign.

Then, they'd spend the rest of the day having fun in the town. Tanya had already found a location where she thought the Succubi would appreciate setting up another branch of both _their _shop and the Mithril Foundation, with how many people seemed to have fallen on economic hardship here.

Viktoriya had gone to the casinos with Iris once or twice, and after an attempt by the owner of one of them to get them to leave with hired thugs, Tanya had tried to fuss over her. The woman had shrugged off her worries.

They'd have dinner, go to bed, and be ready for the next day.

Unfortunately, Tanya's luck ran out on the third day. Honestly, she was relieved that it had held up that long, considering there was a so-called deity that ruled luck here.

Revi was in the middle of choosing one of her hands, when a light bulb seemed to have gone off in his head.

Or perhaps, saying a candle had ignited was more apt, considering the time period and person in question.

He glared at Tanya. "You… you tricked me!"

Tanya smirked at him, rapidly trying to come up with another idea to get the money. "What are you talking about? I asked you to find the cartridge. You haven't found it."

He bared his teeth at her. "Oh, it was a cunning trap, I'll give you that, but it could be anywhere on her body, not just in her hands!"

Tanya shrugged. "So? You assumed that it was in her hands. It isn't my fault you're tricked so easily."

He clenched his hands together, and Tanya felt Iris pull at Tanya's sleeve. She ignored the girl.

"As a member of royalty, do you have no honor?" he bit out.

Tanya laughed at him. "I am not a royal. I'm not even a noble. I was raised in an orphanage, joined the army, and I rose through the ranks through my hard work, not because my parents could just throw money at my superiors and get them to push me through the rules."

He sent one last glare at her, and then he turned away. "You will get eighty percent of the defense funding, and not an Eris more. Not unless you play _my_ games."

He stated it with a certainty that Tanya didn't think the tyke had had in him, but his muttered afterthought raised warning flags. "It was the plans of the Prime Minister that called for us to cut off support, after all…"

She scoffed at him. "_Why_ are you so set on carrying out the wishes of a dead man? He was the Prime Minister _then_, not now. Is it really so hard to find someone competent?" she asked.

She was aware that it was just a little bit hypocritical, considering she had left instructions for Weiss and the surviving members of the 203rd, but she had planned for her possible death.

She doubted this man had done the same.

He did have Belzerg between him and the Demon King, after all. What did he have to fear?

His anger seemed to grow. "Why…? He was the most able man ever put into office in this nation! He was completely incorruptible, he had _no _interest in gambling, and his knowledge of politics, economics, and anything else that could be expected of a perfect statesman were near _limitless_. His argument as to why we should leave Belzerg and stop antagonizing the Demon King, if not join him, was sound and appealing," he explained.

His head sunk. "Plus, while I don't think he ever considered me anything more than an annoyance that he had to go through for permission, I felt a sort of… camaraderie with the man," he mumbled. Tanya nodded to herself.

"What was his reasoning on abandoning… us?" she asked, wondering if she would find any more reasons that one in her position might use to justify breaking a contract.

"You guys haven't won in over thirty years, and that was _with _the support of Elroad, the successor states of Norse, the free cities in the south, and every other nation around you. If we stop supporting you, you'll probably lose. If we keep supporting you, we'll only drain our resources more. It's better to roll over and submit," he said tiredly.

The guards around him seemed to wilt a bit at that.

Iris mirrored her former betrothed, but Tanya just shook her head. There was some justification, but…

"What makes you think the Demon King will forgive you for thirty years of helping his enemy? He could easily come here and put a puppet in your place if he won," she pointed out.

Viktoriya nodded to her left. "That's right! He'll sweep in here after your former friends have lost and do whatever he wants with the population! Do you care so little for your people that you'd hand them over just because your finances are strained?"

He glared at her, angrily muttered, "_Strained_ is an understatement…" and then took a calming breath.

He looked up, glaring at Iris. "While Ragcraft was sparse about the details, the journal he left at the scene of his _murder _told us that the Demon King wasn't nearly as bad as people think he is."

He probably expected them all to be shocked by the accusation of murder, but Tanya was frozen for a different reason.

She brought a hand to her face, attempting to conceal the realization that she had just had.

Ragcraft?

As in, the doppelganger of the Demon King?

One of his most trusted informants?

The guy she'd sat near while talking with Verdia, the Dullahan of the Demon King?

_That_ Ragcraft?

She cleared her throat. Maybe it was just a common name, like Johann or Kaito. "This Prime Minister… how long had he been such?"

Revi shrugged. "He had only been the Prime Minister for five years, but he had been in various departments of our administration for a total of thirty years, slowly climbing the ranks and showing his worth compared to the _vast majority_ of our nobility that is _obsessed _with gambling."

Tanya nodded along, internally cackling and crying. If nothing else, she could reveal Ragcraft's true allegiance to the twerp to put him off balance and use the information – and the fact that only Darkness was aware of it – to blackmail him.

She did, however, want to preserve the peace a bit, so she'd use it as a last, final resort, if he wouldn't listen to her reasoning.

The Prince continued. "We might be having a bit of trouble contacting the Demon King due to our… subpar replacements, but Ragcraft brought us splendor and stability, both things we're lacking now."

Before Tanya could interrupt, Iris sighed dejectedly. "I… understand."

This time, Revi didn't sigh in relief. Apparently, he was right to hold his breath. Iris stepped forward again, bringing her close to the boy.

"Since the founding of the Kingdom of Belzerg, we have often been financially unstable. Whenever we have needed more money, or we needed to accomplish something of great importance to cement the alliance between our nations, we have come here with an offer."

She put her hands on her hips and loudly declared, "Tell me about the most troubling monster in the Kingdom. I will eradicate it without fail!"

She smiled happily, and everyone around her broke out into nervous muttering to shocked gasps. Tanya was closer to the last group and strode towards the Princess to make that known.

Viktoriya reached her first. "What are you doing? You know that Tanya and I will have to fight it, right?"

Iris's eyes widened, and Revi began to grow pale. "You… you say that you'll slay the mightiest, most dangerous monster in all of Elroad? Don't joke around!"

Tanya jumped in front of Iris. "No, _we'll_ have to fight it, because-"

Iris pulled on Tanya's mantle, and she whirled around.

The Princess tapped the tips of her fingers together and glanced at her, a sneaky expression masking her face.

"You know, since I _have _to do this to get the money, if I got hurt… it would be a _necessary _harm, right?"

Tanya blinked once. Huh.

She was pulling the trick Tanya had contemplated using on her when she'd ditched her to have fun with Viktoriya…

Tanya sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Fine. If you want to try, we can all fight it together."

Iris nodded, smiling again and looking back at Revi, whose face seemed to be attempting to compete in some kind of weird sport with how fast it was moving.

It seemed to settle for anger. "I don't care if you're volunteering! Despite your obvious flaws, we've had a few conversations, so it would leave a bad taste in my mouth if you died!" he screamed, red-faced.

Tanya rolled her eyes at his sentimentality. Obviously, he had probably gained an interest in Iris's fate, since they discussed topics of nobility over lunch and seemed to get on well. His comments about her being barbaric had become somewhat endearing in the past few days.

"I won't let her die. I'd probably get killed by the contract if I did that," Tanya said.

His right eye twitched, and he stepped towards Tanya. "Contract? What contract?"

"The one detailing how we're supposed to protect the Princess," Viktoriya said. Tanya nodded, and the Prince seemed to calm down.

"While the most powerful monster in Elroad is the Dragon in the gold mines towards the west, I still-"

He was interrupted by a loud cacophony of metal that began to sound from the inside of the castle. Revi's face began to sink with his heart, while Tanya and Viktoriya readied their rifles.

Slowly, knights began to pour out from the front gates, rounding the corner and forming up in front of the area where Revi had been bringing them. Iris placed a hand on her sword, and Tanya began to prepare the Type 97.

She hadn't thought he'd be stupid enough to try a trap, but-

His resigned voice echoed from behind them, practically reading her mind. "Stop. It's not a trap. It's…"

The knights began to part, and from in between them, two regal figures emerged.

Flaming hair as red as Revi's adorned the head of the woman, along with a small crown.

Freckles even more pronounced that the ones on Revi's face adorned the face of the man, while short blond locks drifted down passed his ears.

They screamed wealth. In fact, the gold chain around the man's neck literally said 'wealth' in this world's language. He had a bottle of… _something _alcoholic gripped in one hand, and a bag of money gripped in the other.

Despite how wealthy the pair looked, Tanya could sense a faint air of… apathy from them both.

They seemed annoyed by the presence of their knights, who had likely been stationed around them in response to Ragcraft's 'murder,' and their eyes seemed to glaze over Tanya, Viktoriya, and Iris in a moment. They did, however, settle on Revi, and Tanya saw greed come to life in their eyes.

"…my parents," Revi finished lamely.

His mother, who gazed around hungrily, clapped her hands together. "My son! How are you-"

Revi batted away the hands of his mother, shooting them both a dark glare. "Mother. Father. I'm in the middle of something."

The king stepped forward. "Now, now, son. That's no way to talk to your parents."

He rolled his eyes. "Let me guess: you both want more money?"

They nodded, apparently pleased with what seemed to be a rather rehearsed conclusion. He turned to one of his retainers, who, after a look of worry, handed the king a slip of paper. The rulers of Elroad grinned, and Revi waved them off.

"That's the combination to the vault. Take your allowance, and _nothing more_," he ordered, leveling an oddly knowing glare at them.

Seemingly unconcerned, they both bowed and made to retreat.

The king said one passing comment as he left. "I heard a bit of your conversation. Princess, you can go kill that annoying Dragon. It's decreasing our profits by occupying our mine, so I give you full authority as the King to do as you wish."

Her face lit up, and Revi's seemed to sink further into a mix of anger and worry. They left, and Tanya turned to Revi.

"How are _you _giving _them _an allowance?" she asked, perplexed.

He sighed. "They were both a drain on our resources, so the first thing Ragcraft did while in power was have them declared senile and pass power down to me. They accepted because they never liked ruling anyway and just wanted to gamble, and I accepted it because I _do_ want to see the nation prosper."

Tanya nodded hesitantly, bumping Ragcraft up on her list of threats.

Being X, The Demon King, and Mary occupied the first three spots, while the Demon King's Generals occupied most of that list, as did the Reincarnates and Belzerg's royal family, but she had assumed Ragcraft's lack of physical or magical power put him below many others.

Not so. If he'd managed to outmaneuver the king and queen, the nobles who probably profited from them being massive gamblers, and whoever else wanted an absolute idiot ruling the country, then he was much smarter than she thought possible.

Shaking her head, she found that Iris and Viktoriya were leaving. She quickly followed. They had another monster to kill.

-OxOxO-

They had gone to the guild and asked for directions to the mines, been laughed at for a few minutes, and then been given a map by a very worried receptionist.

Tanya had picked up Lorelei, who had been restlessly staring into a window with clothing, and then they'd gone back to the inn to suit up.

Tanya also used a few Skill Points to increase her Reinforcement spells, her Flight spells, and even spent a few getting a spell she hadn't seen a need for before.

Sure, Lightning might not help her much compared to some of the other things she could do damage wise, but her having electricity on-demand could help her create more things to sell.

Viktoriya, too, had done the same, getting Create Water instead of Lightning.

She might have been able to make water by melting the ice created by Freeze, but just using Crete Water was faster and more efficient. It meant they didn't have to worry about locating drinking water as long as Viktoriya had mana, and the two of them could use the two skills in tandem to electrocute a target.

Not that Tanya thought anything in this world wouldn't be destroyed by their regular attacks, but it was always a good idea to have a backup plan or twenty.

After their preparations, they had assembled in the foyer of the inn.

Viktoriya told Tanya she had on that chain mail shirt she'd bought in the capital, while Lorelei was wearing heavier armor on her chest and arms, with nothing more than her long, flowing pants on her legs. Like Iris's and unlike Darkness's, Lorelei's chest armor didn't have a ridiculous bulge to contain her assets.

Then, they were off, trekking through the wilderness.

Tanya wished she could just fly there, but revealing one of her best and most valuable skills to Iris seemed like the fastest way to be dissected, even if they did have something of a friendship forming between them.

Not that she wouldn't massacre thousands before she got to that table, but even she would run out of mana eventually.

They stopped after a few hours of stomping through the wilderness. Tanya and Viktoriya activated a few Observation spells, while Iris conversed with Lorelei.

"You know, it's so nice being out here. I never thought that I'd be able to experience something like… this," she said.

Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "What? Waiting in this heat, getting bitten by all kinds of bugs, sweating, and ruining your clothing?" she asked.

Iris shot her a glare, and then she began to giggle at the feigned innocence on Lorelei's face

"I was thinking more about going on an adventurer in something like a party, but that too."

Tanya and Viktoriya both said that nothing had shown up on their scans, and they continued marching forward.

Tanya licked her lips. Now was probably a good time to ask Viktoriya about that diary.

Tanya was sure she kept it in her clothing – she'd searched their room and Viktoriya's things while she was out with Iris at the casinos – unless she knew that Tanya was looking for it and was changing its location.

"Hey Viktoriya," she asked. She gave Tanya a quick glance, and then continued to trek forward.

"What, Tanya?"

"Why do you keep that diary of yours?" she asked, trying her best to sound innocent without her usual flavor of meanness whenever she was taunting someone.

Viktoriya's face lit up like a string of Christmas lights, and Tanya grinned internally.

Good.

There was _definitely _something in there that Tanya could use to get her revenge on her.

She shook her head. "Uhm… you _know_. I want to keep a record of what I've done. The old one probably burned up in... Dresdun, but I managed to get this one," she said, pulling the small book out of one of the pockets in her jacket.

Iris spoke up from behind them. "What do you write in there?"

Viktoriya nearly jumped a foot off the ground and whirled around to look at the curious Iris. Tanya mentally thanked the girl, even if she didn't know she was helping Tanya.

Iris shrugged at Viktoriya piercing stare. "Usually, if people have the time and ability to write in a journal, they publish them as a biography."

Viktoriya blinked rapidly, and then spun back around, staring purposefully at the ground with a bright red face. "No, I don't think I will…" she muttered quietly.

Iris shot a curious stare at her back and then shrugged.

Meanwhile, Tanya smirked to herself. Oh, she had no doubt that there was something in the diary, but if she'd written something that had made her look _that_ embarrassed, then Tanya would definitely be getting reparations for being forced to act like Iris for a few hours.

Tanya wiped whatever scheming expression had wormed its way onto her face and instead raised an eyebrow to look curious. "Oh? Why not? It's not like there's anything _bad_ in there, right?"

Tanya did want to embarrass the girl, but if she had written something about their past lives, then she couldn't threaten to release it to the public or anything.

Woodenly, Viktoriya turned to Tanya, stopping their forward motion. "Define bad."

Tanya raised an eyebrow. _Was _there something that bad in there?

The brief thought that Viktoriya had some sort of deeply peculiar kink entered her mind – was she similar to Darkness, or did she like more conventional BDSM stuff, like chains and whips and leather and – but she threw it out quickly.

Tanya would know if Viktoriya was some sort of deviant. She'd known her for years and years, after all.

Tanya shrugged, trudging forward. Viktoriya made to keep up, and Iris and Lorelei followed. "I don't know. Something about… the Empire, I guess."

Viktoriya breathed an audible sigh of relief. "OH! I thought… I mean, there's nothing like that in the book. It's just feelings I've had since we got here and my ramblings at attempting to figure them out."

Tanya nodded, inwardly smirking. She could use it then and get her petty revenge, then. There was nothing strategically compromising in it.

As Tanya opened her mouth to continue speaking, the trees around them began to rustle violently. All conversation stopped, and Tanya grabbed her rifle.

Viktoriya was only a second later in getting her's out, as she had needed to store her book in a pocket. Lorelei had grabbed her sword off her waist, and Iris was gripping her own blade.

Tanya looked around them and snarled. They were in the forest. While the trees provided them with a bit of cover, the information the guild had about the Golden Dragon said that it would have no problem barreling through both trees and bodies.

Tanya grabbed onto Iris, and Viktoriya grabbed Lorelei. They cast Reinforcement spells on them, and they sped off, retreating towards the clearing they had paused in an hour ago.

Behind them, the angered roaring faded a bit. It was, however, ever-present. And it seemed to be gaining on them.

Tanya grit her teeth and smirked at the sight of the clearing. Fast as lightning, they spread out in a semicircle facing the sound of the roaring.

Tanya began to speak. "Iris, being charging up one of your attacks. Viktoriya, you and I will shoot at it. Aim for the membrane in its wings. Lorelei, don't get too close. Even Heal has limits."

All of them nodded, and then jolted in surprise as the Dragon barreled out of the trees, already heading straight for them.

It was… massive, for a living, breathing land animal. It seemed to be at least as big as some of the many tanks Tanya had seen during her last life, and it looked even more metallic, sparkling in the diffuse light streaming down through the leaves of the forest.

Claws, horns, and spikes jutted out from it head and claws. It stood there, eyeing them for a moment, and then it roared challengingly, speeding towards the closest pair of humans.

Tanya wasted no time and began shooting at the thing. She saw holes open in its wings, and it paused, beginning to snarl at the pain.

It wouldn't be as damaging as if they'd hit an eye, but Tanya was sure that this thing probably propelled itself at such speeds in the same way that the Succubi flew on their tiny wings by using magic.

It turned its attention away from Iris and Lorelei, and instead gazed at Tanya. Its eyes, despite their similarity to other reptiles, looked bloodshot and angry. Tanya pointed her rifle, preparing to filter mana into the Type 95 if things began to go horribly.

Iris, however, made that action rather pointless.

Light began to shine from her sword, and Tanya could feel the mana crackling underneath the surface of the girl's skin. The air began to whirl about the girl. Tanya briefly thought that this must be what she looked like whenever she used the cursed Type 95.

The Dragon turned away from Tanya for a moment, staring with wide eyes at Iris. Tanya smirked at its mistake.

Tanya fired her rifle, pouring mana into enchant her bullet and watching in satisfaction as its wing was further damaged. It looked like it might have even twisted the thing out of place.

It turned again to Tanya, but Iris finally opened her eyes, and the light pouring off her became completely blinding and she slashed forward with the sword.

"SACRED EXPLODE!"

And just like the name implied, Tanya watched, impressed, as her sword moved through the air.

Although a relatively slow swing compared to some of what she had seen, as she dragged it through the air, a great roiling mass of mana was left in its wake. Before the Dragon could so much as blink, the great slash of light and mana sped towards it, cleaving its body in two neat slices and exploding against the ground behind it.

As Tanya congratulated the girl and helped Lorelei begin to take most of the more expensive parts, she bumped Iris up on her mental list next to Verdia. She could easily match him in power, if not experience.

-OxOxO-

They had arrived back to… nothing.

There was no cheering in the streets, and no one was waiting to give them a reward. When they'd shown up at the guild, the adventurers had been happy for a moment, but they'd settled back down quickly.

Not even Tanya's offer to buy them all drinks was met with more than a half-hearted cheer.

Apparently, Iris and Lorelei suspected that something was amiss.

Tanya and Viktoriya hadn't really realized it, but the slaying of a Dragon was supposed to be some sort of great achievement, which made logical sense, but they weren't exactly sure what was supposed to be powerful.

Considering the Princess they were supposed to be guarding had killed it in a single blow, Tanya didn't give herself many complaints for their inability to properly judge what was strong.

Regardless, the city was supposed to be celebrating. That the city wasn't doing that concerned them.

Tanya was tempted to write it off as the economic recession the city seemed to be going through.

It seemed that Ragcraft had been doing a lot of good for the country, so she was content to assume that the country was _really _doing that badly.

Besides, Tanya was much more put off by the reaction of the newly stationed gatekeeper. He let the two of them pass through with a small exclamation of surprise at their survival and nothing more, other than a muttered warning to 'be open-minded.'

They had all glanced at each other at that. What had happened? They hadn't been gone for more than ten hours of walking around and fighting monsters and the dragon.

Soon enough, they were brought into the castle. Instead of being ushered into the room they had met in, they were told to wait in the foyer while Revi came to them.

Tanya had a hand on her rifle as they waited. She wasn't sure what was going on exactly, but she hadn't sensed any magical disturbances with her Observation spells. It was unlikely that something like that had happened anyway, considering citizens of Elroad weren't scurrying about in terror.

Thoughts about what had happened quickly slowed as Revi walked in, surrounded by his retainers. They looked rather upset and worried.

Upon seeing Revi, she wrote off the concern she had felt for his retainers. Compared to Revi, they glowed with happiness.

His formerly neatly combed hair was more like a ball of tangled wire than anything else. His clothing was no longer immaculate, and he was wringing his hands nervously, no longer letting them rest by his side.

The biggest change, however, was in his face. It wasn't concealing anything; it didn't show any signs of superiority or anger or disgust.

He just seemed… sad. Distraught. Emotionally torn to shreds.

He looked up at them from where he was looking at the ground. He raised an eyebrow momentarily. "It's surprising that you… _four_ seem to care more about me than some of the people I'm supposed to rule…"

Iris stepped forward, reaching out to the Prince, while Tanya and Viktoriya drifted closer to Lorelei. Tanya was cursing herself for bringing her, but if the beastman had forgotten to ask to be left out, then she probably didn't mind too much.

The Prince shook his head. "The Dragon's horn is enough proof that you killed it." He stated this simply, and for a moment, his expression seemed to light up in wonder as Lorelei brought it out.

The retainers that had been looking down on them seemed to be evaluating their opinions and their validity, but the Prince's despondent sigh brought their attention back to their charge.

He snapped his fingers, and a bulging bag was brought out by a pair of knights. Iris's eyes began to grow wide.

"But… the funding! We need the defense funding, and I was hoping to ask for funding to be used to fuel attacks…"

She trailed off as the Prince shook his head. "I'm sorry. That is… all that was left in the treasury."

Iris blinked, and Revi raised a hand to the back of his head. "Yeah. It seems that without Ragcraft's tireless work, I couldn't do everything. Traitors slipped into the guard…"

He sighed at their confused expressions. "The people of my Kingdom call me an idiot whose only care is the gambling that his country can provide."

"They think that I don't care for politics, that I could walk by any of my citizens on the street and laugh at their misfortune." He shook his head, and a low chuckle escaped from his lips.

"Those were absolutely _nothing _compared to the insults delivered upon my parents."

He seemed to grit his teeth, and he walked past his retainers and knights. They seemed to protest, but he shook off their concerns and outstretched arms meant to block his movement. "Stop. If they wanted to kill me, they could have. I don't think I'd mind, at this point…"

Ignoring the concerned stares of the four of them, he stepped closer to Iris. "My parents have been called drunkards. Hedonists. Drug addled. Gambling addicted. Inept. Bastards. Dickheads. Whores. NEETs. Even in noble circles, they could be insulted by any and all of the nobles around them and they'd shrug them off and turn their attention to the food and entertainment."

"They weren't, however, completely stupid. They can see that the country is beginning to decline and that without Ragcraft they'd probably get replaced by a powerful noble and locked in a dungeon, if they were lucky. They took their guards, the Prime Minister, most of his staff, and carted off as much of the treasury as possible, leaving only that bag of money for your payment."

He took another deep breath, and Tanya could see pinpricks forming at the corners of his eyes. "I'm truly sorry that we can't give you more than eighty percent of the defense funding. We just… can't. Taxes on the peasants are too high, and the nobles won't pay. We- I just…"

The pinpricks began to turn into tracks running down his face. "If Ragcraft were here-"

"He would have sold you out to the Demon King."

He froze. His retainers froze. Iris froze.

Tanya froze.

She whirled around, her eyes wide. She had forgotten that Viktoriya knew about Ragcraft – Tanya had told her all about him during her meeting with Verdia – but…

Why the _hell-_

"Wh- What?"

Tanya turned around to find that his sadness had completely faded into pure panic.

Tanya sighed and put aside questions about Viktoriya's actions for later. She needed to try and do some cleanup. "Yes… Ragcraft was a Doppelganger. He worked for thirty years to infiltrate Elroad and faked his death, throwing your nation into confusion," she admitted.

That seemed to be the last straw. Slowly, he began to sniffle, muttering under his breath. "Then… then…"

His retainers made to step forward, and Tanya sighed.

Rushing forward, she gripped the boy by his shoulders. "Get a grip! Your nation needs you!"

His tears stopped suddenly, and Tanya glared at him. "Are you going to stand here and cry before the delegation of your neighboring ally? Are you going to stand there as your people turn on the most visible target of their hatred, ransack your capital, and attempt to get their revenge on you?"

His upper lip wobbled. "But… we thought that Belzerg had assassinated Ragcraft because he wouldn't send the payments. You're going to use all that information as blackmail to get what you want, right?"

Tanya smiled.

"Obviously."

Iris and Viktoriya both shouted, but Tanya held up a hand.

"We _will_ help you, though," she said softly, watching as his devastated expression recovered. "We don't want to have to fight another war, and our other neighbors wouldn't appreciate the aggression. We want the money, so we'll help you recover."

His eyes widened, and he tried to brush Tanya's hands off him. "I'm fine," he muttered, and Tanya let go.

He turned excitedly to Iris.

"You have a lot of experience, right? And you… uh, 'dressed down' the first Prime Minister we sent to you with a bunch of economic terms! You must be knowledgeable."

Tanya smiled nervously, and Iris shook her head, pointing at Tanya. He turned his head, confused, and she shrugged. "Iris wanted to explore the town, so I dressed up as her."

He turned away from Iris completely, now looking hesitant. "But… if you're actually _not _a noble, somehow, then how would you know how to fix the economy?"

"I learned some of the stuff a long time ago. Ragcraft obviously wasn't even human, much less a noble. He got educated, and so have I," she said, cracking her knuckles and grinning.

It was time to earn her pay.

-OxOxO-

"Why did you tell him that?"

Tanya shouted over the rushing water in the shower. It was created with magic, and Tanya had been more than happy to use it earlier to wash the grime from their quest to slay the Dragon.

Now, however, while Viktoriya was in there, it wasn't just a nice way to clean herself.

It was an asset that drowned out the sound of Tanya's search.

Again, she had exhausted every option in the room for a hiding place, and after being summarily rejected by Lorelei in her help for a 'prank,' she was now attempting to find it in her clothing.

Tanya was hoping that the steam, her questions, the running water, and whatever embarrassment she felt due to Tanya's insistence that she was a gentleman and wouldn't peek at her would be enough to distract her while Tanya searched.

She wouldn't take the journal yet, of course; she would do that when she had more time to read it, like the next time Viktoriya got injured or when she was put asleep by Tanya's spells.

She didn't trust that Being X, Eris, or whichever other beings claiming to be a god wouldn't sabotage her the moment she tried to read it. Luck or no Luck, they didn't like Tanya at all.

Tanya heard a lengthy sigh from inside the shower. "Well… it's like one of those band-aids of yours, right? It's better to remove them quickly instead of drawing out the process."

Tanya gave a noncommittal sound of agreement as she finished searching her coat. The boots came next, and Tanya found nothing. "I guess. We could have waited until a more opportune time, though."

Tanya smiled at the fond groan of disgust that came from the shower as she rifled through her friend's pants. Still nothing.

She moved on to the bandolier, found no additional pockets, and then lifted the shirt from where it had rested.

Something fell from it and impacted the ground. Tanya raised an eyebrow at the locket that she had bought in Belzerg's capital and lifted that up to her face.

"We _could _have, but he'll probably appreciate that we didn't," Viktoriya muttered. Tanya mutely nodded her head as she opened the locket.

She gasped softly, and then tried to quash her rising embarrassment. It was…

Her. In Viktoriya's arms, smiling goofily and nearly passed out drunk.

Tanya glowered at the shower. Of all the pictures…

And how had Viktoriya even gotten a picture of this? She didn't have anything resembling a camera, so it must have been her Type 97, but…

How she had managed to get that developed into a photograph, Tanya had no idea, but she'd be bringing this thing up when she found some dirt in her diary.

Speaking of which…

She opened the left breast pocket of Viktoriya's jacket and found the little red diary. She smirked, and then cursed as the water suddenly cut off.

She stuffed both back where she had found them, and then retook her seat by the door that was facing the wall. She heard Viktoriya giggle behind her at the sight of Tanya stiffly staring at the wall, and Tanya felt her face light up.

She scoffed at her own ridiculousness.

It wasn't like there was anything weird about this.

Just two women in a room, five feet apart and separated by nothing but hot air.

Nothing wrong with that.

Of course, one of the women actually had the soul of a man inside her, and both had killed dozens and dozens and dozens of soldiers in the service of an only _slightly _warmongering nation in an attempt to survive the first world war of their reality. With magic.

Okay, maybe things were just a bit weird. On that note…

Tanya bolted upwards, swinging open the door and slamming it shut, leaving behind a blushing and relieved Viktoriya, not that Tanya could have seen anything through the steam.

Viktoriya tried to crush the annoyed thought that she wished Tanya _had _seen something, but as with anything concerning the small woman, she just couldn't.

It wasn't in her nature to stay upset at her for long.

She sighed as she dried her hair. She hoped that Tanya found happiness once they had their revenge on Being X. She couldn't imagine her being happy to simply sit by and let life pass her by… but she had seen a lot of odd and wonderful things in this new life that neither of them had experienced before.

Shaking off water and the errant thoughts that a _thing_ between them would be less weird than many of the people and concepts they'd run into so far, Viktoriya prepared herself for the night and what was sure to be an informative day tomorrow.

-OxOxO-

Tanya was panicking.

That wasn't an altogether odd occurrence. Tanya panicked at least a little bit about anything and everything that didn't go to plan, which meant that she'd panicked often in her many, many years of life.

What made this instance interesting wasn't that she was pulling at her hair – she did that privately while she wondered how the hell she'd managed to pull everything off – or that Viktoriya was also worried at the wild expression on Tanya's face – Tanya didn't mind acting out a bit in front of Viktoriya.

No, what made this instance interesting was the audience.

Tanya tried to hide her feelings as much as she could, and raging at the stupidity of the idiots around her in front of Iris and Lorelei could definitely be counted as showing her feelings.

She was, of course, justified. Revi wanted more.

Tanya had drawn a few graphs, made a few pages of notes, and given him a bit of economic advice based on what little she remembered from her economics classes.

You need to drive up your aggregate demand by decreasing taxes, giving people more money to spend, and by increasing government spending on infrastructure projects. Asking the central bank to perform monetary actions would also help.

What does any of that mean?

Well, aggregate demand was the relationship between spending on domestic output and the average price level of that output. Basically, it was the amount of money the population spent. Decreasing taxes would give consumers more money to spend on products, dragging it closer to the long-run aggregate supply.

If you increase the quality of your resources by spending government funding on locating more and better resources, then aggregate demand would rise.

The central bank was the government-backed bank that the banks went to when they needed to store money or if they needed a loan. They could increase the supply of money by buying bonds. Doing so would lower the interest rate, increase investment, and increase aggregate demand.

Where would he get all this money? Sell bonds to merchants and nobles.

Also, the nobles didn't pay much in the way of taxes, so increasing their taxes and restricting their access to his new ideas might help them earn more money.

What's a bond? A bond, also called a security, is a promise to pay you back loaned money at a future date that you pay them a percentage of every year.

Oh, the nobles resented having to pay taxes? Well, give them tax breaks if they use the education they receive as part of the upper class to help run the country or train other nobles or commoners to do so in their place. Otherwise, they should shut up and pay up.

They might embezzle money or try and rebel? Promote wealthy and learned merchants, lawyers, and others to important positions that you can't afford to have traitors in. Otherwise, increase the power of the judiciary to discourage them from breaking the law.

There wasn't a central bank? Make one. You needed one. Probably.

While you're at it, make sure to start using paper money, since it allows for more flexibility. Sure, people might be skeptical, but even with the mine they had just opened, it would be hard to make more money because of how much skill had left with the former king.

Also, manufacture money, but not too much. Money was only as valuable as people thought it was, since it was just a medium of transaction. Even gold was only valuable because people thought it was.

You couldn't eat or drink it, and while some nobles might think differently, you can't really cloth yourself with it or build buildings out of it. Therefore, print some, but not tons of it.

And that was where they had ended things, closing in on midnight. The four of them had left, and Tanya had dragged a confused Lorelei, a skeptical Viktoriya, and an awed Iris back to their inn for showers and sleep.

They had woken up near ten, bleary eyed and still sleepy, to find that the Prince was asking for more economic lessons, and Tanya was trying to rack her brain for more. She was, unfortunately, running low on information.

Which was why she was panicking. Viktoriya meekly raised a hand, and Tanya whirled around. "Why can't you remember?"

Tanya stomped her foot down and broke a floorboard.

She looked down and sighed angrily. "The reason I wrote all of that stuff down and buried it was so that I wouldn't _have_ to remember it. How was I supposed to know that all that stuff would be more valuable on my person, where it could be burnt to cinders, instead of in the ground, safe for whenever I or another member of the 203rd needed it?"

She did, eventually, remember a few more graphs, Loanable funds and FOREX chief among them, but not much more.

Would he be satisfied with so little? She didn't know… but hopefully, it would be enough to achieve her main objective.

She didn't dare try and remember any of the math, though, because if she got it wrong, they could begin to use faulty calculations in their estimations, which might make things _much_ worse.

She looked less than totally calm when she was brought before Revi and a gaggle of others.

His normal retainers were completely absent, and Revi introduced the group of merchants as some of the ones best known for being trustworthy, if not always profitable.

Additionally, they'd never missed a payment, had connections, and hadn't met nobles before that day.

They were dressed formally – something that looked like an odd cross between a suit, a toga, and some… thing that was very flashy and from some fashion store – and seemed confused by the presence of Tanya. Most of them soon ignored her, though, more intent on looking at their surroundings and gaping at everything.

"And this," he said as he turned to them, gesturing towards Tanya, "is our salvation."

Tanya sent a confused look at the back of his head. "Salvation? I've just introduced a few economic ideas to you!"

He shrugged. "You're the most capable person to advise me yet, besides…" he said, trailing off at the thought of Ragcraft.

He gestured to the table that had been set up in the receiving room, and Tanya sat at the head. Viktoriya, Lorelei, and Iris looked somewhat out of place.

He glanced towards them. "Err- you all can explore the castle. Or whatever. I don't mind. Just don't go anywhere you shouldn't," he said with a flippant wave.

Iris elected to stay and observe, citing a desire to learn as well. Tanya shrugged to herself as she stood, feeling somewhat out of place.

Oh, she had no qualms about teaching others. Her instruction of the 203rd showed that she could do so if needed. She doubted, however, that her usual style of teaching would go over well with the Prince.

Beating the information into their heads was probably out of the question here…

As long as he continued at more than a snail's pace, of course.

Tanya tried to take a more lenient approach, looking at Revi. "Have you already given them what I taught you?"

He nodded. "Yes, and-"

One of the merchants jumped up, his beard waving as he did so. "Some of these ideas are outrageous! We can't postpone the coronation."

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" she asked, unsure of why it was so significant. They were just putting a crown on the kid's head, right?

He glared at her. "The people need stability! If we are without a king, or _some _kind of central authority, they'll begin to think that the situation is truly untenable!"

Tanya didn't immediately dismiss the idea, and then she began to grin. "I suppose you're right."

He puffed out his chest while Revi glanced at her curiously.

"We should use it as a chance to increase consumer confidence, make a profit, and introduce some of the economic measures then and there. Good thinking," she continued.

The merchant seemed confused by at least half of what she'd said, but Tanya quickly moved past it. If he thought he was getting what he wanted, then he wouldn't object to some of the things she added on.

That was how things progressed for over an hour. Absent from the discussion yesterday, they'd try and pick apart what she had taught as being 'far too radical' and 'unattainable.'

Then, she put her foot down when they suggested that people should just tighten their belts and wait out the storm. Tanya _knew _that that wouldn't work; both the graphs she remembered and history in general showed that that was, summed up, a _stupid fucking idea_.

She needed some other way to convince them that her ideas had merit besides the words of the Prince, who was suddenly looking unsure at including the merchants. Tanya had given the boy a few sympathetic glances, but she didn't regret including them.

She didn't have practical knowledge of what the economics or even what the average consumer was like in this country, and they needed the backing of wealthy patrons in order to pull off some of this stuff.

Since they needed to tax the nobility, and the few books and Wikipedia articles she had read about this time period in her last two lives said that the nobility began to fall out of power around now, she felt that they were the best source of the money they would need.

However, they were just too stubborn and interested in gambling. Their biggest concerns seemed to be about gambling and how…

Her head shot up as she remembered some anecdotes that had been used to explain economics to the less well-informed.

Then she remembered how those anecdotes could be extended to some other topics.

She smirked.

She rose from her seat, staring at the merchants once more. "Alright, I'll try and introduce a new idea to you."

They looked up, slightly interested. The Prince seemed to be one of the only ones who still had enthusiasm, and Tanya nodded at him.

"You all like… betting, right?"

That got their attention. She smirked at the way they transformed. None of them slouched, and all of them had their eyes glued to her.

If she didn't know better, she could have been sitting at a table with more Doppelgangers, considering how similar they all looked.

She began to weave a basic illusion. "Companies are a group of people pooling their money in order to take fewer risks. If, say, you sponsored a trade caravan to travel to Belzerg and it was attacked by monsters and nearly everyone was killed, you'd lose a lot of money, right?"

They all stared at her, and one of them scoffed. "That's an understatement. We'd be lucky to just lose money. We might lose our homes, livelihoods, and clothing if we're unlucky enough."

She gazed around and saw a similar set of faces: mostly saddened and depressed. Obviously, this was some sort of nightmare for them.

Smirking, she continued, replacing the illusion of a train of caravans with five smaller ones. "Why spend so much on a single caravan, then?"

They all looked at her curiously. "Instead of sponsoring a single caravan with your own money, get together with your friends and pool your resources to sponsor five. If one fails, then you only take a fifth of the losses. You might learn less money, but you also _lose _less."

All of them were coming to a dawning realization. She helped them along. "It's the difference between betting on finding a specific card in a deck versus finding a card of a single color. You might earn less, but you won't become destitute from betting wrong."

The Prince, instead of seeming interested and desperate, now seemed to be enjoying himself. All the merchants were grinning now, and their expressions of intense scrutiny had faded into nothing but dust, instead replaced by admiration and greed.

Tanya didn't mind their greediness.

She could use that, and if she used gambling anecdotes, they would enjoy learning about everything she had to offer.

The business cycle, insurance, bonds, stocks, loanable funds; it seemed that she'd finally be able to impart what little she still had.

As the merchants began writing what she had said down on the pieces of paper Revi had provided at the beginning, she wondered if she could extract some sort of consultancy fee from them.

She was, after all, basically advancing their knowledge of economics _far _past whatever they currently had. She had to be earning a bit from that, right?

-OxOxO-

He watched the scene in front of Him eagerly. Finally, _finally_, someone was taking that annoying bitch of a water goddess away.

Oh, He would have preferred it to be someone who was more devoted to Himself, but this Kazuma Satou _did _acknowledge that there were Gods, even if he didn't offer them any devotion.

That was enough.

He didn't care, though. Aqua was being taken away, floating up into the inky darkness of the portion of the black box where Aqua processed her souls, screaming as the boy laughed.

Then, they were gone. He smirked, and then He sighed happily. One less thorn in His side, which was necessary, with how much Eris was suffering.

Sure, it might take away a lot of mana to send her down, all of their powers included – especially the mana He had been saving up for the Anniversary – but the water Goddess would have probably tried to leave during the Anniversary anyway.

He knew that she greatly enjoyed everything that was available to the Gods, from manga to television, but even _she _would get fed up with everyone belittling her for reincarnating The Atheist.

She would have left, He was sure.

Settling down in His chair, He looked in at the reincarnation project and everyone under Aqua's employ. He would need to find a suitable replacement for her, after all.

Suddenly, He heard a knock echo around His room. He furrowed His eyebrows.

With a thought, He opened His room to the outsider. A sad grin overcame His face, and He stood from His chair.

"Ah, Eris. How nice to see you. I was just wondering if you would like to take over for Aqua?" He asked, smiling.

Her expression showed that she was feeling queasy, but she didn't immediately reject it. Internally, He began to wonder if He should move some stuff around and get her a few subordinates of her own to help while she was suffering from a Break.

She blinked, for a moment, and then shook her head. "Um… I don't think-"

"Nonsense!" He shouted, clapping her on the back. She struggled to stay standing, and He winced.

"Sorry… but you might have some reservations about abandoning your current goal of finding artifacts, but we need someone to take over for her, and you are a perfect fit."

"Ah…" she muttered, trailing off. He sent a questioning look at her, and she shrank away from Him. "My inability to take the post is literal. With her employment contracts, she isn't slated to be replaced for another decade at least, and she'll have to renounce her job if she were to give it up early. So… we can't… reincarnate… anyone else…"

Eris further shrank away from Him as He began to vibrate. A vein or three seemed to pop out of His face, and she prayed to herself that she wouldn't be destroyed.

Her question about being given more leeway in her search for the divine relics forgotten, Eris fought to stay standing as God raged at His own foolishness in not reading the _goddamned fine print._

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **So. We are gathered here to remember two.

The first, is, of course, the Crown Prince of Elroad, Revi. Tanya fucking murdered him, and even Thanos felt bad for him when he was balancing the universe. Press f to pay respect.

The second thing we are remembering is my free time. You will be missed, but I apparently have a life outside of writing. I'll find whoever made that a thing and bury them under the pages this thing would take up if some mad lad printed it all out.

Anyway.

Sorry about being late again… the usual suspects are at fault, but on another note, I'm changing upload days to Tuesday, since watching Isekai Quartet gives me the energy to edit – and don't I have some truly _wacky _ideas for that near-fanfiction…

Anyway. Stuff's been happening fast, yeah? Tanya's met Revi, taken down that dragon, and is helping to get his country back on track. She's trying to get that diary.

Is it too fast? I felt that Tanya would be way more efficient that Kazuma would, and, of course, Aqua and Kazuma are coming in soon. We're going to get a little bit of a calmer chapter next – some day to day relationship building things that take place before Aqua and Kazuma touch down.

Oh, we also see my interpretation of Revi's parents. Like Iris's, we haven't seen them in the LNs yet, and it seemed very odd that he was the one Ragcraft went to for permission instead of his parents. If you're familiar with the original, did you like my interpretation?

Also… it's finally happened! Aqua and Kazuma are on their way down to the world below.

We're not going to see them for a bit anyway – Tanya's still in a different country – but we might see more of the original cast soon.

Other than that… please, continue supporting the story as long as you enjoy it!

**A/N 2: **Oh, and about the economic advice she gives…

This was written around… ten months ago, which means I haven't taken that high school economics course in that much time. Please don't roast me for not understanding basic economics, because I'm not going to relearn all that just for, like, ten paragraphs of information that doesn't really matter too much, beyond outlining just how much Tanya's changing this medieval land.

**A/N 3: **Also, because I have no real social media to share my revelation, I decree:

Buddhism is just an enternal, religious Isekai.

That will be all.

**A/N 4: **Responses to Reviews on this website:

**reihangima: **Not to fear, I'm not going to drop this, no matter how sparse the updates become. Thank you for the encouragement.

**Pyromania101: **Rest in Peace. I'm sure that I'm going to enjoy the movies he directed when I get the time to sit down and watch them, so I'll thank him preemptively too.

Thank you for understanding the inconsistent schedule.

**AnimeA55Kicker: **_Well, _you might have something there… though the arrival of a certain duo might make her regret making Revi so reliant on her.

**Fictional Fanatic from Fimfic: **Alright, I'll spill. It's- *SOUND OF A NEWLY BOUGHT CERAMIC MUG BREAKING*

Alright, that's been happening more often. So… like I said, an event in chapter 20 (the first scene) might give you a hint. Also, your current guesses aren't on the right track. Think… along the lines of other breaks, like the Protestant Reformation.

I'll tell you right now that the Cults do have something to do with the racism, but not everything. You'll have to wait for an explanation, unfortunately.

Otherwise, thank you for the support!

**Navarone2013: **

CH 001 Comment: Thank you for taking the plunge and giving the story a try! I'm glad you liked it.

CH 002 Comment: That timeline is COMPLETELY made up, so I guess this is AU? I needed to space some stuff out – the campaign in Africa, the movie, and my own interpretation of how it might turn out – for a number of reasons, one of which is that I would like Tanya to be at least physically seventeen before things start… heating up between her and Viktoriya.

CH 003 Comment: The idea about Luna is a good one, but my view is that she's read so many of the same one – peasant who needs to make ends meet – that she glosses over them out of habit. Might make an Omake later…

As for your second question…

Well…

Shit. This is the third time. Despite all my attempts, I've managed to miss something so obvious that I need to listen to the video 'Slow Clap' on repeat. Again. _**FUCK!**_

Alright. My excuse is that I didn't think of it and I didn't have a name picked out then. There will likely be an in-universe explanation as well somewhere along the line.

CH 007 Comment: I am aware of the graveyard inconsistency – someone got to that one earlier – but mostly, I just wanted her to meet Wiz, and this was a good excuse.

CH 005 Comment: Ok, new plan. You get to write the story, because I missed something else she could have easily done as a replacement.

CH 008 Comment: The feeling I got from the KonoSuba LNs was that Aqua was at work for a long time before she decided to pick on Kazuma. There are a lot of mentions of other Reincarnates, even if Mitsurugi is the only other one we see. Presumably, she was at work since the early days of the war, or people like Verdia would have plug walked all over Belzerg by now.

CH 009 Comment: Thank you very much! I was taking my high school macroeconomics course when I wrote this, so that helped, and I try to keep things consistent – even though I've forgotten a lot, my learning lives on in this fic!

…damn, that sounded stupid…

CH 010 Comment: Remember, she had been trying to make a rifled barrel in an earlier scene, so while I don't show everything, she has been experimenting. And, she _did _take meticulous care of her equipment, as well as the oddity that is the Smith skill – Kazuma uses it to make things from his first life, even though he probably didn't know how they originally worked.

CH 011 Comment: As the movie and LNs constantly show, Explosion is, as always, completely, disgustingly overpowered compared to any other single spell. Tanya will have conniptions when she faces against _that _monstrosity.

Or will she? She has, after all, accomplished much the same with the help of the 203rd, and there are more impressive explosions that she has heard of.

CH 012 Comment: Yes, you will. Though, the wiki says that Mithril is another variation of the 'White Silver' second name thing, though I decided that having it be something… different might be interesting.

CH 013 Comment: Viktoriya… is into Tanya. Man or woman, she's ready to ride or die (emphasis on the 'ride' part) for her for the rest of forever.

CH 015 Comment: As explained… earlier, to another reviewer, the way the relics work is inconsistent. Mitsurugi's weapon works for no one but him, so if he were to die, no one could use it. On the other hand, the sixth LN of KonoSuba and onward make it clear that they still have power, in a limited sense.

I've decided that that means that they lose a lot of their power when their true owner dies, but that they still retain just a bit of what they had – at least, that's the case with _these _relics.

CH 016 Comment: Remember, there were the reincarnates that came before the timeskip – fire and ice staff, no pain lance, and shield breaker lance. Turns out that leaving those for anyone to buy wasn't the wisest idea.

CH 017 Comment: Ding ding ding! You are right! It _does _indeed involve chemical weapons that might not be banned by any treaties if they're created using magical chemistry.

CH 022 Comment: It is a very sad fact of Tanya's life that she often ignores that which she thinks of as insignificant in the grand scheme of things – emotions for part of her second life, religious matters for a good chunk of all three – but she does remember what Darkness told her a few chapters ago.

CH 021 Comment: Yeah, I think that the Orcs scene could have been handled better, but I've already revised it once, and while she could kill more, they are stronger than most everyone else in their caravan. She knows that numbers can overcome even magic, given enough of them.

CH 024 Comment: I wouldn't be so sure about Kazuma and Aqua. Being X was able to change the ability of Reincarnates to take Aqua, after all. She might decide to change some things of her own.

CH 025 Comment: If you read the companion series to this – Charming Omakes – I'm going to make an Omake on exactly that subject.

CH 026 Comment: No, I have not. I'll probably fix it before too long.

How do I think _I _would do…? Uh…

Well, if I'm honest, not very well. I don't like the idea of killing people in something as senseless as war, and I probably would have tried (and failed, thanks to Being X) at waiting out the war to grow up and move to America. Otherwise…

Well, I might try and copy what she did and try and avoid the misconceptions she falls into to stay somewhere safe, but, if Being X knew that I knew about what he'd done, it would probably turn into a 4D chess game, and I'm no world champion at regular chess.

Also, while Tanya is a cause of the big change, there are other people in the story. One of them – or someone we don't even know the name of yet – might be working towards their own goals a la Martin Luther.

**Father Chaos: **Yeah, I have a lot of trouble keeping physical descriptions clear sometimes. Particularly, whether or not Tanya is wearing a hat, because if she is, then her Ahego twitching isn't exactly striking when under a hat.

Also… yeah, it's starting to get confusing with four different women. I'll try and do better as far as differentiation goes.

**Quaver Ava: **Yes. Rest assured, I have plans for Being X.

Interesting plans.

As for that diary…

Ok, the _actual _thing will probably be a buzz kill, but the alternate, Crack Omake version? Pure motherfucking gold. I am so fucking ready to unleash that into the world, I just have a few more chapters…

'Or two' lol.

**DNWorks: **No. Remember, something has to be a catalyst for extreme change, and the Axis Cult is… uh… well, let's say 'set in its ways' and leave out all the stuff besmirching Eris. Though, you _have _given me an idea for worldbuilding and later revelations…

**setokayba2n: **There is a charm spell – according to the wiki – however, it just makes the user appear more attractive and appealing…

Hmm…

_Hmm…_

Remember, I don't have a fucking clue what the real endgame will look like – besides a few choice scenes – so, if you suggest something, you might just see it.

Remember, they don't exactly 'sign' anything when they agree. He'll be in whatever contract exists the moment he gets reincarnated, no matter how much or little of it he reads.

Well, yes and no. You might say it breaks a bit, you might say it breaks her, and one might say that it works better than ever, if that one was Being X.


	28. A Slice of Life and Party Preparations

Tanya felt the urge, briefly, to try and murder Revi by glaring at him hard enough.

She heard, in the unguarded moments when her subordinates spoke of their opinions of her before regretting not making sure they were seperated from her by several thousand kilometers, that her stare was intense and intimidating.

She was fairly sure that she might have a good shot at it. And, really, he probably deserved it.

"Revi, while I am… _flattered, _I cannot take you up on this offer. For one, I have several responsibilities, including killing the Demon King."

He pouted in that way of his that had become uncomfortably common in the past few days of her teaching him. It meant that he was saddened that one of the ideas he presented to her wasn't up to her standards.

She nearly scoffed. As if 'standards' had anything to do with it.

It was mostly that she was nearly certain that being the 'Grand Vizier' of the Kingdom of Elroad would probably conflict with her contract. She imagined that being a head of state would eventually conflict with her contract, forcing her to either abandon her post in a critical moment or to give up that wish to do her job.

Her last life had shown her that sacrificing too much for a job was a good way for a cog in a machine to get worn down to nothing.

He continued to pout for a moment. "But… you'd have everything and anything you could want! A larger salary, property, servants and serfs! Hordes of knights and adventurers and…"

He trailed off at the withering look she sent him. Mostly, she was starting to get tempted into giving up her limitless revenge on Being X by a _lot _of short term gain…

She shook her head. No, she just had to imagine what it would be like to finally show him…

"Ah… Tanya, what have you thought of now?"

She blinked. Right. He'd come to interpret her thoughts of revenge – necessary with how much he seemed to be willing to throw at her to try and keep her permanently – as her coming up with something new.

She turned around and stared around the room. It was cozy, filled with books and a nice desk and a bright, open window.

It reminded her of her meeting with Verdia and Ragcraft, which wasn't exactly unexpected, considering Ragcraft had used this room as his office.

"Revi. Perhaps I should give you some lessons of things beyond economics?" she asked aloud, half to him and half to herself.

If nothing, it would distract him from the fact that she was _really _starting to run out of economic advice to give him. The reports that his cabinet – the so-called 'Royal Council' – were handing to him and the populace claimed that the reforms were doing wonders.

She wasn't entirely sure if things could change _that _fast – it had only been a few _days _– but he seemed convinced that bringing problems to her would make life for him and his nation better.

She could hear the sound of him thinking – he liked to shuffle in place whenever he was thinking, nervous, or just about doing anything other than talking or gambling – but he did eventually agree.

She nearly breathed a sigh of relief. He was getting coronated tomorrow, and she had been invited. More time wearing that srupid dress, sure, but also some time where she could think of more stuff to tell him to hopefully continue to gain favors.

Hopefully, if she ran out of things to teach him about, she could claim that the nation was fine, that she had finished her goals, and that she needed to leave.

Because, while living easily and gaining a few levels a week just from eating was fine and dandy, she needed to be a bit more proactive.

As she turned around and decided to begin coaching him about the effective management of subordinates, she hoped that having him so indebted to her would work out, if she chose the wrong side in Belzerg's war, despite all of her deliberation. She could think of no better reason to continue speaking with him.

Of course, the fact that Iris was also thankful that Tanya worked with Revi while she had fun with Viktoriya was pretty good, as was the fact that Viktoriya and Lorelei seemed to be having a good time here as well.

Quashing the unfortunate – jealous – feeling she felt when she thought of her double and Viktoriya having fun together, she cleared her throat and began. "Now. Rule number one is to ensure that your subordinates are effective at completing their jobs. While the carrot and the stick are good, I believe that the 'carrot, stick, and explosion spell' method is much better. To start…"

-OxOxO-

Tanya stretched as she walked towards the entrance gate of Revi's castle. That had been…

Well, 'fun' might be stretching it, but it certainly wasn't horrible. Revi was a good listener and learner, when he wasn't whining or complaining about his obsession with gambling being interfered with.

"Wait! Your… friend left this."

Tanya blinked, and then she grinned widely. Finally!

"Honestly, you could have asked me to turn down the heating so she could wear it. Though, agreeing to cut your pay for a day was worth it, from a monetary point of view."

Tanya ignored him and grinned at the jacket in her hands. Getting Revi to turn up the castle's magical heating system to a level that was uncomfortable for wearing a jacket had been surprisingly difficult – no less than four different servants had tried to distract him – but now she had it…

She smiled at him. "Thank you, Revi. Same time tomorrow?"

He nodded absently, muttering about economics and pros and cons and other things that sounded vaguely familiar. She ignored him.

Tanya looked around. Now that she had it, in my hands, what were the chances Being X or that Eris would attempt to get Viktoriya to interrupt me?

It depended on what they were doing. Tanya had absolutely no way of determining that – besides maybe using the Type 95 to demolish a good number of innocent bystanders, which would guarantee that they would be watching her – so she just had to hope that they were distracted.

And, of course, take cautionary measures.

A five minute walk saw her hidden in an alley that was so nondescript it might have been noticeable for that reason alone, if it weren't also isolated. Using as little mana as she could, she whispered, "Flight."

She was up and away, soaring over the town in an instant and leaving it behind in a handful of seconds. She looked behind her…

Nothing. Viktoriya wasn't approaching. She nodded, and then began to look around herself.

She could see no Dragons, Crows, or anything else that might try and pick on her.

Though she felt as if even this wasn't enough, she found the pocket with the diary, and…

She smirked. Finally! She threw the jacket over her shoulder and undid the clasp on the front. "Finally! You'll get yours, for making me wear that dress…"

She blinked.

Ah…

She had been so consumed in actually _getting _the damn thing that she had overlooked a simple part of what it would take to read it.

Namely, understanding the language. It was not in Germanian, English, or even Japanese.

It was in Russy.

Tanya sighed. It seemed she had overlooked an essential step. How unlike her…

She shook her head. Well… even if she couldn't read it _now, _there was always the future.

_ROAR!_

She turned, swearing as a Dragon seemed to materialize from nowhere. While she tried her best to avoid it and send shots back at it, confusing it with illusions all the while, she planned her next move.

Despite the setback and the language barrier – and the cloying, stupid fucking _memories _that were coming back to her involving the _last _time she had wanted to understand Viktoriya's mother tongue – she would not be stopped forever.

She smirked, even as the Dragon spewed fire at her.

It might take a while… but she would read the journal. Or, a copy of it, at least…

-OxOxO-

Viktoriya, an extra skip in her step, watched as Iris, once again, won a game set up at a stall in the marketplace.

It seemed that even when they were trying to purchase their food, the people of Elroad couldn't stop testing their Luck. The man was grumbling, but he handed Iris her winnings – the grand prize of a voucher for one meal at an apparently upscale restaurant.

Iris sighed happily as they continued on, walking through the streets and being left alone, for the most part.

Occasionally, Iris would be recognized as someone of 'good breeding' and have people bow to her, but, for the most part, people left her be.

"So. Have fun?"

Viktoriya blinked and turned to find Lorelei towering above them, as always. Iris nodded happily. "Yeah! We did our rounds at the casinos again, and I skipped some rocks on this Onion Duck lake, and I won this sideshow game, and we got a restaurant voucher! You interested?" she eventually asked.

Lorelei blinked and shook her head ruefully. "Yeah. How about you head on over? We'll catch up after finding Tanya."

Iris nodded, happily chattering to herself as she went off. "Yep! Her lesson ended, so I wonder what she's up to…"

Viktoriya ignored the Princess's words and cast a questioning glance at Lorelei. She looked around herself…

And then decided against saying something. "Nevermind…"

Viktoriya sighed as she turned Lorelei made to follow Iris. "So. What were you up to?"

Lorelei blinked. "Ah… the usual. Window shopping… actual shoping – thanks for that, by the way – and-"

Viktoriya cut her off. "Hey, remember: You helped in the fight against the Dragon."

She scoffed. "Yeah right. You guys could have taken it down without me."

Viktoriya nodded. "Probably. But that doesn't mean you didn't help, right?"

She was silent, for a moment, and they walked through the crowds. Viktoriya sent a glare at those that sneered at Lorelei, but otherwise, she didn't have to do much.

That was… an improvement over the Capital. There, they had needed to verbally and physically defend Lorelei from the odd heckler, during their shopping trip. It seemed that the people of Elroad didn't dislike her.

That seemed odd to Viktoriya, though. The people here, with their obsession with gambling, must have been even more faithful to that Eris Goddess. So if they were, and Lorelei supposedly had bad Luck for becoming a beastman, then why didn't they hate her more.

Lorelei was still quietly staring down at the ground, and Viktoriya sighed. "Alright. Think of it this way…"

She trailed off, and then smiled nostalgically. "Back in the Empire, it always felt like Tanya could have fought the war on her own and beaten anything."

Lorelei nodded slowly, casting a curious glance towards Viktoriya, who continued after the nod. "Well… it's entirely possible that maybe, _maybe, _she could have."

Lorelei's face contorted into something of incredulity, but Viktoriya didn't admit to trying to joke. She wasn't, really.

She didn't have the slightest idea as to how strong Being X was. For all she knew, Tanya could have wiped the Russy Federation off the map if she'd _actually _given in.

She snorted, but she waved away Lorelei's questioning glance.

As if Tanya would give in to him.

She breathed in. "That said, she would have had to sacrifice everything that makes Tanya Tanya in order to do so. So, we really did help out, as did you."

Lorelei was quiet again, which Viktoriya was thankful for. Was that something pinging on her Observation spell…?

"Speaking of which… what exactly happened during that war of yours?"

Viktoriya winced momentarily. Uh oh.

Just like Darkness, she was starting to wonder at their origins.

Viktoriya opened her mouth. She would just-

"Tanya was oddly at ease killing those four rapists."

Viktoriya flinched at that, and then, after going over Lorelei's words, she whirled around. "Would you propose we do something else with rapists."

Lorelei opened her mouth, and then she decided to shut it with a snap. Viktoriya…

Well, she looked like she usually did – though she was glaring just the slightest bit – but she felt…

Odd. Different. Dangerous.

"Uh… no, but-"

And then the aura was gone. Lorelei shook her head and filed away the odd encounter.

"I just mean… look, you two are oddly good at… um, 'looking past a monster's looks.' You killed Tranquility Girls, and Orcs, and a bunch of Demons and Undead. And she killed those rapists."

Viktoriya sighed. "Look… I'll give you the basics, but _don't _ask for more. If… Tanya doesn't want you to know, then I won't tell you."

Lorelei nodded, and then she pulled her aside into an alleyway.

And she learned.

It wasn't much. At all.

But it was something.

As Tanya touched down in the alley – "I knew this place was too close to the city" – Lorelei tried to digest what she'd been told.

They'd fought in a _human _war?

As they walked and talked in front of her, she supposed that they really _were _soldiers, and not just adventurers.

Adventurers weren't just irregular forces, as far as fighting went – they weren't _supposed _to fight in human wars. They weren't trained for that kind of mental strain. Lorelei was sure she couldn't do it.

She gulped as she remembered the rapists. Or maybe she could.

Though the restaurant was amazing, she ate, not really considering it. Was it-

"Lorelei? Are you alright?"

She blinked and looked to Tanya.

'Are you alright?'

She smiled. "Yeah. Just thinking about a few things."

She nodded slowly at her, and then she went back to grilling Viktoriya and Iris about their day.

'Are you alright?'

Despite knowing her old team members for months, and despite the fact that she had fought and bled with them for all that time, and despite the fact that they had been one of the only parties willing to accept her without paying her nearly nothing, they had not once asked about her wellbeing outside of combat.

She smiled. She supposed that she was alright. She was probably better than ever, really.

"Thanks for being my friends," she blurted out. They looked at her oddly, but she got resounding replies.

"Of course. I'm glad we met, even if you _were _kind of rude to us way back when."

"No problem, Lorelei!"

"I guess you are pretty cool, even if you are a beastman."

Smiling, she ate the food. It felt nearly as good as the feeling of having people to rely on did.

-OxOxO-

It was a normal day. Nothing had seemed off, and if he was being honest with himself, he would have been happy to simply carry out the menial, repetitive, and daily decisions that any normal ruler had to deal with instead of trying to corral his Generals.

While not as interesting as going to battle himself or trying to outmaneuver his Generals, the simple, easy task of filling out paperwork certainly had a… _stability _to it that dealing with the Generals _never _had.

He should have known better than to tempt the universe.

He had been leaning over one of Ragcraft's reports about the arrival of a group of 'Hero Candidates' in the capital that some of his spies had seen arrive to much fanfare, when he was flung back into his chair.

Both him and the chair were flung back into the wall of his office, and he felt the room quake with the impact. He sat there, dazed – what had happened?

Was Wiz attacking them for some reason? Had that Degurechaff figure decided to side with Belzerg?

He reached out with his senses, stretching the limits of what he could perform without permanently damaging himself, surveying the entirety of his lands in the blink of an eye.

Nothing. No one in the lands under his control had gained massive power or anything like that.

He stood from where he'd been flung back, stretching his arms. Then… it had come from outside his realm.

He blinked. For such a powerful surge to have sent him reeling…

He turned to the door. He needed to-

"Father!"

The door he had been reaching for was flung open, smacking him in the face. Howling, he dropped to the ground even as his daughter began to apologize.

He waved away her concern as he struggled to his feet. "Did you feel that?" he asked, his voice filled with worry.

She wasn't nearly as sensitive as he was to such things, but she might have been injured if she were doing something in a precarious position.

She smiled softly. "Yes, father. There was some sort of burst of magic."

He nodded. "It came from Belzerg."

Her eyes widened. "Then…"

The Demon King felt blood pool in his hands as he clenched them tightly and broke his own skin. "Someone more powerful than the Double Blessed Hero Candidate has arrived."

He hadn't really thought that possible. Heaven had been out of commission the last time they'd done something like send her. If they were still functioning, then that means they'd dipped into their resources meant for combatting the Anniversary.

She tilted her head. "But I thought you said Heaven couldn't make anyone more powerful than them?"

He nodded. The origin of the Reincarnates was one of his most shameful secrets – not because of the content, but mostly because he had to lie to his daughter. "I did. Either they've figured out a more efficient method, which is unlikely considering how efficient it already is, or they've decided that it's worth the risk," he said, partly lying.

"…Do they fear the Anniversary?"

He blinked in surprise, and then he smiled warmly at his daughter, ruffling the black portion of her hair and running a hand through the silk-like stuff until it reached the reddened tips of it. "They must. Ever since the Big Bad threw out that first God without considering the contracts that kept Heaven held together, they've feared the curse that he placed on their realm."

He turned to the forward wall of his office. It overlooked the intimidating room where he met with the Generals, facing the wall with the painting of Belzerg's night sky.

He scowled. "We can't afford to have any of the Generals killed before then by whatever hero of legend they've sent, but we also can't send anyone with less power to investigate…"

Slowly, he let out a sigh, placing his hands on his face. "As per usual, we're stuck. No matter what we do, Belzerg refuses to fall. They get more reinforcements, or they find more resources, or the Crimson Demons have another of their parties and bombard the castle, or the Axis Cult will invent some new rumor about me that scares off some of my forces."

Those Cultists had been a thorn in his side for far too long. They'd spread rumors about him that made everyone think he was some sort of deviant.

In his territory, it was easy to say that they were lies, but Belzerg was happy to stoke the rumors to detract from his image.

He rolled his eyes as he stared at the painting again. It was ironic, really; if he wasn't the Demon King, and if the rumors about him being homosexual, a lolicon, or a sadist were true, then he'd be a shoo-in for the Axis Cult.

They did accept that anyone could love anyone else, regardless of age, gender, or race. They were rank hypocrites for suggesting that he was disgusting for being that way while also accepting anyone with those predilections.

It was no wonder that being an 'Axis Cultist' was a polite way of asking if you were homosexual.

He snorted. With how famous the Axis Cult was for their practices, he was only shocked that there weren't _worse _sayings about them.

He turned back to his daughter, and found that instead of being distraught, or hopeless, or contemplating selling him out to save her own skin, she was pensive.

"Father. Wiz and Vanir are honorary generals at best. Sylvia and Wolbach are coordinating their efforts to search for magical weapons and Wolbach's other half. The NEET is still protecting the castle, but he won't leave. Verdia and Hans are both working, and Evan, Celestina and I are training, albeit in different ways," she summarized.

He rolled his eyes, tapping on the two fingers that weren't outstretched. "Ragcraft is currently spying on some of the other nations surrounding Belzerg with the order to take no longer than a month, while I am trapped behind my own barrier."

She smiled bashfully. "Yes. It seems that we are out of resources that we can trust _completely_."

He narrowed his eyes at the way she inflected that last word. "Are you suggesting that we turn to some of the weaker forces that we can't completely rely on? I'm sure that the Undead Mage Evan might be a possible scout, but he hasn't exactly impressed me."

She shook her head. "Actually, I was thinking we should talk to… Degurechaff."

Blink.

He stared at his daughter and blinked again, waiting for her expression to change into one of mirth, because there was _no way-_

"I'm serious!" she exclaimed at the skeptical expression that was growing on his face. She was pouting cutely now.

The skeptical expression faded and was replaced by a mirthful one made of crickled laugh lines and a wide grin. "Hi, serious. My name is-"

She screamed, and he began to laugh. She absolutely despised his dad jokes, as the crater she left in the wall his chair had flown into attested to.

He wiped a tear from his eye as he began to talk. "Alright, alright… tell me why we should trust such an unknown quantity."

She took a deep breath. "Yes, we don't know much about her, what religion she follows, or… _anything_ that might give us an edge over her. We do know, however, that she can be reasoned with."

He gave her a blank stare. "She threatened to _burn _one of my _Generals _alive."

His daughter raised an eyebrow. "In your training session with Evan, you threatened to burn _him _alive if he ever used that spell again."

He glowered at her – she wasn't supposed to have seen that. "She's not in the country," he tried. Ragcraft's spies her been relieved to relay that to him.

She shrugged. "She'll be back soon enough. Wouldn't you if you felt that?"

He drew himself up to his full height. It wasn't much compared to Vanir, Verdia, and most everyone in his army, but it was more intimidating than he could have hoped to be otherwise. "Daughter. We _know_-"

"That she isn't intrinsically set against us like most Hero Candidates are."

He paused, and he almost laughed at her attempt at displaying superiority saw her tilt her nose up at him. "She wants to figure out what this war is about. She didn't try and kill Verdia when she first met him. When she fought him in the capital, she didn't lead the Hero Candidates on a rampage through Verdia's forces after she disabled him. She just left them there."

He growled, but she just stared at him. "We can't throw away allies. Isn't that the point of using the Anniversary to gather the disaffected from Heaven?"

He stared at her, trying to find it in himself to fight against her. Then he sighed, bringing a hand to the back of his head. "You're right. We'll summon a Demon to send a message to her."

He felt the questioning sass emanate from her as he pushed his desk towards the window and moved the rug.

He just shrugged. "We'll make her pay for the cost."

Underneath the rug, a circle of spiraling silver lines, writing, and shapes sat there. When he dimmed the lights, they became less than interesting than the glow they emitted.

He drew in a breath, and then paused at the look his daughter was sending him. She was unimpressed, exasperated, and totally lethargic. She looked so much like…

He grimaced. The expression on her face sent a pang of pain through his heart at the reminder of her mother, but he quickly repressed it, going over what he needed for the ritual. The offering was taken care of, since Degurechaff was paying.

He inspected his mana and nodded again. He had the mana to complete this. He checked the circle again.

Nothing seemed to be missing from the complex gathering of shapes and words. It would be hard for most to summon anything larger than an Imp without training, but ritual circles like these greatly cut down on the cost needed to summon demons.

Of course, he didn't _need_ it. He'd only constructed this in order to summon Vanir that one time.

He sent one last look at his daughter, who just sighed tiredly. "Father, how are they going to find her?" she asked, a note of annoyed patience slipping into her speech.

He slapped himself on the forehead and strode over to his desk while chuckling.

Right, if he wanted them to find her, he needed to have something that had come from her. Wolbach had proved that, while not a required part of the process, giving them something to aid their search cut down the times by a great degree.

If she had anything from the beast that was her other half, then the Demons that served her could have found it in weeks, after he sent it to them.

Because she didn't have anything from either her other half or from those Demons, they were searching for that other half without orders. She couldn't exactly summon them again, since they were already on the planet.

Luckily…

He tapped a drawer of his desk, watching as it made a small _hiss_ as his secret compartment popped open. Inside, what he needed shined in its glass tube.

Ragcraft, between his arrival at Axel to instruct his spies and his leaving with Evan and Verdia, had gone to a place where Degurechaff had fought in the city.

He wasn't sure _why_ she had fought there, but he was happy regardless thanks to the fruits of said fight.

He emptied the bag into his palm and grinned at the stained lock of hair. Ragcraft had gathered the blonde hair and made sure to dip it into her nearby blood.

The Demon King might have questioned him as to whether he was sure it was her blood, seeing as quite a lot of the stuff had stained the street, but his Doppelganger abilities, so closely tied to the identity of other people and beings, allowed him to differentiate between what her blood was and what wasn't.

Holding it in his hand and pouring a bit of mana into the blood and hair, he knelt and pushed that mana into the circle.

And then, he waited.

An Imp would be there soon enough, and then-

Sooner than he expected, the circle responded, and a figure began to form.

He narrowed his eyes.

Imps never _formed_. They were too weak to do anything more than pop into existence from a weak cloud of smoke. Eyebrows furrowed, he watched as a Demon took shape, coming up to his height.

Then, they rushed past his height, until the silhouette of light was equal to his daughter in stature. With one last gasp of energy, a figure burst into existence.

He raised his eyebrows high. With his age considered, he was somewhat shocked that those fragile wisps of hair had the energy to do so instead of keeling over and dying. The waste of energy, however, was justified.

The red expanse of skin was what made up most of the demon wasn't alarming. Demon's came in all shapes and colors, even if most of them preferred to adopt more human appearances when they could.

The knives as long as the Demon King's own hand that adorned the ends of his fingers weren't alarming, either. Mid-level demons often gained natural weapons to help them channel their mana or strength.

With his worn clothing, long, straight hair, and narrowed eyes, he could even pass for some sort of monster instead of a demon.

That _was _what concerned the Demon King. A Demon that had clothing and hair was either powerful and old, or they hadn't yet lost everything in the Arenas. Considering the fact that the demon wasn't an Imp or Succubus, he must have been at least somewhat strong.

As he stood from his kneeling position and gestured to the desk, he wondered why a Demon of this strength would answer the call he had put out.

The call had had power, sure, but it had also been _concentrated_, which translated to the task being menial.

_This _demon should be brokering for more consequential things.

Still, he put on a pleasant face and gestured towards the seat his daughter had brought forward. "Won't you sit?"

The Demon nodded, resting on the plush seat. The Demon King watched the Demon's eyes widen in shock and then close slowly.

He nodded knowingly. "It's much better than what they have in Hell, yes?"

They nodded. "Definitely," they said. He grinned.

They spoke in the tongue of Belzerg, and the Demon King sighed in relief. The ritual had succeeded, then.

Because a demon could be sent to Hell from a wide, _wide_ variety of places, it was expected that they might not speak the language of the area they were being summoned to.

The ritual, thankfully, took care of that.

He sat behind his desk. "You don't seem to be much for small talk, so I'll get straight to the point."

He brought out a contract and a pen and began to talk. "I want you to deliver a letter to someone known as Tanya von Degurechaff."

The Demon King's eyes narrowed for a moment as the Demon in front of him jerked at the name, but he relayed his description of the girl, making sure to keep the suspicion off of his face as the Demon in front of him began to grow… pleased.

"Currently," he continued, holding out a hand towards his daughter, "she is outside of Belzerg. I am fairly sure that she will soon be returning to the Capital or to a town called Axel, where you can find a time to deliver it to her. Obviously, as the king of the enemy nation, I have no way to reach her personally."

His daughter handed him a quickly written letter, and he handed it to the Demon.

He sensed a question forming on the creature's lips, and he continued to explain. "I would have my spies take the letter to her, but I would rather not have them killed, if she turns out to be more hostile that believed."

The being in front of him sighed, and scanned the document, finally signing at the bottom. He then curled it up, placing it in the tattered belt at his waist. "Expedient and efficient. What about my payment? That sort of thing is usually carried out by the one creating the contract, correct, Mister…?"

Again, the Demon King felt his eyebrows rise at the slightly hungry look in the Demon's eyes.

Demon's this strong were supposed to have enough Demons serving them that fighting in the arenas for emotions was unnecessary.

He held off his judgement. For now.

"Just call me the Demon King. To answer your first question… it _is _an old code, but you are allowed to take payment from the recipient if it is specified by the contractor. Here, you'll need these," he said, quickly passing the Demon the blood-stained hair and moving past the whole issue of payment.

He looked at that piece of hair stained in blood, and then the Demon King could have sworn that he saw… _familiarity _shining in the Demon's eyes.

The Demon turned to them, bringing the hair up to his nose. He saw his daughter move forward. "I am not sure that this girl has the emotions that you could use to track her-"

"Oh, don't worry," he said, his eyes opening once more. Something eerie shined within them. "She has more than enough anger for me to track."

And, without another word, the being was gone, literally flying through the door. He turned to his daughter with a raised eyebrow.

She shrugged, a faint blush on her cheeks. "He certainly was… odd." He settled on deciding that he was odd and nothing else as he turned away. She nodded absently, helping him move the carpet and desk back into place.

Just as she was about to leave, he called out to her. "Send Evan to Axel as well."

"Is he ready for that?" she asked, spinning about to face her father's back with a skeptical look on her face.

He sighed tiredly. "I would much prefer to send Verdia, but his forces have to contend with the Hero Candidates for now. Hans isn't here to do that with how far forward we moved our plans to sabotage Alcanretia, and he's honestly the only one we have."

He sighed and turned his attention to his paperwork, ignoring the conflicted look on her face.

She suppressed the urge to offer herself – he would not agree to that. Waiting just a moment longer, she turned and left.

So much was happening, and so much had yet to happen. They were being stretched too thin, and yet her father refused to let _her _lead.

She had been under her father's watch as she was being 'trained' for years now. She had honestly outpaced any of the teachers he could find her, and he had promised her that she would be allowed to act like a _real _General soon enough.

He never said how soon, but it would never be soon enough for her. She wanted to get out a bit more, and while she knew that her father was overprotective for good reason – Hero Candidates were a big threat to them – that didn't stop all her resentment from being burnt away.

Sighing, she just hoped that this war would end soon. She didn't want to watch her father get killed, and with how long he had been trying to do this, she hoped he would see the end of the road.

-OxOxO-

"PLEASE!"

Tanya stared down at the pitiful sight before her. They reminded her of Luna, in a way, with how much they had been begging her to stay for the past hour.

Tanya didn't think Revi and his cabinet would like to be compared to a receptionist, however, so she kept her opinions to herself.

"Revi…"

He stared up at her, pouting. "Please! We can't survive without you! You've done so much in only a week! How much more could you do in a month? A year?"

She sighed and raised a pointed eyebrow. "Do you think that I asked you to promote competent people into your government just so that they'd bend over backwards to listen to me and you?"

None of them moved.

Tanya grit her teeth and gestured to the girl that looked like her mirror. "I have to take Iris home! We've solved the economic crisis, for the time being, and we've even annulled the marriage. We don't need to stay here any longer."

Of course, that wasn't her real reason for wanting to leave. The real reason for her desire to leave Elroad was much more important than just Iris being the Princess or their accomplishing the goals they had.

She'd felt some sort of massive magical disturbance in the direction of Belzerg. Viktoriya, Iris, and every Mage they had talked to in the local guild had also said something about it.

So, she needed to leave and figure out if Being X had decided to send someone truly dangerous after her. Tanya didn't immediately recognize the mana signature, so she knew it wasn't anyone she had known, though it did feel somewhat… familiar.

She turned her attention back to the current situation and sighed as Iris waved at Revi and his retainers.

He didn't notice, instead trying to melt through the stone flooring with just the force of his forehead pressed to it. Really, he seemed to be attempting to redefine the word _kowtow_ with how much he was prostrating himself.

He didn't want her to leave, apparently.

"We need you! At least leave us with a plan!"

Tanya shook her head. She didn't exactly have much more knowledge to give him. The last five days of tutoring him and his people had drained her of most of the economic knowledge she remembered, as well as an alarming amount of her experience working in HR and as an officer of the Empire.

Bailing now would help her save face, on the off chance he thought that what she had already given him was insufficient and demanded ever more.

Iris stepped forward, and Tanya mentally thanked the girl. "Prin- I mean, _King _Revi…" she trailed off, apparently at a loss at his look of dejection.

He had been crowned King of Elroad, and Tanya had had to attend a ball in that _stupid_ dress, taking several magically produced pictures with Revi, Iris, and everyone else who was there.

She would have burned any trace of herself in a dress away, but if Viktoriya had that picture in her locket, there wasn't really any way for her to destroy all evidence of such.

Speaking of which, Tanya had managed to get Viktoriya's journal magically reproduced in only minutes for a frankly outrageous fee that Tanya had paid anyway. She was none the wiser, and Tanya would be able to read it and threaten to publish it.

Once she learned the language.

"…someone of your status shouldn't lower yourself so easily, you know? We can't stay here forever, right?" Iris finished as Tanya tuned back in.

He deflated even further, but Tanya retained her resolute stare. Iris, however, seemed to weaken slightly, reaching out a hand towards him. He took it, standing and brushing off his clothing. His retainers followed suit.

"…I suppose you're right. But that doesn't mean she has to, right?" he asked, pointing at Tanya.

She just raised an eyebrow. "I am one of her bodyguards."

He looked towards her, a conniving look in his eye. "I was told that the Princess of Belzerg would be accompanied by two adventurer bodyguards."

Tanya blinked slowly, and then she sighed tiredly.

Surprisingly, Lorelei stepped forward. "Revi, you are not seriously trying to convince yourself that the Princess's retainers would hire a beastman?" she said.

Tanya hated to think about it, but it seemed that Lorelei was right. No one in Elroad had looked kindly on Lorelei, even if it was because they thought she wouldn't have money instead of simply because she was 'unlucky.'

Though Viktoriya seemed to think there were other reasons, Tanya was fairly sure that was it. She hadn't seen any wealthy beastmen, despite her time working with Revi. One of them, no matter _how _unlucky, would have gotten that high up, to be represented at least once in her talks, so their hate stemmed from monetary reasons instead of religious or superstitious ones.

Revi merely raised an eyebrow towards Tanya. "You don't seem to have a problem with her."

"Well, _I'm _not an idiot," she replied, ignoring the angry glare that Iris sent her way. "Besides, _I _signed one of those contracts to get Iris here. Not Lorelei."

He seemed to try and draw himself up once more, and then he deflated again. "Fine. Belzerg and Elroad are allies, after all, so it would be scandalous for me to do something so rash and demand that she stays. We will, after all, be wed one day…"

Tanya shook her head. "You annulled the marriage, remember?"

The people that made up Revi's advisors – the merchants from the first few days, a number of lawyers that helped with the legal code of Elroad, some retainers, and the few nobles he felt he could trust – all seemed to freeze in time with their Prince.

Tanya felt Iris send her a small glare for reminding him, but Tanya wasn't leaving with any misconceptions she didn't want him to have.

She'd been given the goal to prevent their marriage, so it was best to nip that thought in the bud.

"Th- That was just to distance myself from her! I didn't- I wanted her to hate me so that she wouldn't bother us, and I still thought that Belzerg had assassinated Ragcraft," he explained. His retainers sent the four of them pleading looks for several seconds as Revi collected himself.

"With that in mind, as a sign of our nations' alliance and friendship…" he trailed off, looking at Iris and fighting to keep his hopeful expression from wavering.

"Well…" Iris said, trailing off.

Tanya knew what was coming and fought to keep her hands from her ears. Revi, while a very attentive learner, could be charitably described as… _privileged_.

He hadn't taken her criticisms of him – his obsession with gambling and a great many other things she found backwards – very well, even if he did seem to contemplate them once he got through a temper tantrum.

"Since Elroad and Belzerg will forever be friends, we should also be friends forever," she said.

Tanya leaned backwards, closing her eyes and waiting for the cliched scream for her to reconsider to come.

It didn't.

She opened them again, only to find that Revi was staring at her.

Intently.

He strode over to them, brushing past Iris. "Then, Princess, would you be amenable to allowing Lady Degurechaff to wed me as a sign of that friendship?"

Oh.

_Oh._

OH.

It began slowly, and then she couldn't contain herself, breaking out into full-blown laughter. Really, what kind of joke-

But he _wasn't _joking. His gaze hadn't wavered a bit, even when she'd laughed in his face. Tanya saw Viktoriya barely containing her own uneasy laughter, seeing as she was aware of Tanya's unfortunate situation involving her body.

"You're _serious_?" she asked, trying to keep the edge of panic out of her voice. He nodded steadily.

She looked behind his shoulder to find that none of his various aides and retainers seemed to be making much of a fuss, which meant either he'd told them, or they supported him.

Perhaps both.

oh

She audibly gulped, and then began to reassess her options. What to do, what to do…

She sent an apologetic glance towards Iris, and then began to speak, trying to placate the kid.

"King Revi, why in the name of your nation would you choose _me_ instead of Iris? Iris could, after all, be convinced to wed you again. A single rejection is not indicative of her future preferences, and after a few years of you both getting to know each other, she may come to see you as a suitable husband," Tanya said.

She knew, even without looking, that Iris was glaring at her.

Tanya didn't care. _She _wasn't getting married, especially to someone who was required, by the design of their station, to produce an heir with his wife.

That. Was. Not. Happening.

He just smirked. "Marrying you would be much better, however. You share a close relationship with the Princess, which means you could convince her to give us the benefits we would have gotten from my marriage to her. Your looks are no different, and since you seemed to be the one leading her around and helping me run the country, you seem to be smarter as well."

Tanya sent another glance at Iris, and then turned to Revi. He seemed to be trying to logi his way through this, using the skills she had taught him in the past few days.

Cute.

"I am sixteen, while Iris is twelve. She'll become much better looking than I ever could."

He shrugged. "There are magic items that can fix that, if that is your wish."

She blinked, and then cursed mentally. If there were items that could give her a dick, then of _course _there would be some that made you simply look better.

The certainty shining in his eyes still hadn't lessened, and it was beginning to become unnerving. Tanya felt Viktoriya rest a hand on her shoulder, and she recovered from the tendrils of panic that had been creeping in.

Seeing her continued silence, he scowled briefly. "Why are you so against this? I have access to some of the most complete nobility records on the continent, and since I can't find you in them, that means you are a _very _low noble. Why wouldn't you take this opportunity?"

"I am _not_ a noble," she ground out.

He had called her a noble several times in the past few days, and unlike Darkness, he hadn't listened to her assertion that she wasn't one.

As with every other time, he ignored her, instead turning to Iris. "It was always a mystery as to why your mother died during childbirth when nobles are supposed to be some of the strongest people around."

Tanya blinked in disbelief. He wasn't _actually_-

"Could it be that you have a secret twin sister? One that isn't aware of her past and true value?" he asked, sending a piercing stare at her.

It wasn't the most piercing look she'd heard of a twelve-year-old giving – she had given much worse to the 203rd – but he was surprisingly adept at conveying suspicion through his gaze and the folded hands behind his back.

Iris fidgeted in her place, and Tanya swooped in. "I am not a noble! If you think I'm a noble simply because I have blonde hair, then why don't _you_?" she said, pointing at his red locks.

He shrugged noncommittally. "While it is generally known that nobles have blond hair and blue eyes, it is more apt to say that all nobles have _natural_ brightly colored hair and odd eye colors."

"And if I don't know that, then I'm not a noble, right?" she asked rhetorically, smirking. He paused for a moment, and Tanya pressed her advantage.

"We," she began, gesturing towards Viktoriya, "weren't born in Belzerg! We don't know all that much about what goes on in the country. We didn't even know that mackerel are grown in fields while watermelons and bananas are caught in streams!"

He blinked, and then turned to his advisors. "Is that true?"

As one, they nodded, and he turned back to her, his expression once more resolute. "See? You know more than me! You've also proven in your instruction that you know a great deal about the general workings of how the lower classes operate, based on how you predicted the economy would move."

She opened her mouth to argue, but Revi just rolled his eyes and waved a hand. "Yes, the long-term predictions haven't yet materialized, but people are already beginning to have hope in their country and in me."

She shook her head again, sending a pleading look towards Iris. She, however, stared at the far wall, not even giving her a glance. Tanya suppressed the urge to frown at the girl; she didn't want to marry him anymore than Iris did.

Back and forth, they argued.

"I don't know the proper etiquette."

"_I_ can teach _you _something, for once."

"You said that you hated Iris because she was a strong woman who could act independently of a husband."

"Seeing what you've done to help Elroad, I'm sure we could benefit from that kind of help. Plus, I was… wrong. I… apologize."

"I have no knowledge of Elroadian culture and no interest in gambling. I have terrible luck compared to many people, including Viktoriya!"

"That's perfect! Ragcraft, despite his… now obvious faults, had neither of those things when he came here. You'll be the Vizier, the Prime Minister, and the Queen, and I'll be the King. Plus, if you don't have deep ties to Belzerg, then it shouldn't take you very long to acclimate to Elroad."

Finally, Tanya put her foot down.

She brushed Viktoriya's arm off her familiar green and black mantle and breathed in deeply. Then, she began to channel mana into the Type 97 hanging from her neck and left it there, allowing it to simply glow brightly.

Viktoriya pulled on her sleeve, and she turned to her, letting some of the mana go. Viktoriya pointed at Tanya's chest. "The medallion?"

She blinked, cursed herself for allowing her anger to overcome her, and then smirked, stepping towards Revi.

Despite all her attempts to convince him otherwise, he had some sort of argument, no matter how flimsy, to back up his claims.

It seemed that she would have to be less than reasonable.

Reaching into her shirt, she brought out a medallion. She had forgotten about Claire's gift to her with how good things were going.

His eyes widened on sight, and she smirked. "Claire was very clear with me that I shouldn't abuse the power that she gave me when trusting me with Iris's protection. I'm sure that my friend, Lalatina Ford Dustiness, would _also _object to my being forced to do something I didn't want to do."

As he backed away a few steps, she reveled in her victory.

Claire had warned her about abusing her authority, but Revi didn't know that she would be abusing it to secure her _own _freedom instead of Iris's.

By bringing out the medallion and stating that they'd help her if they approved of it, he thought that the Shinfornea family would help her in avoiding him, even if she hadn't _said_ anything of the sort.

He kept up a brave front for a moment more – a moment more of holding his head high, a moment more of his eyes staring into hers – and then he collapsed weakly, hanging his head.

Tanya smirked. "Besides, if I don't want to, then there's _nothing_ you could do that would make me happy to marry you."

He let his head rise a bit. "Please… is there anything else you can tell us?" he asked weakly.

She gazed at him, momentarily feeling the urge to spite him for his attempt to court her. Then, with a sigh, she let go of the urge.

She wasn't overly petty, especially to people that could help her, and the King of Elroad certainly could help her in the future, regardless of the outcome of this war. Perhaps he could even offer them asylum, if things went poorly.

Really, he wasn't being insulting or anything. He genuinely wanted to marry her, for some reason.

That desire would probably change if he knew just how many people and beings were trying to kill her, and how… demanding she was of those close to her.

Viktoriya knew, Lorelei _would_ know, and the 203rd certainly had.

That was why none of _those_ people had dared ask about her love life.

As Tanya began to rattle off the few incomplete details that she remembered from a few Wikipedia articles about how microeconomics worked, she hoped that this would be the end of whatever feelings he had for her romantically.

She doubted that; Being X, at least, would probably foster them in order to annoy her, because _he_ was definitely petty enough for that. Still, she had made her position on the matter clear. Maybe he'd take it to heart?

-OxOxO-

Discontent, Revi watched as Iris and Tanya left, surrounded by those adventurers.

He was sad and angry to see them leave, but he couldn't hold them here; quite literally, they could fight their way out of any prison he put them in.

Or, Tanya could, at any rate. Her power seemed to be more intrinsic than Iris's, who's ability seemed largely centered in the sword at her side.

He spun around from where he'd watched them go, angrily muttering to himself and adjusting his newly-minted crown.

He would get one of them, eventually.

He was the _King_, after all. He had to be wed, and while Ragcraft and Tanya and he himself had cut down on some of the legal privileges of the nobility and royalty, cultural barriers still existed.

The younger, weaker nobles that he had given power didn't have a hope of wedding their daughters to him. The merchants and nobles that he had promoted and indebted to himself were similarly unable to propose anything.

He sighed as he made his way up to what had been Ragcraft's office and, before that, his father's for the two days that he had done his job as a King before deciding that gambling was way more fun.

It was now his. Not Tanya's, but his.

He sighed. What could he do to impress her?

It was obvious that her reasoning wasn't entirely logical; she might possess facts that invalidated his logic, but even he was aware that she would be promoted beyond what a family as low as her's probably dreamed of.

So, if he needed to appeal to the side of her that _wasn't _logical, regardless of how small it had proved itself to be in her instruction of him and his advisors in economics and her more private lessons on how to effectively manage subordinate – among other things – he needed to figure out what it was she loved and hated.

Belzerg was probably not something she loved; even though he had been the one to present the theory that she was some sort of hidden child of the late queen of Belzerg, he knew it was flimsy.

With how knowledgeable she seemed to be and the odd composition of the weapon on her back, it was possible that she was from one of the Norse successor states.

He shook his head; regardless of where she came from, it seemed that she especially prized those around her that she cared about.

That was somewhat contrary to her initial teachings that everyone around him was a resource who was fighting for their own gain, but he acknowledged that emotions could be wonderful motivators.

He had been motivated by fear to spurn Iris, after all.

Again, he shook his head, turning to the letters on his desk. He needed to travel around the whole of his country and begin to replace the more… _problematic _of his nobles.

Elroad was, after all, more than a single city. He needed to begin appealing to the hereditary nobles that weren't so completely obsessed with gambling that they'd give up their power for unlimited access to the best casinos, and he needed to begin promoting merchants, doctors, midwives, and lawyers that could be enticed into positions of power.

Once he had a sure hold on his country's economy and he wouldn't face revolt from nobles that thought he didn't deserve the position, he could focus more on aiding Belzerg enough to impress both the Princess and Tanya.

-OxOxO-

The days travelling back to Belzerg's capital, unlike their first time through the area, were much quieter. Plus, with the additional lizard runners, they made an even better time, only having to stop for two nights on the way back.

Now, after having just finished a light lunch, they were nearing Belzerg once more. Iris was, seemingly, nervous about arriving during the day. Tanya wrote off her concerns.

"Iris, I understand that you're nervous about coming back, but we got the defense funding, we got additional offense funding-"

"What!? Since when?" she shouted, looking accusingly at her.

Tanya smirked. "While you were staring at the far wall of the room and trying not to see me, I told him a bit more I remembered in exchange for offense funding equal to five percent of the defense funding," she explained.

Iris nodded, thanking her in a small voice. Tanya turned back to the reins of the lizard runners. Iris had given the three of them a bit of tutoring on how to handle them. Tanya just hoped that what she said would extend to horses, because she couldn't imagine herself using lizard runners often.

"Now, we completed all our goals, got a bit more than we asked for, cleared up the confusion surrounding Ragcraft, and even helped strengthen one of Belzerg's allies. What do you have to be nervous about?" she asked.

She shrugged helplessly. "I don't know… how will the people react to knowing I left without their knowledge? Oh, I hope I won't interrupt any of the Cult's services either."

Tanya brushed away her immediate response – to work against anything and everything to do with religion – and thought for a moment. Iris was a monarch who couldn't just ignore the Eris Cult on a whim.

Then, Tanya had an idea. Knocking on the door of the carriage, Viktoriya poked her head through the once closed window separating the inside from them.

Tanya smiled fondly at the woman. "Viktoriya, I want you to… go ahead of us and ask Claire and Rain to set something up for Iris's return. She's nervous about her reception."

The woman nodded. "Can you stop the cart first?"

Tanya nodded back, and they soon came to a stop. Viktoriya came out of the carriage, the Type 97 glowing softly.

Iris watched curiously from her seat, peering around the side, while the two of them went around the back. Iris rose, looking to try and find them, but by the time she'd got there, Viktoriya was gone.

She tilted her head, looking at Tanya. She shrugged. "She teleported there. They should have something set up by the time we get there."

Iris nodded, and Tanya sighed as they took off again. Viktoriya couldn't teleport; or rather, she couldn't yet. One of them was going to begin to learn that spell eventually, if only so that they could get out of a situation that could lead to their death.

No, she had instead hidden around the other side of the carriage, and then moved to the back when Tanya and her lookalike had gone back to the front.

Tanya wasn't pushing the lizard runners very hard now, so Viktoriya would be able to overtake them with her Flight spells and get to the capital in no time.

And when they got there, they'd be hurried quickly into the castle. If Iris was nervous about how her people might react to her being away without their knowledge, then it was obvious that they should skip that entirely.

Since the point of sending Iris to Elroad without nobles was to make sure they weren't spotted, Claire and Rain would be sure to acquiesce. Leaning back in the seat and letting Iris take over the reins, Tanya was sure that she'd be getting her rewards soon enough.

She grinned. With a location to make all the weapons and ammunition that she could ever want, enough money to buy all of that ammunition three times over, and the favor of two members of the royal families of two nations, she would be getting upgrades to her weapons soon.

Maybe she'd even construct that Adamantite chainmail she'd been thinking about?

-OxOxO-

Tanya tried to find someone to glare at while also keeping up a front for the people around their slowly moving carriage. Iris, obviously, wasn't possible, as she was currently waving at the crowds in Belzerg that were welcoming her home.

It seemed her fears of appearing untrustworthy were totally unwarranted, as the cheering crowds shouting their admiration for 'Dragon Slayer' Iris told them both.

She sent a glance towards the carriage, and then realized that even if she wanted to get mad at Lorelei, she couldn't, since the beastman had slipped out of it a mile outside of the capital.

That morning, when she announced her plan, Tanya had tried to soothe her by saying that even if there were a few crowds, she could slip out much closer to the city or inside it.

Obviously, she had realized that regardless of how they might have set out – shrouded in secrecy with only a rogue adventurer group realizing what had happened – coming back was an entirely different matter.

Regardless, Lorelei was also checking up on the mail that she and Viktoriya might have gotten from Axel.

The adventurers' guild was supposed to take care of holding it, and, upon seeing that the beastman was going to be steadfast in her refusal to come to the castle, she and Viktoriya had given the beastman their adventurer cards.

They began to near the castle, and Tanya was finally able to pick out someone she could glare at.

Claire. Rain. Viktoriya.

Obviously, there had been some misunderstanding along the line, if adoring crowds of people and a slow trot towards the castle were what greeted them instead of a quick and efficient movement from point A to point B.

Tanya let the front of happiness fall as soon as the imposing gates were closed and the cheering faded, glaring at the three of them. They seemed confused.

Or Rain and Viktoriya did, anyway. Claire was far too busy leaping upon Iris the moment she stepped down from the carriage.

She seemed to be both embarrassed by the maneuver and happy that she was willing to express her emotions like that, if her reddened, smiling face was anything to go by.

Tanya smiled at the scene for a moment, before turning her attention to Rain and Viktoriya.

"_What_ was that?" she demanded, much of the anger drained by the heartwarming display.

Viktoriya seemed to understand this, as her shoulders had dropped down and the pout on her face had dropped away. Rain didn't.

"Uhh… well, Viktoriya said that Iris seemed nervous about her reception, so we made sure to gather more people together to welcome her back. We also made sure to arrange a much larger reception party to celebrate her success."

Then, she paused, staring at them nervously. "…You all did succeed, yes?"

Tanya scoffed. "Of course. Iris wouldn't have left without having gained the funding," she said, mentally adding that she and Viktoriya would have _definitely _left the Princess in order to figure out what that magical disturbance had been about, if they hadn't been bound by that contract.

Then, Tanya went over her earlier response. It only took her a moment to realize that the Princess's retainers had thought that Viktoriya meant the definition of 'reception' that was closest to party, not the act of receiving.

She sighed, supposing that that was what she got for not being clear in her instructions. Still, misunderstandings like this didn't occur to her often…

"Well, I understand where the confusion was," she said, walking towards Rain.

"So, are we going to get our reward now, or do you have some sort of audience room?" she asked. Rain cast a glance towards the carriage, Claire, and Iris.

"Yes, there is an audience room that Claire wants to use," she said, gesturing towards the castle's doors. Tanya nodded, beckoning towards Viktoriya, who was looking nervously at Iris.

"By the way," Rain said as they walked through the halls of the castle, "why did the Prince give you those Lizard Runners?" she asked.

Tanya blinked, and then fought down a chuckle.

Viktoriya spoke up before Tanya could. "Well… Revi is the King now, actually, and he didn't give us those Lizard Runners," she said.

Tanya quickly explained that they'd gotten them from a bunch of… ruffians who had been following them in a similarly nondescript carriage.

Rain seemed to get nervous at that.

"Don't worry," Tanya said, slapping a hand on her back reassuringly, "we killed them, and Iris was unharmed. If you can figure out which noble they managed to steal them from, then you should return them and apologize."

Rain nodded stiffly, and then pushed open the doors to the audience room.

Both Claire and Iris had managed to make it to the room before them, probably due to the meandering route Rain had taken. Iris was sitting behind an opulent desk, while Claire was standing to her side.

Iris slapped away her retainer's hands every few seconds, but she seemed fond of the affection.

The room itself was as nice as the two people already inside. Lots of red and gold everywhere, a fireplace sat unused near one side of the room, while a few windows lined each part of the circular room, letting in lots of the mid-afternoon sunlight.

Claire stepped forward. "It is wonderful to see you again! With Iris in such good spirits, I assume that you have achieved all of your goals?"

Tanya nodded her head. "Yes, we-"

Rain cut her off. "Actually, I was wondering if you could give us a… day-by-day summary of what occurred. While I'm sure that Iris doesn't need to be told about a story she was a part of, I would like to learn what happened, and just how she gained the title 'Dragon Slayer' when you were supposed to protect her from unnecessary harm.

Iris looked uncertain, but Claire spoke up as well. "Yes! I want to hear your justification, as well as… how the lovely Iris was able to defeat such a beast!" she said, her voice slowly losing its professionalism.

Tanya gave Claire a raised eyebrow, but she said nothing. "Viktoriya, help me out wherever I lose track of some events, alright?"

The woman nodded, and Tanya turned back to Rain and Claire, going over everything that had happened over the last few days and making sure to keep out her attempts to find Viktoriya's diary.

-OxOxO-

Megumin grumbled to herself as she walked away from the odd, whiny, blue-haired girl and her brown-haired companion, who was trying to apologize for the girl's trick.

Her third day in Axel had proven just as fruitless as the first two. Despite her school's teaching that Mages were rare and that Archmages were legendary and constantly in demand, she had been kicked out of two parties already.

Her Explosion magic wasn't the problem, obviously. How could it be?

It was the adventurers she had talked to. All of them had accepted her help easily enough, and then kicked her out after completing a quest.

Despite the trouble she was sure would come about if she didn't find a party – the hotel would kick her out after two weeks, after all – that wasn't what irked her most.

No, she was most upset that those she talked to, _each and every one_, had…

They had…

Compared her, the unique, powerful, one-of-a-kind Megumin… to someone _else!_

She glared at the ground as she walked towards the hotel, idly kicking a rock as she went.

It had started in Alcanretia. The man driving the caravan Megumin and Yunyun had been on had talked about a small, underdeveloped girl that was able to use Detonation spells easily, who could have easily saved them from the Giant Worms and the Giant Bats and the Goblins and the Demon, Arnes, in only a few seconds.

That had sparked a bit of interest in Megumin. Clearly, the girl wasn't as dedicated to the art of explosions if she used Detonation spells, but her heart was in the right place. Maybe she too had run into the mysterious, big-breasted Mage that had saved Megumin?

Megumin had been planning on keeping an eye out for her to show her an Explosion spell. It was very hard to learn it, after all, and learning from a master would no doubt help.

Her interest and that plan had quickly evaporated, however.

The receptionist she had first spoken to had talked about the 'wonderful' Tanya von Degurechaff, who had saved their town from certain destruction, and some adventurers had told her that her destructive potential was '_near_ that of Tanya.'

The evaporated interest had precipitated down on her mood the past two days as the beginnings of resentment. The adventurer teams that had rejected her stated that they weren't worth her time because of her power.

She had heard them whisper about that Degurechaff, though, and how she knew more spells than the Detonation spells and was 'clearly' superior to her, since she could blow away lots of things and continue to function.

Receptionists? Oh, Tanya von Degurechaff was a wonderful, near perfect adventurer who's only downside was her reluctance to become an Archmage. Her magic potential might have been slightly less than yours, but the variety of her abilities, dedication, and willingness to do work more than made up for it.

Adventurers? Yes, this Tanya von Degurechaff had saved them using her awesome magic, now stop bothering us please.

Charity Workers? Oh Tanya von Degurechaff was so wonderful! She had given them help and money, and they had come to her often when seeking advice about schooling. Little girl, do you want to attend school too?

Businessmen? Yes, she had introduced the Monster Rush system of fighting monsters, which had saved many of them from going out of business by getting adventurers working again. Now, are you going to buy something?

A drunk and unfortunate man that stank of vodka? Yes, he'd helped train that girl a little bit. She would be better if she wasn't so flat, but she paid well and protected them.

Megumin might have come to the aid of a girl being insulted like that, but she hadn't been in the mood.

She kicked the rock again, and pushed past the door to the hotel, not speaking a word as she ascended the stairs. It seemed that this girl…

Had set everyone's standards too high!

She walked into her room and flopped onto her bed. No matter where she went, everyone seemed to have a good word to say about her. How was it possible that she hadn't made any enemies?

Megumin sighed into her pillow, and then lifted her head. She noticed that the walls, brightened in the light of the afternoon sun, were glowing red.

She supposed that was appropriate, and she imagined that her eyes were probably glowing too.

For she, Megumin, the number one Crimson Demon, would be her rival!

Someone so universally liked, who had ruined Megumin's chances of joining a team by setting everyone's standard so high, needed to get knocked down a few pegs!

Megumin sighed again as the light of day faded away with the sun's retreat behind the walls of Axel.

Or, Megumin _would _do that, if she continued to be rejected. She was sure to find someone, however, that would be willing to party up with her.

It was only a matter of time.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **Well, well, well. Here we have it! A short bit of day-to-day living before Aqua and Kazuma arrived, followed by an update from the Demon King and some information on The Anniversary. An arrival back in the Capital, followed by… MEGUMIN! Though they have left Elroad, the Royalty Arc is not yet over.

Tanya has helped and shaped Revi enough to make Elroad a more… influential force in the story, and her effects are being felt all over. Did you enjoy? I hope so.

**A/N 2: **Also, color me… _displeased_. I've begun reading the manga – Vol. 3, currently – so I'm wondering… why no one told me that there was a hot spring town already!? Renaming Baden-Baden was fine, I guess, but if I had known that there was already a town for it, I would have shamelessly used that one!

Ah well… I supposed most who are part of the fandom are more aligned towards the anime anyway. I might change it, if the urge strikes me. For now, though, I'll leave it.

**A/N 3: **And dammit, while the Valentine's Day episode of IQ was great… IT DIDN'T HAVE VIKTANYA!

Oh well lol. I suppose we'll just have to make do with fanfiction for the rest of time…

**A/N 4: **A/N 4: Responses to Reviews on this Website (As of 2/11/2020):

SuperiorFreak: Oh, decisions, decisions. I do think she'll eventually come around, one way or another, but until then, you'll have to hope she isn't too horribly hurt by the Break.

Sprengkamp: Yeah… while I am stealing most of the monsters' characterizations from KonoSuba, which tries to lean into stereotypes to occasionally subvert expectations, like with their Orcs, they could do with a bit more flavor.

Don't worry, though. While things will stay centered around Axel for a while, we'll get some more interesting stuff later on.

neogoki: Unfortunately, due to other reincarnates, it will be unlikely that she'll be able to steal the most recognizable brands. And, of course, Revi will do half the work for her by replacing uncooperative nobles.

setokayba2n: No problem! Despite how long it takes me to get to them, I don't exactly hate responding to reviews, especially if they are polite about it.

SoleReclaimer: Ah yes. The best way to learn about new anime: watch the big crossover one and go from there. I was (am) much the same with Shield Hero and Re:Zero, though I suppose I'll get around to them after the YS manga.

Ragnar: Welcome, Mr. President.

woodxvii: YES. KonoSuba could use some fleshing out, though the LNs do a good enough job to make them better than the first few.

Also. Keep that feeling for Being X in mind as you continue the story.

DNWorks: I know, right? He's an interesting character with history, who could be legitimately threatening to the main cast not by murdering them, but by tricking them…

AND THEY THROW HIM OUT IN THE COURSE OF A SINGLE LN!

Ah well. At least I can let him shine a bit in this. And, of course, thank you for the praise.

Haloman6494: Whoa! You came on a bit strong by calling me a fucker in your first three words, but don't worry, I'll finish this no matter what.

ErrorDataExpunged: Thank you for the review. I uh… I try my best on that front. While I have no personal experience in the area, I did some research and try to portray that feeling as best I can.

Navarone2013: Oh HELL no I ain't about to have Tanya just redo Kazuma's schtick, I find that wierd too. That's why I made sure she got there before he ever even had the idea of leaving his room.

As for how advanced KonoSuba is compared to our world… well, there are things like merchants and caravans instead of companies, but the Reincarnates reinvented things like toilets and pens and pencils and refrigerators. I think it tries to strike a balance and suggest that magic made technological advancement unnecessary.

Regardless, that is why her tutoring Revi and her work with the Mithril Foundation is so important – she did get a production line set up to make her products for Wiz to sell, and Revi's on his way to making Louis XIV jealous with how absolute a monarch he'll be.

If they have paperwork and the ability to post pieces of paper on a bulletin board for people to look at, I assume there's some magical way of doing paper stuff, like a Smith or Tailor but with paper.

I'm not reading the YS LN. I'm at Vol. 16 of the KS LN, and Vol. 6 of the YS Manga…

Though I might start reading the YS LN eventually. I mean, after how much I've already done for this, what's one more form of media, right?

And, as always, thank you everyone for continuing to review and read! We are now less than ten chapters from Tanya talking about The Thing That Happened.


	29. Misplaced Thoughts

Rain and Claire shared a _look_ as the mirror of their Princess finished her story with a smile on her face. Both were trying not to panic too much.

On the surface, everything was fine. The marriage had been dissolved, and Claire was happy to have the legal documentation that said it was so, because he could easily go back on his word if they hadn't gotten it.

They'd even secured the defense funding and an additional bit of offense funding.

Iris had muttered something about investing in infrastructure with some of the defense funding, but she'd exploded into a small rage at Claire's pronouncement that she would not have cared if they'd gotten that stuff, as long as Iris was free from being wed to Revi.

So, if Elroad had been fixed, if the relationship between the two nations had grown better, if no one had gotten harmed all that much, then it seemed that there really shouldn't have been much need to worry.

However, they said they'd gotten extra lizard runners from a group of 'rough looking' men. Four men, exactly, actually, who had equipment and some amount of training.

Those would be the adventurers that Claire and Rain had hired.

They had hired them, told them to follow the Princess and to make sure that Degurechaff didn't get up to anything bad.

All of them had been killed.

Tanya von Degurechaff had murdered _humans_. Adventurers, sure, but _humans _nonetheless.

Claire felt she could forgive the action. They might have been resourceful adventurers whose only bad mark was a single night of weakened security, but they _were _commoners, and Degurechaff _had _completed her orders better than she had honestly expected.

She didn't think that she could forgive the influence this Degurechaff might have on Iris, however. Murdering opponents was _not _something a Princess should be doing. They needed to separate them.

Immediately, if it was possible.

Rain didn't want to forgive the action or the influence. If she was willing to kill _humans_, there was no telling what she might be capable of.

Neither of them allowed emotion to show on their faces as they thought these things. As Rain began to talk to Iris about the banquet they were having later to celebrate, Claire stepped forward, shaking Tanya's hand and, after a moment of hesitation, Viktoriya's as well.

"As agreed, you will be gaining rewards for guarding Iris," she said. She leaned closer towards them and began whispering as Rain and Iris hugged. "You will both receive additional rewards from me for the job as well."

Tanya smiled. "When will we discuss them?"

Before she could speak, Rain walked over. "Iris said that you have a reward in mind for your duties?" she asked.

Tanya smirked. Finally, she would get a place where she could begin to amass something that resembled an assembly line where she could begin to produce more weapons and bullets than she could ever use.

"Yes. As payment for the stories that I told Iris, for protecting Iris, and for helping fix Elroad's economy, I want to be given aid in locating and purchasing a tract of land with a few buildings on it," she relayed.

They looked at her curiously. "Wouldn't you rather prefer money, or perhaps some kind of weapon or piece of armor from the royal treasury?" asked Rain.

Tanya opened her mouth, about to refuse the offer, but then she stopped. She shook her head.

"No," she said, sending a _very_ knowing look towards Claire, "I already have a way to earn money. I want help in buying land and seeing as how patents require a host of procedures to be followed, I'm sure that having the Princess's help me might smooth things over."

Claire nodded slowly, quickly interpreting Tanya's _look _as having meant that she wanted the reward for the extra job of ensuring the destruction of their marriage to be purely monetary.

"Although…" Tanya continued, pressing a finger to her chin and furrowing her eyebrows, "if something catches my interest, might I ask for something from the treasury for a reduced limit on the type or amount of land I can obtain?"

If there _was_ some kind of relic or armor in there that caught her fancy, she would want to have it, if only for the resale value.

Maybe they'd have a Divine Relic that could change her gender?

It would be nice to get that out of the way right now.

-OxOxO-

Tanya was blushing madly under the scrutinizing gaze of Viktoriya. She had known that she'd probably regret getting them, but…

"There was nothing else in that treasury but money," she said, trying to avoid Viktoriya's gaze and put her body between her eyes and the small cart she was dragging behind her.

Claire had walked them to the second floor and showed them a very strong magical barrier – stronger than either of their Active Barriers, in fact – that was supposed to be impenetrable.

While browsing the various items inside the vault, Viktoriya and Tanya had discussed how long it would take to get through in Germanian.

Viktoriya thought it could be done in a few hours by shooting a couple thousand rounds at it, while Tanya thought that it could be cut through in minutes using all their mana on their Sharpen Blade spells.

The barrier might have been great for defending a single location, and it would slow them both down if they tried to get through it. Both knew, however, that no barrier was impenetrable without an infinite amount of mana to match.

Tanya knew of only one way that might allow her to get that much mana. She wasn't likely to ask for it from _him, _though.

As Claire had claimed on their way to the vault, a great many treasures were arrayed inside. Swords and knives and pieces of armor and mountains of cash and pieces of jewelry had been strewn throughout the vault, and all of it looked like it held power.

Tanya, however, wasn't interested. She had enough problems with _two _Divine Relics, and she wasn't sure her psyche could handle having more of Being X's cursed items placed on her body. She didn't know which were cursed by him and his cohorts, so she'd steered clear of them.

Viktoriya had also been rather uninterested, if only because she had started a conversation with Claire about Tanya and Iris's looks.

Tanya felt her face curdle like unrefrigerated milk at the way Claire had reverently described Iris. That had been _weird _to listen in on…

Still, she had eventually thought that leaving the vault with nothing would be fine.

Then… she had seen _them_. Several stacks of books, laid out in a pile, in one of the corners of the room. She'd wandered over and found a startlingly large number of works from her first life.

Like the Shakespeare book she had found in the library that she had met Verdia in, all of them were familiar pieces of popular, legendary writing. Some were similarly high-brow classics from Europe and beyond.

Others… were not. Trashy teen romance novels, the Harry Potter series, encyclopedias, and other works of fiction and nonfiction were present. She found some scientific books that might even help her in constructing her weapons or other kinds of explosives.

And, of course, there was manga. Lots and lots of manga and its more… _illicit _cousin.

She'd asked Claire why they were in the vault, and she'd been told that, though a past king had paid money to get them, the translators couldn't decipher the language.

Tanya had nodded understandingly at that; the language of this world was much closer to European languages with its individual letters that meant nothing until strung together instead of the logographic system used in many East Asian languages.

So, she'd taken some of the scientific books, some of the more acclaimed books that could be translated and sold, and some of the manga and… _hentai._

All of it would be worth twenty times their weight in gold.

The acclaimed fiction books and manga would probably earn a lot, if made cheaply and sold widely. The scientific books would be used to improve her weapons and magic. And… the hentai… would be good for whenever she finally found a way to change genders. And she could sell it too.

This place was Medieval. Tanya was not sure there would be a lot of porn lying around for her or anyone to buy – well or crudely made.

Viktoriya sighed. "And like I've told you, Tanya, I don't even know _what _those books are about, so it looks more suspicious if you _keep talking about them."_

Tanya, finally, stopped herself from apologizing, deciding that she was speaking just a _bit _too much right now.

After a few moments of idly walking down the street, she cleared her throat.

"Claire said that we could each bring a plus one, right?" she asked, looking towards Viktoriya.

After that meeting, Tanya had given back Claire's medallion, and the retainer had led them to the sturdy gates of the castle. At the behest of Iris, who had rushed out of a meeting with Rain on the nobility attending her banquet, Claire had invited them to come to the party.

Tanya had been against going, but she'd melted against Viktoriya's pleading eyes and reminder that they hadn't taken a break in a while.

Even if Tanya could have argued that what they were doing now was nowhere near as straining as fighting on the front lines and might count as one long break, or that their job in Elroad – filled with stops at restaurants and casinos – counted as a break from their quest against the Demon King, the look on Viktoriya's face meant that she just _had _to agree.

That didn't mean, however, that Tanya didn't have a plan to get out of it – and that dress – early.

She had done more than enough to cement herself in Iris's good graces. If nothing crazy happened, she'd at least attempt to retire early. If she was unable to retire simply because she wanted to – maybe Iris would ask her to stay longer or something – she was also sure she could get 'asked' to leave too.

Viktoriya nodded, adjusting the bag she held in her hands.

They'd used up their packed food while they were travelling, so Tanya had just stuffed her own bag inside of Viktoriya's.

Tanya narrowed her eyes at the thought of her faithful friend.

Viktoriya was… what, twenty-four? Twenty-five?

She wasn't exactly getting any younger, and while Tanya had a plethora of reasons to stay away from romance – only creeps would like her body, she was… _intense_, according to the 203rd, and she had absolutely no desire to touch a penis that wasn't her own – Viktoriya didn't have the same excuses.

Tanya shook her head. She wouldn't dedicate so much time to thinking about something so inconsequential, but it seemed that this world would attempt to remind her that, even if she wasn't desirable, political marriages existed as well.

It was only logical that she would think about the ever-present woman who'd not left her side in what felt like years.

And, if Viktoriya was interested in someone, Tanya would like to approve of him.

"Do you have your eyes on anyone in particular? I know we haven't exactly run into a lot of… _upstanding_ individuals so far, _but…_" Tanya asked, trailing off suggestively and raising an eyebrow.

Viktoriya colored herself red in embarrassment, and Tanya let a small smile shine through her even gaze.

She shook her head. "No, I… I don't think so."

Tanya nodded, and let the matter slip from her mind – if she didn't want to talk about it, Tanya wouldn't pry – and focused on walking and ignoring the slight amount of shame she felt about the small, red wagon of book that were trailing them.

Oh, they were covered, and no one could see their _highly _suggestive covers. But still…

Eventually, they had reached their inn once again. Both were about to go inside, when Lorelei jumped them, panting slightly.

She glared at them. Viktoriya fidgeted under her gaze, while Tanya just raised an eyebrow. The beastman threw down the bag gripped in one of her hands.

Tanya guessed that it held all her belongings, considering the beastman had said that she took most of what she owned with her whenever she travelled because she thought that the place that she was staying at would throw them out, even if she paid in advance.

"I ran all the way to the castle, looked for you two, and was told in no uncertain terms that _my kind_ wasn't welcome with a celebration going on. And where do I find you? Strolling back towards your rooms like you don't need to get dressed and prepared!"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. We don't need to prepare all that much," Tanya said, aware that their baths would take longer than any preparations.

They had both become accustomed to life on the front, where makeup was nonexistent and your appearance didn't matter to the enemy.

Tanya almost retched at the thought that her appearance mattered to _one _of her former enemies, and then she buried the thought in a hail of mental gunfire. And artillery fire. And just plain old fire.

Tanya would spend a bit more time attempting to make her hair behave, and then she'd put it in a ponytail or allow Viktoriya to braid it, even if having her hair arranged felt… odd.

Viktoriya wouldn't take too much more time, either. She put on a bit of makeup that made her glow – not literally, as that was probably an option in this bizarre place – and arrange her own hair, but she wouldn't take hours.

Tanya stopped, looking at Lorelei with an appraising eye. Then, she smirked, wondering if this was how she might be 'asked' to leave early. "Say Lorelei. Do you have any plans this evening?"

The beastman blinked, tilting her head in confusion. Tanya then smirked, and she heard Viktoriya groan behind her.

"Lighten up, Viktoriya. I might not let you doll _me _up too much tonight, but you have someone right here to do with as you wish."

Lorelei backed up. She didn't seem entirely happy about the idea, but she hadn't rejected it yet.

"Uhh… now that I think about it, you have some letters, Tanya. From something called the 'Mithril Foundation' and some girl named 'Wiz.' Shouldn't we take care of that first?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, jumped forward, and grabbed the woman's arm. "Thank you for telling me! I'll grab them after getting ready."

Lorelei seemed to whimper, but Tanya didn't let go of the taller girl's arm. Viktoriya grabbed the other one. Both smiled at her, and if Lorelei had been in another circumstance, she would have called those smiles saintly.

Unfortunately, they contained a hidden malice that Lorelei could feel in the adamantine grip on her arms. She sighed.

If she really didn't want to, they'd probably let her go, but Lorelei would be lying if she declared that she didn't want to go, if for no other reason than a desire to see what everyone was wearing. Lorelei didn't know when the next opportunity to see the height of fashion would present itself.

Hanging her head and her ears, Lorelei picked up her bag. Tanya smirked, and turned her head to Viktoriya.

"Go find a Tailor and purchase their services. We'll probably end up late to the party, but I don't think we'll be _too _late."

Viktoriya smiled and saluted, and they went their separate ways, one contemplating how she could frame the whole experience as the first part of Lorelei's training, while the other was wondering if she should start looking for a… romantic interest.

Viktoriya wasn't getting any younger, after all, and maybe she wouldn't think those blasted – wonderful – thoughts about Tanya if she had actual experience with a boyfriend.

-OxOxO-

Back from the trip to the Tailor with a plan to meet in twenty minutes in her room, Viktoriya sighed as she looked at the head of the lonely beastman resting in the large central bath.

Tanya had left a note on her door addressed to Viktoriya that she was taking a quick shower in her room, and that she should hand her dress over to the Tailor so he could make a number of listed alterations.

Her note had mentioned she would be heading to the guild and pick up the letters Lorelei had mentioned after she was done with the shower and her dress was fixed.

Viktoriya shook her head as she pushed open the door.

She didn't mind bathing with Tanya… if it was to keep up appearances, of course. She had no doubt that Lorelei would probably begin to have very pointed questions about their situation…

Again, she shook her head as her thoughts began to drift towards how nice it would be to bathe with Tanya. Instead, she simply slipped inside the room, trying not to make any noise and honestly wondering how comfortable Lorelei could be in the bath with how tall she was.

Lorelei heard her, and the beastman turned around almost as quickly as her ears had with a questioning look on her face. Viktoriya just smiled politely as she gazed at the beastman who was neck-deep in the water.

There was no rule against utilizing the communal bath, even if they were the only two people there due to the late hour. The sun had dipped below the walls, but Claire had assured them that the party wouldn't start until around 10.

Viktoriya sighed as she stripped down and took off the Type 97 and her other necklace from her throat. She stared at the necklace fondly, idly wishing that she had some sort of pocket watch to help her plan.

Tanya had said something about inventing one, and Viktoriya hoped that she would. It was getting annoying to have to rely on vague approximations determined through the position of the sun and moon, and neither of them had ready access to the tall grandfather clocks that were in Iris's castle.

Lorelei watched the woman.

Lorelei wasn't an Axis Cultist, of course, but sometimes she stared in remembrance of what she had lost.

She was also curious. Her ears had allowed her to hear through the walls of the hotel they stayed at in the capital of Elroad, and she had heard the two of them taking separate showers.

They were _allowed_ to do that, of course, but Lorelei thought it was a bit odd. Adventurers, and more importantly, same-sex adventurers who had to penny pinch, were inclined to do such things together to save money. Showers weren't cheap by any means, after all.

Lorelei had shrugged it off at the time; she didn't like to bathe where anyone else could see her, so they probably had their reasons. She just…

Lorelei grimaced. If Viktorya and a Tailor were dressing her, there was little chance she would be able to continue to wear the long, flowing pants that obscured her legs hidden.

With a small splash, Viktoriya sank into the water, sighing contentedly. Lorelei nearly jumped up, but she shook her head and calmed herself.

Lorelei stared at Viktoriya again. Maybe…

Maybe Tanya had some reason like Lorelei's for not wanting to bathe with others?

Leaning back on the edge of the bath, Lorelei sighed. This situation didn't seem to call for much subtly, and Lorelei wasn't inclined to try for any in a bath.

"So… why don't you two take baths together?" she asked, tilting her head. Suddenly revealing what else had changed about her because of the accident would be weird.

The question she had asked wasn't any _less _weird or sudden than revealing the changes, but Lorelei felt a lot more confident about talking about anything other than her own… _malformed _body.

Viktoriya felt a grimace flash across her face, but she smoothed it out, trying to think of an excuse.

Lorelei probably wouldn't think their origins were as insane as many people in their last world, with how bizarre this one was, but Viktoriya didn't think she'd accept Tanya's story like she had.

Lorelei was about to fill the silence herself, but Viktoriya spoke up just in time. "Tanya has some… circumstances that make revealing herself detrimental to our capabilities as a unit," she explained, trying not to trip over her words.

Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "That was certainly impersonal," she stated blandly

Before Viktoriya could add to the statement, a question came flying at her. "Was she cursed or something? She isn't a Monsume, but…"

Viktoriya pursed her lips, idly wondering if Tanya thought that her reincarnation as a girl counted.

She decided to tell a half-truth. "She was cursed, yes, but it wasn't physical," she said.

One of those truth-detecting devices couldn't have detected the lie, since Tanya was forced to pray to a being she didn't believe in to activate the Type 95. A different curse than the one Lorelei probably imagined, but a valid way to lie nonetheless.

Lorelei nodded absently, wondering what it could be. Tanya hadn't _seemed_ very cursed, but maybe it was one of those finicky ones that could help you in some situations and hinder you in others.

"You know…" Viktoriya trailed off as she read the tension in the beastman's upper body, "if you really don't want to go to the party, you don't have to come. I can always cancel the meeting with the Tailor…"

She let the offer hang in the air, and Lorelei sighed, bringing her hands up to her face for the first time. "No, that must have been expensive-"

Viktoriya shook her head. "Oh, it wasn't a problem! I just said that we were going to the Princess's party and that she, along with everyone who was expecting us, would be rather upset if we didn't arrive on time. He was very cooperative after that, and he even gave us a discount!"

Lorelei's hands paused by her bangs where they had been adjusting her hair.

She looked at the smiling woman, a concerned smile on her face.

She wanted to ask if she had been subtly threatening the man, but she sounded so… _innocent _when retelling it that it was hard to think that could be the case.

Viktoriya's eyes widened as she stared at Lorelei's now-visible arm, and the beastman winced. She'd caught sight of one of her _other _changes. Viktoriya's eyes flicked away, and Lorelei sighed.

"No, it's fine. I… I really shouldn't be keeping secrets from you all, and you've already done a lot for me-"

Viktoriya suppressed the guilt that had been growing at the mention of secrets, shaking her head and groaning as she hit herself in the face with her wet hair.

"Lorelei… you don't owe us anything. To put things as Tanya would, we're all 'allies,' which basically means friends, as far as her dictionary is concerned. We're not going to pressure you into anything unless you've done something to us."

Lorelei nodded absently. They might not realize – neither of them fit the word 'average' very well – but that was an incredibly generous offer.

Tailors weren't expensive; they were exorbitantly costly, and the woman had even blackmailed someone with the threat of the royal family for her.

"It's just… the last time I told my adventuring party about what happened, they abandoned me. That was the whole reason I had to leave Axel in the first place," she admitted.

The implication was obvious: she thought that if she revealed more of herself, they'd ditch her like they had.

Viktoriya smiled reassuringly. "We won't abandon you. We've stuck with you this far, right? Tanya doesn't abandon people without good reasons, and this seems like something she'd shrug off and say 'Why should I care? You're still contributing to the party, right?'" Viktoriya said in a squeaky, high-pitched voice.

Viktoriya watched Lorelei chuckle at her imitation. She then watched emotion fight for dominance on Lorelei's face. She saw trepidation and nervousness, but it eventually crystallized into determination.

"I told you two that my hair turned white and I got rabbit ears, right?" she asked, making sure that she hadn't inadvertently told them what had happened already.

Viktoriya nodded, and Lorelei continued, supposing that this was it.

"Well, that wasn't… _everything _that had changed. My height increased, and my nose also shrank. I have a _tail_, too, but that's hidden easily enough," she said dejectedly.

"I've got patches of fur that run up the top of my arms, and…"

The beastman grimaced once more and shifted her position, bracing her arms on the side of the pool so she could see.

Viktoriya could see that fur did indeed run up the top of her arms, beginning with an arrow point-shaped start on the back of her wrist and ending on her shoulder.

Before she moved again, however, she sighed, and moved some of the wet hair near the side of her head. Viktoriya's eyebrows rose.

In her many years of fighting, Viktoriya had not seen many wounds, compared to Medical Mages, doctors, or even regular infantry.

Aerial Mages didn't often survive wounds, since getting a bullet put inside you usually destroyed a mage's ability to concentrate, which was a main component of using magic effectively.

The 203rd was able to take more damage than most, but even Tanya hadn't thought that shooting them to get them to build up pain tolerance was a good idea.

Despite her lack of experience with wounds, Viktoriya could easily tell that something wasn't _right_ with the image before her. Instead of human ears, or even a disturbing patch of smooth skin, there was instead an angry ball of muscle.

What Viktoriya thought might have been some odd parasite or growth was actually intermittent hair that resembled the short fuzz on her arms.

Before she could ask, however – did the teleportation with the rabbit destroy her human ears? – Lorelei lowered her arm and braced herself again, lifting a leg out of the water.

Viktoriya managed to stop the full-body lurch that she felt at seeing it. She was unable to hide the grimace on her face.

It had no hair, but it would have been better if it had. They would have looked more like an animal's instead of some sort of upsetting addition to a human body, like Frankenstein's monster.

It seemed like her legs had been stretched from the knee down, and that included her feet and toes. Each of the five digits raised in the air looked like they were almost as long as Tanya's fingers, even though they looked nothing like a hand in the slightest.

The skin looked just as stretched as the limb did. The arrangement didn't seem like it was physically painful, but Viktoriya wasn't sure if that was because of Lorelei's familiarity or if it actually didn't hurt.

Viktoriya shook her head and looked at Lorelei's face. The determination was bleeding into fear. Viktoriya sighed, and decided for an attempt at levity.

"I'm guessing this is why you wear those terrible pants?"

Her ears, hanging down past her face to compound the nervous sadness that was present, jumped up, and her leg splashed down into the water as indignation surged forward.

"What do you mean?! They might not be the _best_, but no one's said anything bad about them! They allow for a lot of movement and I don't have to show off twenty thousand inches of skin in the process like a Thief! Who do you-"

Viktoriya was trying not to chuckle – she didn't want to interrupt the verbal crusade – but she failed to hold it in.

_Twitch._

The glare, the twitching ears, and the way her face was all scrunched up… it was just too much.

As she broke out into laughter, Lorelei pouted and crossed her arms. "Oh, how very funny. See how I act next time you have some deep dark secret revealed."

Her laughter abruptly ceased as she tried to keep thoughts of Tanya and a blush off of her face. "Lorelei…"

She trailed off, and the beastman turned to her, still pouting.

"I just want you to know that I don't mind."

Viktoriya sighed as Lorelei became confused instead of happy. "Back in the Empire – the place where Tanya and I came from – she volunteered at the age of _eight _to join the army."

Lorelei seemed to resemble a different type of beastman with how owlish her gaze had become. Viktoriya nodded.

"The Empire was a meritocracy where what you could do meant more than your appearance, age, or gender. I may not have been born there, but Tanya's proved that appearances aren't everything," she explained.

Lorelei became quiet after that, and Viktoriya tried to fill the silence. "Just… be aware that even if everyone else judges you for what you look like, as long as you're comfortable with what you are, we'll support you."

Lorelei looked at her, hope shining on her face. "Really?"

Viktoriya tried not to sigh. "Yes, really," she confirmed, aware that she wasn't exactly following her own advice in regards to Tanya.

But… there were plenty of reasons she could pick to ignore her odd feelings.

Tanya didn't seem remotely interested in her, or anything regarding sex or love. She was dedicated to her job and securing safety for herself and getting revenge on that dastardly Being X.

She was physically a girl… and Tanya seemed perpetually unhappy with that fact.

There just wasn't any way it would work, and Viktoriya was better off finding someone she would be fine with and stop embarrassing herself.

Lorelei picked up on the conflict she was feeling. "What's wrong? I… I told you a lot about my past. You can rely on me, right?"

Viktoriya's returning smile was thin. "Yeah, I guess… I wish Tanya would talk about her past too…" she muttered, trying to ignore one problem by focusing on another.

Tanya didn't want to talk about the end of the war, and while Viktoriya wouldn't push her – never again – she was her friend.

Didn't that mean they could tell each other their problems?

Viktoriya caved under Lorelei's unwavering gaze. "Tanya, among her names, was known as Mithril. She killed several enemy mages single-handedly, holding out for ten minutes… back when killing ten mages on your own was legendary and not expected of us. They gave her the name because of her… value compared to other metals, the magic that is intrinsic to her, as well as her… 'purity.'"

Both paused as that, until they both began to chuckle. Viktoriya wasn't exactly how she had somehow been thought of as pure, but the valuable part certainly applied.

"Anyway… do you know what Mithril _is?"_ she asked. Lorelei's eyebrows furrowed. "I think it has… something to do with magic?" she ventured. Eventually, she just decided to shake her head. Viktoriya began to explain.

"It's basically a form of magically-treated silver. It has the power to soak up _massive _amounts of mana from its surroundings, or it can transfer it from one place to another," she said, pointing at the lights above them and gesturing to the water around them.

"Most appliances, like the lights and the water heater in this room, as well as other things like refrigerators, have a small amount of Mithril in them that allows them to suck mana out of the people nearby and from the air in order to function."

They had both deconstructed a light in the room in Axel that she and Tanya had shared a few weeks ago and found a bit of the metal.

After Tanya had calmed down in the face of the drain on her mana touching the metal caused, they had discussed its presence.

Their world – Tanya's second world – didn't have the resources to make enough Mithril to use it instead of electricity, which meant this world could probably extract it like any other ore, or some job gave its owner the ability to produce it quickly.

"Like Manatite crystals?" she asked. Viktoriya nodded.

"People can't draw the mana out of Mithril, however, and it usually turns back into regular silver after a while," she said.

She took a heavy breath and clenched her fists. Even thinking about that despicable, horrible, _blight_…

"She… that horrible stuff was _used _against Tanya," she finished, gritting her teeth at the memories this discussion was bringing up.

"Well… like you said, I should be comfortable with myself, which extends to you two, too. If she wants to talk about it, I'm here," she assured her, smiling.

Viktoriya smiled back thankfully, and then shook her head. "Enough of that stuff. I think that the Tailor is going to get here soon, so we should hurry up," she said.

Lorelei nodded, leaving the feeling that there was more Viktoriya wanted to talk about than she was letting on alone, for now.

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed again as she thanked the people she was passing by while suppressing the twinge of anger. That was the third time she had been mistaken for the Princess.

It wasn't hard, of course. The dress she was wearing was similar to the one Iris had been wearing during her meetings with her and Revi, when she wasn't fighting whatever he had brought in for the day.

In fact, it was the same dress that Tanya had been wearing, with a few key alterations that made it slightly more bearable.

It was no longer made to… _accentuate_ her in any way, and it also had pockets. Instead of strapping a pistol to her leg, she'd strapped her _Seitengewehr _and its sheath there instead, choosing to put her pistol and the Type 95 in her pockets.

The Type 97 strung to her neck, the mental fortitude ring on the middle finger of her left hand, and the circlet on top of her head didn't help her look any less than the Princess, even if circlets were equipment for adventurers.

The damnable Circlet of Greatness still glowed and reflected the light coming from the numerous street lamps in an odd way, even after months inside of her hat. That headpiece had been the first people mentioned after greeting her as the Princess.

She had kept up the ruse. She and Viktoriya could bring two people to the party, and while Lorelei was an obvious choice, she had been unsure of who else to bring.

Fortunately, she _did _remember one person that Iris had spoken of somewhat fondly and who had advised her on what to wear during her first meeting with the Princess.

Opening the doors of the guild, she looked around for a moment, attempting to locate the man. She could see a number of adventures, all of them with odd arrangements of armor and ridiculously sized weapons.

Tanya was about to wade through the crowd of drunk and boisterous adventurers, seeing as she couldn't locate him. She took a moment to try and guess if he'd be closer to the counter or to the entrance of the Pit.

"Is that the PRINCESS!?"

Tanya suppressed a groan as every eyeball in the place – because she could see that more than a few people were sporting eye-patches – turned to her, curiosity marking their faces.

Instead, she just smiled and made her hand move back and forth in an effort to appear like she was actually the amiable Princess and not an adventurer who would like nothing more than to violently replace her current clothing.

"It totally is!"

_Twitch_.

Tanya tried not to glare at them for the squealing coming from some of them and the gasps from nearly everyone else. She needed something, and she would clear the, of their presumption soon enough.

"Hello! I was looking for… Kyouya Mitsurugi? Is that Hero Candidate in the building?" she asked in that high-pitched voice of her's, all the while attempting to keep her anger controlled.

She wanted them to think she was the Princess, at least for the moment.

The cacophony rose, for a moment, but then the man in question burst from the crowd, trailed by his nervous and jealous looking compatriots.

"Princess Iris! I heard you need me? What's the matter? Do you want to be told of my latest adventure, or is there some sort of threat that requires my assistance?" he asked, almost out of breath.

Tanya dropped her kindly demeanor, glaring at the circle of adventurers around them. "It's Tanya, actually."

He stared at her blankly. "My name, that is. I'm not actually Iris. I've been invited to a party, and-"

His friends seemed to understand her before he did. "How dare you! Why would the wonderful Kyouya want to hang out with a girl like you?"

Tanya sighed, and grabbed the bridge of her nose. "I need to invite someone. We recently returned from Elroad, and I wanted to invite you, considering I haven't spent enough time in the capital to meet many other people."

He nodded in understanding, but before he could answer, Tanya turned her glare towards his friends and continued to speak to him. "And to make things clear: you are coming as my _friend_. I have no desire to date you."

The pair, again, seemed to want to speak up, but he spoke first. "I don't have any other plans, so I think I'll take you up on your offer. And… ah, your opinion on dating me is appreciated."

Tanya smiled. No doubt he was happy she didn't want to date him; the two women that hung off of him seemed intent on making sure that they were the only two that could compete for that honor.

"Good," she said, turning to leave. She needed to get caught up, and some innocent questions about what had been happening would seem innocuous enough as dinner conversation that he wouldn't recognize it as the interrogation it was.

Plus, he was supposed to be strong, so he would be a good person to know, even if all she needed was some hired muscle if one in her position decided to oppose the Demon King.

Then, just as her hand graced the doors, she sighed. Right, the letters. She turned back around and made her way to the counter, happy that the crowds parted as she made her way towards it.

That same receptionist, at her inquiring glance, held up her letters.

"A _beastman_ came to ask about your letters. Is she-"

_Twitch_.

She smiled as nastily as he'd made that word sound. "Please make sure that you don't insult people who use your services. While the guild might be funded by the state, I'm sure the nobles I know wouldn't appreciate hearing that you've been insulting your own employees," she bit out as her eyes narrowed.

For some reason – it couldn't possibly be the look she had sent him – he made no more attempts at conversing with her, and Tanya quickly plucked her letters from his hand. She'd go through them later.

She hoped that the golden lettering on the Succubi's card was indicative of their success and not an attempt to impress her, because she would not be impressed by a bit of flashy writing.

She left quickly, making her way back to their inn and only giving the passing people a quick wave as they gasped at seeing the Princess. Hopefully, they would realize that she was in a hurry and not in any mood to speak.

Tanya's eyebrows creased as the lights around her began to flicker into darkness.

She thrust a hand into her right pocket, placing a hand on her pistol even as the last light died. If those things were going out, someone was damaging them or pulling the mana out of them.

A light tap on her shoulder sent her spinning around, pistol drawn and pointing away from her.

Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight in front of her. It was hard to tell, but they were a tall figure garbed in a voluminous cloak that hid their features well. The concealment of their features might have made them more inconspicuous if they were shorter, but their height made their shady cloak stand out even more.

She slowly let her pistol drift downwards at the sight of hands held up in a placating manner. If they had wanted to attack her, they could have done so without alerting her, before they were turned to shreds.

"I'm sorry, Ma- ma'am. I am a Demon, here to deliver to you a letter," he explained, letting one hand slowly drift into his cloak and retrieve it.

She scoffed. "I could guess. Your magic reeks of the same stuff that hangs on the Succubi in Axel."

He sighed at her declaration, and then continued on. "The… Demon King wishes to open a dialogue with you." He shoved the letter into her other hand, and she winced at the sudden, cutting pain in her hand.

She looked down and saw, in the limited light from the stars and the moon, a minute cut. She looked back up at the demon and saw that what she had assumed were fingers were actually… sharp _knives _that were as red as the face that had been revealed by him jumping back in surprise.

Before she could ask the… familiar voice who he was or why he was delivering the letter, a bright light began to emanate from him.

"What? The payment…" he trailed off, and then stared at her again.

"MA-!"

That was the last she heard from the demon as he faded into a bright light that made her look away.

She opened her eyes again, to find that the street was bright once more. She looked down at the letter and grimaced.

The only thing written on the blood-red letter was 'Degurechaff.' That meant there was definitely not any chance that they could have been mistaken.

She sighed, and then continued to walk towards their inn, which was now in sight. For someone in her position, this could be an enticing offer to switch sides. On the other hand, someone in her position might have also grown to care for some of the people present in Belzerg and Elroad.

Tanya sighed again. She would think about it later. For now, she had to drop off her three letters, meet up with Viktoriya and Lorelei, and head to the party.

After that, she'd hopefully get through the whole ordeal quickly and move on to whatever house or mansion or property she could afford with the cash she was getting and the help of the Princess.

-OxOxO-

After getting through the front gates – where a pair of _knights_ had mistaken her for the Princess and had only been confused by the lack of fruit in her hair – Tanya had come into the so-called 'banquet room.'

She had been… confused by the building it was housed in, to say the least.

The room's look could have been summed up in a single word: Japanese.

There were _tatami_ mats on the floor, _shoji_ had been used in place of regular doors and windows, and the outside of the building situated in the middle of the castle's courtyard had the sloping roofs present in a wide variety of traditional East Asian architecture.

If Tanya could sum up what it looked like in two words, however, she would say that it looked _stereotypically _Japanese.

The doors didn't actually slide to open; they opened like any other door Tanya had encountered thus far.

The _tatami_ mats might have looked okay at first glance, but many of them were different sizes instead of the regular rectangles they were supposed to be.

Tanya supposed that was to be expected. Most people didn't really know the meaning or purpose behind a lot of cultural practices – she certainly didn't remember all of them – but for things to have strayed so far from what they had been in the Japan she remembered…

How long had Being X been tossing Japanese teenagers into this world?

Iris had mentioned something about her ancestors being related to 'Hero Candidates,' but if they had been Japanese and the reason for the doors sliding had been forgotten, then how long had that infuriating thing been meddling in other people's lives?

Tanya was startled out of her musings by a choking sound. She looked towards the first source of it.

Iris was staring directly at Lorelei, slack-jawed. That surprise was quickly wiped away, and she walked towards the girl with a confused expression on her face.

Tanya turned to the other source of the choking noise, to find that Mitsurugi had arrived and was behind them, staring at the woman's back.

"The b- I… I mean, uh, Lorelei? How…?"

Iris's question dragged Tanya's attention back to the Princess, who had not asked her question and was instead staring at the tall woman. Tanya knew why.

Claire and Rain were both hovering near her, looking at her in concern and trying to find whatever fault Iris saw in Lorelei.

They could see nothing wrong, but Iris could look past the fancy clothing and see the beastman that had made it past the gates and into a room filled with nobles that disliked her kind.

Tanya was well aware of other people's willingness to look past oddities, however. With how she was dressed, Lorelei didn't really seem like she was anything other than a very tall, white-haired woman. Those were the only visible incongruences with her image of a well-dressed woman.

Tanya shook her head. If she could blend in so easily, it was a wonder why everyone disliked them.

Lorelei was just as beautiful as anyone else there, besides Viktoriya and, maybe, Iris's retainers. The beastman had chosen to wear a dark green dress with lots of golden highlights. Just like her regular jacket and pants, there was more fabric than was strictly necessary, likely to help her hide what she didn't like. Still, every inch of it looked lovely.

The dark green gloves that wove their way up past her elbow and neared her fabric-covered shoulder completed the image of a tall, wonderful looking woman.

It might have looked odd on someone else, but with her height, she was able to pull it off, and she had taken her compliments with a smile on her face.

Viktoriya, on the other hand, had begun to sputter at Tanya's complement of her own dress.

She had also chosen to wear white, although her dress was shorter than the one Tanya had on, and she had a small amount of gold ornamentation strewn throughout her clothing.

Tanya shook her head as she remembered how low the dress dipped past the woman's… assets. It wasn't as scandalous as something Darkness might wear so that she could revel in the lecherous looks others gave her, but it was certainly more than Tanya had seen with anything else she had worn.

She shook her head as images of Viktoriya from their visit to the hot springs of Bidin-Budin, a small, resort-like town back in the Empire, flashed through her mind.

Tanya really did think both of them looked magnificent, even if she was sure her familiarity with them was coloring her assessment somewhat.

She even felt a tiny bit sorry for hoping she could use Lorelei as an easy way of getting out early, if need be…

Tanya turned her attention to the conversation. Iris was complementing Lorelei's hairstyle, and Tanya had to suppress a sigh.

Both of the other members of her party had, with the help of the Tailor, proved resourceful enough to hide her ears by building her hairstyle around the ears they had pinned back.

Tanya turned her attention to the other three, and then…

_Twitch. Twitch._

Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and she could actually feel her hair twitching furiously, for once.

Iris was wearing the dress she had worn to meet Revi. Rain was wearing the same dress she had worn to meet them every time they had seen her.

Claire was wearing a suit. She was wearing a suit in front of some of Belzerg's most important nobles

_She_ was wearing a _suit_ in a social situation like it was _nothing._

She. Wears. Suit.

Tanya was impressed with herself as she walked towards the turned backs of Lorelei, Claire, and Rain. She didn't immediately interrupt their conversation to get a straight answer.

"Claire," she nearly growled as Lorelei finished answering Rain's question about her dress. The woman in question turned around, and Tanya took a deep breath as Claire stepped back.

She wasn't angry at the retainer of Iris – who had wisely backed up the moment she and Viktoriya had seen Tanya storm over.

No, she was angry with the people who had made her wear the stupid dress.

For. Almost. _Two_. Weeks.

If she could have been avoiding the indignity of wearing a dress when she was a male at heart…

If she would have been wearing a suit instead of a dress during her meetings with Revi…

If Lorelei, someone who had been trying to become 'one of the best _Tailors _in Belzerg,' _knew _that she could have been wearing a suit…

"I was wondering, Claire… I'm new to this country, and where I'm from, I was only allowed to wear a uniform to one of our… King's parties because of my notoriety among the military and my strict adherence to professionalism. Do you have the same status here?"

She let the anger drain from her face and pitched her voice higher in an attempt to draw forth her fondness for Iris.

It worked, judging by the smile she sent her. "Well, while I do have status compared to others due to my household and my closeness to Iris, Belerg has no such antiquated notions of dress," she explained.

Tanya raised an expectant eyebrow, and the woman hastened to explain. "Women who prefer to wear suits may due so, and men who would prefer them are allowed to wear dresses."

Tanya smiled. "Thank you, Claire!" she said.

The woman smiled back at her, and then Tanya, her repressed anger now back out, turned to the nearby and nervous beastman.

"You _knew_," she declared. It was clear from her nervous expression and the pleading looks she tossed back to Viktoriya that probably translated to 'save me from the loli,' that she had known.

Tanya gave her own stone cold look to the woman, motioning towards her with a single finger. Viktoriya rushed forward.

"Stand still."

With no further warning, Tanya jumped up on top of Viktoriya's shoulders, activating the Type 97 that Viktoriya had neglected to wear – she didn't think anything would happen tonight that needed it, but Tanya wanted to be safe – in order to stabilize herself. She heard several people – more than were taking part in their conversation, which meant eavesdropping nobles – gasp at the move, but Tanya didn't mind the attention.

She leaned forward, now higher up than the beastman. Lorelei shrank back.

"Don't worry," she said, smiling angrily, "I wouldn't do anything that could ruin the party," she lied, knowing full well that she would at least interrupt it if she thought she'd get out of this – obviously _unnecessary _– dress. "You will, however, be going through what the battalion that I trained went through _at a minimum_."

Lorelei just nodded meekly as Tanya glared at her. She sighed and hopped down from Viktoriya's shoulders, adjusting the stupid dress that she hadn't even needed to wear. Both of the other members of her party were blushing.

Tanya sent a single glare at the crowd that was watching them, and they turned back to their own conversations in an attempt to make it appear that they weren't watching.

Tanya turned to the Princess. "Iris, what can we expect from the party? Claire neglected to mention what we would actually be doing."

Claire, still blinking in shock at Tanya's actions, shook her head and looked towards them.

Iris sighed, and then she drew herself up to her very inconsiderable height. "We'll be having a buffet where the nobles will mingle, talk, make deals, and generally smile at each other while secretly planning to stab each other in the back later. Then, there will be a toast to the health of the Monarchy of Belzerg, and I will open the gifts that were given to me, my brother, and the King in an attempt to gain favor."

Tanya blinked at the information. Her reaction was nothing compared to the nervous looks of her retainers.

Claire put a hand on Iris's shoulder, attempting to speak to her quietly, but she just scoffed.

"Why should I keep quiet about what's really happening? Everyone knows that that is what's going on, so there's no use in ignoring it. We're all just using each other as a means to an end anyway, and they'll all ignore this so-called 'altercation' in the hopes that they'll be able to worm more favors out of me for silence, even though all of the nobles around them also heard, rendering their attempt at blackmail useless. We'll be able to charge them with such, and then-"

Tanya took the initiative and clapped a hand over the Princess's mouth. Claire and Rain were alternating between trying to kill Tanya by just staring at her and silently pleading with the nobles around them and with Iris to become unconscious so that they couldn't continue to listen anymore.

Iris turned her eyes to Tanya as she drew away a bit. "What? You told Revi that-"

Tanya clapped her hand on Iris's mouth again. She had told Revi that if the nobles wouldn't cooperate with his new ideas that they could either improve or be removed.

She had meant that in the logical sense: move them to some place where they couldn't harm anyone and hope that you wouldn't need them again. She had done that with her time on the Rhine by moving that idiotic pair into a pillbox, and it had worked fabulously.

"I meant that he should move them to positions where they can't do harm. Permanently removing them means that you don't know the new people as well, and-"

Tanya felt Viktoriya's hand clap over her own mouth, and she decided that maybe they should start doing that mingling thing before the fear of the other nobles and the killing stares of Claire and Rain actually managed to send them out of the building, if not out of Belzerg entirely.

Before Viktoriya could drag her off, Tanya distracted everyone by releasing the hand she had put on Iris's mouth. She jumped out of Viktoriya's grasp as well.

"Is it all right that we didn't bring a gift?"

Iris nodded her head as Claire and Rain, realizing that they couldn't use some skill that let them kill Tanya just by staring, began to apologize to the other nobles. "Oh, it's fine. To tell you the truth…"

She looked up from where she'd just been staring nervously at the ground, a bright, sunny smile on her face. "Just having you three here is a gift enough!"

Tanya nodded happily, retreating from Claire, Lorelei, and the other nobles who seemed to be choking on the sheer cheesy innocence of her statement. Tanya was optimistic that that had probably distracted the nobles from the… _unfortunate _words that she and Princess Iris had said.

-OxOxO-

The party had been going on for well over an hour, and most people there were happy to have attended.

Lorelei glowed as she received another compliment. She had no illusions that at least half of them were motivated by her apparent closeness to Iris and her lookalike.

That just meant that half of them were genuine compliments that she hadn't received from anyone other than Tanya and Viktoriya in a _long _time. It was nice.

Viktoriya sighed as she walked around. Without Tanya by her side, these people looked like they thought she was below their notice. She wasn't blonde, after all, even if she did have blue eyes.

She didn't mind _too_ much, however. As long as she had Tanya and Lorelei, she'd be fine.

A patch of hair less blonde than anything else jumped out of her, and her eyebrows furrowed. She made her way through the maze of nobles, only to come upon that Mitsurugi guy that Tanya had invited.

She quashed a brief flare of… _something _at the thought of him and Tanya, and then straightened her own hair. He was from Japan, apparently, and Tanya had shown off their rifles in front of the entire guild and revealed that they were also reincarnates.

Maybe he could tell her a bit about Japan? It would be interesting to learn a bit more about Tanya's real homeland.

Tanya meanwhile, had slowly been making her way back to Claire, and was now within range. She had just finished apologizing to that last noble, and now Tanya could move in.

"Claire! I was wondering if we could discuss some… _things_?" she asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly and letting a small smile drift onto her face.

Claire seemed to wince slightly, but she acquiesced, following Tanya towards the buffet table.

Tanya saw a lot of what passed for the usual fare of this world's nobles – lobster and seafood seemed especially prized, but there was lots of meat from monsters Tanya hadn't heard of present as well.

She picked up a few things, planning on coming back for more after she had finished talking with Claire.

She watched the noble pick up a few things as well, besides one glaring omission.

"You don't drink?" Tanya asked, perplexed. She wouldn't drink – not when she wanted her facilities about her – but she thought that someone with Claire's disposition might want to.

She blushed, slightly. "Err… well, I do… it's just that I can't hold my liquor very well…" she trailed off, chuckling at the end.

"I can't either," Tanya said.

They stood there for a moment, silently marvelling at the apparent similarity between them, and then Claire cleared her throat.

"I assume you wish to discuss your compensation?" she asked tiredly. Tanya smiled and nodded, taking her plate towards one of the corners of the room where fewer nobles were gathered.

All of them scattered when they approached, and Claire explained quickly. "Those were all of the lower ranked nobles who don't have the money or political power or resources to come to these things, and they respect that we have business."

Tanya nodded, and then began to pick at her food. Claire did the same, apparently unwilling to begin the conversation.

Tanya shrugged internally; she was fine with eating first.

Across the room, Viktoriya nodded at the man's story from his youth. He had been a top-of-the-class student before his untimely death at the hands of a mugger, and since his meeting with the beautiful Aqua, he'd been trying to grow and defeat the Demon King for her.

Viktoriya thought he was nice enough – maybe a bit self-absorbed, but she'd met people twice as conceited as he was – but his descriptions of Japan were what really interested her.

"Why are you so interested in Japan, anyway?" he asked, confused. She laughed nervously, but she decided to use the excuse that Tanya had concocted.

"I didn't come from your version of Earth, actually. Tanya and I actually fought in a… sort of mix between the two world wars of your world," she explained.

His eyebrows rose. "How did you find out about my world?"

"Tanya and I both talked to a few of the other 'Hero Candidates' about the differences. Our war had the technology and ideology of the first one with the basic progression of the second one."

He nodded, seemingly curious, but his eyebrows were furrowed. "You mean… you two fought other people with guns and in trenches? You didn't just choose those as your weapons?"

"For some of it, yeah."

He sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry for all of the things you two must have gone through. I don't know much about that kind of war, but it must have been grueling."

Viktoriya felt a small blush touch her cheeks as she nodded. He dropped his hand.

"So, where are you going after this?" she asked.

"I felt a…" he trailed off.

Viktoriya's eyebrows rose. Even this far away from Axel, someone without any magical ability had detected the disturbance?

"You felt it too?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "I felt a magical surge of energy coming from Axel, even though I'm not a Mage. Because that's usually where Reincarnates come from, the Reincarnates here voted and decided I should go to see if something went wrong or if there's someone I could recruit."

Viktoriya smiled. "We might be headed that way as well. Maybe we'll see each other?"

He smiled. "Yeah. That wouldn't be too bad."

They parted ways, and Viktoriya looked around. She spotted Claire and Tanya discussing something in a corner, and she decided that maybe she'd try her luck talking with Rain. She seemed down to Earth.

Claire, a pained and hopeful expression on her face that had worked its way there through the course of their meal, looked into Tanya's eyes. "I don't suppose you would like to take stories about Iris in her childhood as payment?"

Tanya resisted the urge to snort, but the blank look she sent Claire seemed to be just as disheartening.

Tanya sat up in her chair and cleared her throat. "You seem to be dreading this meeting for some reason. Do you think I'll make unreasonable demands?"

She looked at her with a decidedly uncomfortable expression. "Well… not specifically…"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, but the noble remained mum on the subject.

Tanya wasn't especially happy about that, but she ignored it.

"...I was thinking that we should begin negotiating the price," Tanya began, hoping easing Claire into this would dispel any odd fears she had. Claire, again, began to look quite uncomfortable.

Tanya groaned. "Why is this so bad for you? You asked me to do this with the expectation that you'd have to reward me, yes? Elroad is doing fine financially, and Iris told me all about how much Rain complained about your wealth."

Tanya continued to glare at the woman, but she just sighed. "You're right, I suppose. I can't stiff you on this-"

Tanya interrupted her quickly. "No you can't. We signed a contract, and unless you want to trigger the protections of the contract and invoke my wrath, you'll _start making some offers_."

"'Your wrath?'"

Tanya glared. "Iris might see the necessity of punishing you if you won't uphold your bargains. And what would the King think of someone so untrustworthy so near his daughter?"

Claire resisted the urge to incredulously cry out '_I'm_ the bad influence?'

It wasn't worth it, and if she wanted the girl away from her precious Iris, then she had to go.

She sighed again. "Fine. I'm willing to offer you five million Eris," she grumbled.

"DEAL!"

Claire peered at the girl in confusion as she leapt up from the table. Tanya, however, was more than happy about that amount.

She could probably get more, if she wanted to, but she would already be using Iris's connections to get in contact with people to buy a piece of property and to buy high-grade materials.

The five million Eris would help her get a production line started, and with her Smith skill, she'd have bullets, bombs, grenades, and anything else she could possibly want.

Tanya groaned at the sight of the crowd in front of her and Claire, who seemed to be growing increasingly distracted by Iris's maneuverings through the crowd at the other end of the room. It would take at least an hour of talking to people she had no intention of ever meeting again, and-

Then, she grinned as she remembered one of her skills and activated Lurk.

She made her way through the crowd, dodging past people and intending to talk to Iris. She needed to make sure that they had an appointment planned for them to go somewhere and check out a location.

If Lorelei didn't mind, they could probably teleport to Axel to begin.

There was, after all, that large magical disturbance that needed to be investigated, and putting her base of operations there would lessen the secrecy she would need to use, as long as she could get the Succubi to keep the police off of her back.

She'd keep everything legal, of course, but with nobles who could abuse their power around, Tanya was fairly sure that they might try and concoct some sort of false accusation against her in order to gain entry.

If they were going to try and break the rules, she'd use her resources to ensure they faced more obstacles. Having whoever replaced Gerrard on her side would help immensely.

Tanya finally found Iris, and she ducked behind a nearby pillar before deactivating Lurk. She stepped around it and smiled at Iris, who beamed at her.

"Hi Tanya!" she greeted her. Iris took Tanya's hand as they began to drift towards the banquet table again.

Iris's face suddenly fell, and before she had even touched the Onion Duck, she turned to her.

"Tanya, what are you going to do after the banquet?"

Tanya smiled. It was nice to see that her lookalike was so quick to pick up on her thoughts. "Well, I was thinking about spending a fair amount of time at the property you'll help me get… tomorrow?"

She phrased the ending as a question, and looked at the Princess's face for any sign of confirmation. Instead, she only seemed saddened.

"Um… well, I don't think I have too much to do tomorrow, but… if you wanted, you could stay here at the castle! There's a lot of room here that isn't being used, with so many on the front lines," she said quietly.

Tanya shook her head immediately. "Sorry, Iris, but I don't think that Claire and Rain like me too much."

That was part of it, but she really didn't want anyone catching wind of what she was trying to do. She had signed that other contract with Verdia, and until someone in her position decided on which side to join, said person wouldn't violate it by inadvertently giving Belzerg access to modern weapons.

Someone in her position, after all, _did _have a letter stored away in her hotel that they would need to read.

Again, Iris's face fell, and Tanya sighed. "It's not like I can't just teleport over here and stay for a few days after I leave, as long as you don't have any work you need to do."

Iris lit up once again, and then turned around, facing away from the table. Before she could ask what she was doing, Iris snapped her fingers.

A butler came rushing over with that familiar, megaphone-like magical item held on a padded cushion. Iris picked it up.

The butler then turned to Tanya, gave her a once over, and then grabbed a glass of wine from the table and thrust it into her hands.

Before she could ask, however, Iris's speech began.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE!" she shouted into it. Tanya winced slightly, but made no move to cover her ears.

Rifles and the battlefield in general were much louder, and Tanya was fairly sure that she might have permanently damaged her hearing.

Making a mental note to cast some more overpowered Heal spells on herself and Viktoriya – just in case – Tanya readjusted her ring as Iris began to speak.

"Everyone! While the food is delicious and the gifts will be wonderful, I need to say a few things. Thank you for attending this banquet! Usually, we wouldn't hold these until the first snowfall, but we have a special occasion."

She turned to Tanya, and she plastered a smile as the best of Luna's as Iris continued. "Tanya von Degurechaff, despite not being a noble, has greatly helped improve the relations between Belzerg and Elroad!"

Several of the nobles began to look at her. She could see a myriad of gazes looking towards her, and she was sure that more than a few of them were probably very interested in her.

"Thanks to this sixteen-year-old's protection and economic prowess, I no longer need to marry King Revi and our nations are still closer than ever."

Tanya continued to smile pleasantly even as she began to wonder if she should stay away from the Princess in retaliation for the pitying looks that she was now receiving and despised.

"A toast! To the health of the Monarchy of Belzerg, and to my friend, Tanya von Degurechaff!"

Everyone raised their glasses, and Tanya raised the one that had been thrust into her hands. She drank from it, and glared at it at the headache that began to build.

She wouldn't touch another glass. She shoved the thing back into the butler's hands and then began to drift into the crowd of nobles. They would want to talk to her, and she had no doubt that she wouldn't like what they had to say.

Then, she ran into Rain, and she sighed in relief.

"Hello, Rain."

She let out a small sound of surprise as she turned around. "Tanya! How nice to see you again."

Tanya raised an eyebrow at the… friendliness in her voice, but she just shook her head. "Yes. I was wondering… was it really okay that we didn't get Iris anything?"

Rain blinked rapidly, before nodding. "Yes, it's fine. I think she really meant what she said about having your presence here. Besides, I just got her a small magic item. It's not like that's much…"

Tanya scoffed. "Honestly… Iris will love whatever you got her because it was _you_. You don't have any need to curry favor with her if you're already so close to her, so she'll know that what you got her was something you thought she'd like instead of some attempt to get her attention."

Rain blinked, as if coming out of a daze, and then nodded. "Yes… I suppose you're right. Thank you, Tanya!"

Tanya smiled as she turned away from her, only to see a veritable line of nobles. They weren't arranged in anything so 'plebeian' as an actual line, but it was clear from how they were all glancing at Rain's retreating form that they were here for her.

Tanya fought to keep down her revulsion towards the group of nobles, trying and failing to see a way out of this.

She adjusted her warm ring again and steeled her shoulders. How hard could it be?

-OxOxO-

Very hard, it seemed.

On her way to the party, she could ignore the people mistaking her for a Princess or a noble easily enough and just pretending to be the Princess for a few moments and then moving on. They left her alone very quickly, since she was the Princess and had much more important things to be doing than conversing with random passersby.

Now, however, she couldn't avoid the people who knew she was close to the Princess.

"Why, Lady Degurechaff! How nice it is to speak to one of the people the party is being thrown for…"

"Are you sure you aren't a noble? My contacts in Elroad have spoken _very _highly of you…"

"It is very odd that you look so much like the Princess. Care to shed any light on the situation…?"

"I have a son around your age, Lady Degurechaff! He is an interesting man helping fight some of the Demon King's fiercest forces…"

Time and time again, Tanya was forced to smile, nod, and patiently explain that she wasn't the sister of Iris.

She wasn't a noble, and people from her country were born with blonde hair all the time.

She wasn't remotely interested in marriage.

Unlike Revi, who had seemed desperate to think of her as a noble, or Darkness, who had taken days to convince, they only needed to be told once to get the picture. She was happy about that, because if she had needed to explain to all of them more than once, she might have gone properly insane.

Just as she finished assuring her latest conversation partner that yes, his son sounded lovely, and she hoped he would find a wife of proper standing soon, a small tug on her dress alerted her to someone else desiring her attention.

Tanya sighed, adjusted her uncomfortable ring, and began to turn around.

She found that the space where she was looking – above her head, since every noble in the room was taller than her, barring Iris – was empty.

She looked down, and found that, miraculously, someone here was actually _shorter _than her.

Tanya stared at the person before her, and tried to shake the image of Darkness away. Unfortunately, it didn't leave, and she was left confused as the image curtsied.

"Hello, Lady Degurechaff. I am Sylphina Ford Dustiness, niece of the great Ignis Ford Dustiness, right hand of the King of Belzerg, and attending the party in his stead."

Tanya's eyebrows shot up. "I thought you were Dar- I mean, Lalatina, for a moment," she admitted to the young girl.

Here eyes widened. "You know my cousin?!"

Tanya nodded happily. Finally, a topic of conversation that didn't revolve around her relation to Iris and the other people in the room. "Yes. I adventured with her for a month or two a while back.

Happily, the spitting image of Darkness in her youth – even if Tanya hadn't ever seen Darkness back then, the girl just… looked like Darkness probably had – began to talk about her.

"I don't think Lalatina's mentioned you in her letters, but she doesn't talk about her adventuring stuff much anyway…"

She shook her head again, and Tanya tried not to visibly react. She had forgotten to send Darkness any letters.

As Tanya hoped that the Crusader wouldn't be too upset, Sylphina spoke again. "It's fine. I-"

A loud, raking cough burst from her, and Tanya held out a hand towards her. "Are you alright?"

Tanya helped the small girl stand, and she gave Tanya an apologetic smile as she readjusted her hair, making it once more resemble Darkness's. "I'm sorry… my Mommy's family has little immunity against sickness…"

Tanya nodded. "It's fine. In fact…"

She smirked as she extended a hand towards her and began pouring mana into the Type 97 around her neck. Darkness would hear about this later, and maybe that would make up for not sending her any letters.

"Heal!"

She waited for the child to grow more healthy, but… she didn't. Tanya's eyebrows furrowed in confusion – had she used the spell incorrectly? – but the girl simply smiled sadly.

"Ah, magic like that doesn't work on illnesses. Only potions can really do anything for me…" she trailed off, a sadness welling up in her eyes. Tanya shook her head.

"My apologies. I was unaware of that fact," Tanya admitted, hoping not to have slighted the girl. The girl shook her head.

"It's fine. How did you learn such magic, anyway? The inheritors of noble estates aren't allowed to become Priests, and since the Dustiness family is so close to the royalty, we often get barred from using their services because we take the King's side against them."

Tanya shrugged. "I'm not really a part of the nobility, even if everyone here seems to keep insisting that I must be."

With that, Sylphina smiled, before a concerned expression began to brew on her face. "I'm feeling a bit tired after all of this…"

Sylphina shook her head. "Is it weird that Iris is staying up this late? Her retainers don't often let her do this sort of thing for so long…" the child muttered.

Tanya felt her eyebrows furrow. "Well... "

Iris was part of the royalty.

More was expected of the Princess.

Staying up late was totally fine.

Everything was within her exact expectations.

She shrugged noncommittally. "Probably. Honestly, I don't know much about the particulars of these sorts of parties."

Sylphina also shrugged, and then ran off, promising to bring her father over. Tanya smiled at her retreating back.

The clearing of a throat had her spinning around and putting the ring she had been messing with back in place.

"Ah, I just noticed that you said you knew the heir of the Dustiness family?" came the inquisitive voice of the man in front of her.

She raised an eyebrow at his appearance. For one, his hair was a 'plebeian' burgundy. That seemed to be a rarity among nobles, or at least the ones the royal family made nice with, considering she hadn't seen much other than varying shades of blonde.

"...Yes," Tanya answered simply, narrowing her eyes at him. What kind of person admitted to eavesdropping?

He smiled kindly. "Ah, I only inquire because my father was trying to set up a marriage between the young lady and I. My duties as a knight come first, however, and he seems rather uninterested in the prospect, now."

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Who are you, again? I'm sorry I don't already know, but Darkness wasn't particularly interested in talking about her 'other' life."

His own eyebrows seemed to crease at that. "It's no problem. I am Walter Barnes Alexei, son of Alderp Barnes Alexei."

Tanya scowled as she heard the name. Alexei…

Her eyes widened. Hadn't that been the thing built like a brick wall that she had insulted?

She gulped. "Right. I think I might owe your… uncle an apology…" she muttered.

His expression seemed to grow happier, oddly. "That was you? Father was complaining about how Aurip required assurances from all of the knights serving them both in order to coax him out of his room."

Tanya felt the tips of her ears heat up, but he waved a hand. "No, it's no problem. Neither my adoptive father nor his brother are very… _nice _nobles, but they can be reasoned with. I'll make sure they understand everything."

Tanya sighed. That sounded like he was probably expecting something in return. "You said something about being interested in Lalatina?"

He nodded. "My father doesn't often abandon his plans, especially concerning his attempts to live… _vicariously _through me, and that he has done so with this one has intrigued me."

She shrugged. If the noble wanted to, he could probably get plenty of stories about the Crusader named Darkness.

If Tanya was telling them, they'd probably even be more accurate, considering it seemed like that 'goddess' Eris was looking out for Darkness by making sure no one realized how perverted she was.

"Well…"

She told him of her first few quests with her – keeping out her own mental commentary she had about her seeming obsession with getting injured – and finished with their heartwarming separation.

All through the stories, he seemed to grow ever more attentive. As she finished, he sighed.

"...She sounds like an interesting woman. Perhaps my father was a bit too fast in cutting off the negotiations…"

Tanya shrugged. It would be nice if Darkness didn't have to adventure – she might actually get what she wanted and get captured and tortured by some monster eventually – but Walter didn't seem like the type of man who would help facilitate her fetish, much less enjoy it with her.

Tanya – thankfully – could only imagine what that might be like. She wouldn't wish it on a friend.

He bowed slightly towards her. "I'm afraid I must go. Father wanted to introduce me to some of his… _business_ associates. They're concerned with a new criminal group, although I think they care more about the loss of profit more than the people being harassed…"

Tanya nodded absently, and turned to the buffet table, where most of the food had been cleared to make way for a mountain of gifts.

All of them seemed to be wrapped in brightly colored paper, and considering how expensive that stuff seemed to be here compared to in her old worlds, the paper was probably as meaningful as whatever gift was inside.

Iris seemed to be scanning the crowd, and, with a heavy sigh, Tanya began to make her way through the crowd.

She appeared next to the table, and Iris motioned for her to sit next to her.

Next to the open seat, Viktoriya was conversing with Lorelei, who seemed to be extremely happy if the smile chiseled into her face and the nervous, jittery tapping of her feet – barely visible due to the length of the table cloth – was anything to go by.

As soon as Tanya sat down, Iris, Claire, and Rain rose, and Tanya, Viktoriya, and Lorelei did as well.

"Thank you all for coming! I will open the gifts now, and then the carriages will begin to send people home, along with the customary thank you gifts!"

A small cheer went up at that, and Iris stepped forward towards the pile.

_HISS_

Tanya flinched, and she looked down at her hand. The ring she was wearing was… _glowing_, and smoke seemed to be coming up from where her finger met the metal.

All at once, she realized that it was burning her finger.

Her eyebrows creased as she cast Heal on it and the pain retreated. Why was she wearing this thing? She wasn't married.

It wasn't on her ring finger, though, which meant it was probably important.

She shook her head, and began to look around.

The nobles were all looking at Iris – whose smile seemed to be less than genuine – attentively, but everyone else in the room…

Tanya shook her head again as she looked for the guards. There didn't seem to be many of them.

That seemed odd. At the last party like this she'd been to, there had been a few hundred of the Empire's best soldiers guarding the building, since most of the military's and monarchy's most important people were there.

Tanya turned to Viktoriya, who was absent-mindedly picking at one of her nails.

Tanya resisted the urge to slap her on the arm. "Viktoriya!"

She looked up suddenly. "Huh? What is it?"

"Why aren't you paying attention?"

She shrugged. "I'm a bit distracted right now. Mitsurugi was nice and interesting, and-"

Tanya cut off the pang of _misplaced_ – because a relationship _wasn't _and _wouldn't _be happening between them – jealousy and grabbed Viktoriya's arm. "Focus. Do you know if the gifts were checked?"

She shrugged and went back to picking at her nail. "I don't know. Rain said the gifts were interesting, but…"

Tanya felt her ring burn her again, but she simply cast a silent Heal on herself and moved on to Claire.

She was standing most closely to Iris, who seemed to be trying very hard to be interested in the gifts.

Tanya tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around a bit. Tanya stepped back at the… giddy, drunk expression on her face.

"Claire? Were the gifts checked?"

She smiled. "No need to worry, Princess Iris, just pat me on the head again."

Tanya suppressed the urge to growl as she turned to Rain. She mentally took back what she'd thought about Walter as well.

Darkness was a masochist, Aurip was a pedo, and Claire had a thing for Iris. It was likely that their inbreeding had done more unkind things to them than their outward appearance suggested.

Obviously, the hair and eye color thing was the result of inbreeding, but how they'd gotten something so innocent instead of infertility or missing bones or protruding chins was beyond her.

Whatever the reason – and she wouldn't rule out the interference of so-called deities – it seemed all of them were probably perverse in some way.

Tanya blinked, and then shook her head as her ring heated up again. She needed to get to Rain.

"Rain."

The girl acted like she hadn't heard her. She was staring enviously – blatantly – at the gifts Iris was receiving and at the wealth in the room, muttering under her breath.

Tanya shook her head. Something was wrong. She wasn't sure what, but there were no guards and everyone was distracted, and the ring that she had for some reason was heating up. That had to mean something.

In a way she hoped was subtle, Tanya began to mutter Observation spells under her breath, going over the gifts. She needed to rule out if something was attempting to get to Iris, and then go from there.

She was having trouble with concentrating.

She shook her head again. The gifts that had already been opened were clear. She turned to the unopened ones…

Her eyebrows furrowed. The Observation spells had reported that everything was fine.

They said that nothing was wrong.

Magic had no presence in them.

There was no opportunity for harm.

Tanya nodded. If it wasn't magic, then there was no way this backward land could make something that would harm Iris-

A pain shot through her chest, and she gasped. The contract!

She was supposed to make sure no harm befell Iris, which meant… that her thoughts were wrong. However…

Her spells had denied magic's presence.

Iris could not be harmed now.

She shook her head again, trying to keep herself from freaking out. Observation spells _always _detected magic. Even if there were no active spells, there was always some background interference from something Tanya suspected was related to radiation.

With how many nobles were in the range of her spells, she should have gotten _something_.

Tanya gasped again, and looked at her hand. The ring was burning again. Something was wrong.

She looked at the gifts. What could be inside them that could harm Iris?

Wait…

Rain had claimed that she had gotten a magic item for Iris. Then…

Her magic was acting oddly, or her brain wasn't-

Her eyes widened as she remembered what the ring on her finger was for – it was supposed to protect her from _mental manipulation_ – and she audibly gulped.

This wasn't good.

Tanya strode forward, stopping Iris from touching the next present by grabbing her arms. The nobles gasped, but the people behind her and Iris herself, in an unfortunately predictable manner, said nothing.

Tanya grit her teeth as her ring continued to heat up. Something was attempting to trick her, and it had already tricked the others at this table.

There was exactly _one_ thing that she knew of that could control people's minds.

"Princess Iris, there is a problem. As your contracted bodyguard, we need to be careful."

Unlike their usual energy, her eyes seemed far away and dull. "But… you're going to be leaving. These things don't matter if you're going to leave me…"

Tanya growled, and turned to Claire. "Claire! Iris is in danger!"

_That_ shocked her out of her stupor, and sent more gasping through the crowd. "What! Who _dares-_!"

Tanya grabbed her by her shoulders. "Something with powerful mental magic is attacking. Gather the guards and block the exits, or Iris could be harmed!"

Claire was off like a rocket, and she ran to a corner of the room where one of the few guards was. He was leaning against his spear, and Claire had to shake him in order to get him to comply.

Tanya, meanwhile, turned to Viktoriya. "Block the exits. There could be a traitor in the room."

She seemed listless, and Tanya growled again. "Viktoriya, I _need_ you! Please!"

The woman inhaled deeply, and nodded silently, no longer picking at her nails but instead thrusting a hand into her pocket, hopefully to grab her pistol.

"Get Mitsurugi!" she shouted. The woman nodded, heading into the crowd of nobles as Tanya spun back around, grabbing both Lorelei and Rain.

"You two, protect the Princess," she said. The nobles were beginning to grow anxious, but Tanya had no time for them.

Tanya slowly approached the Princess, positioning both Lorelei and Rain behind her.

"Iris," she said softly. She blinked, before turning, slowly, to Tanya.

"Yes?" she asked. Her eyes were still far away.

Rain made to move forward, but Tanya held her back.

Rain glared at Tanya, but she shook her head. "Do you know what could happen if the thing doing this realizes we've caught on? Do you know what they could do other than make everyone distracted?"

Rain paused, and then she sighed. Tanya smiled, and then turned to Iris. "Continue to open your gifts Princess. It seems that something may be wrong. We're not sure how dangerous it is."

She nodded stiffly, and she turned to her gift.

"I'm the one protecting Iris. Not Claire; I can do it, even if my family isn't important." Rain was smirking as she stared at Iris's movements.

Tanya grit her teeth. It seemed that she was being distracted again.

Her ring continued to heat up, but Tanya just continued to pour Healing magic on her finger. She activated her spells once more, and scanned the gift in front of Iris.

"Do not worry yourselves, fellow nobles. Things will definitely play out favorably. Degurechaff is trusted, so we should trust her, too." Tanya looked up to see that Walter was calming the crowd.

She shook her head. She needed to pay attention to what was in front of her, not what everyone else was doing.

One by one, Iris went through the gifts. Tanya was now setting aside all of the wrapping paper, sending glares at the nobles.

Tanya blinked at the fearful expressions on their faces. She grinned.

This was it! She wouldn't have to endure their looks and leering and planning to use her as a pawn.

She belonged to no one, no god!

She stepped forward, keeping a spell aimed at Iris. "Everyone! There is something going on here. A malevolent entity is using magic. Our minds are now at risk."

Their eyes grew wide, and Tanya hiked her dress up to her thigh as she grabbed her blade. She drew her sword from its sheath.

"Hopefully, it is an attack from the Demon King. If it is not that, however…"

She gestured to the present on the table. "Everyone, take up your presents now. Present them to the Princess yourselves. If any discrepancy is detected then…"

She raised her _Seitengewehr_ and slashed down towards a nearby table, cleaving through the tablecloth and sending a resounding crack around them room.

As one, the nobles rushed forward to grab their gifts, and Tanya turned her attention back to…

She blinked, and grit her teeth until they hurt. She had _forgotten_ what they were doing! She'd thought that getting to leave early and get her dress off at a time like this was important.

She glared at her finger, and stopped using Heal.

Immediately, she began to feel the damage the Heal spell had been reversing the moment it happened.

Her breath stuttered, but before anyone could ask or notice, she poured a small amount of mana into a Heal spell.

The pain was still there, but she had managed to take some of the edge off of it. She needed the pain to keep focused, right now.

She refocused on the line of nobles. Some of them, those that had already seen their presents given to the Princess, were standing off to one side.

One by one, people began to present their presents. Claire arrived, and more guards came in. Viktoriya and Mitsurugi appeared next to Claire, and Tanya heard something crackling in her mind.

She blinked, and accepted the magical radio message. Viktoriya's voice echoed in her ears. "The guards are all drunk now. Someone suggested that they should all get drunk because of the party."

Tanya growled. That meant they'd be even more susceptible to suggestion. With how distracted she could become with a ring on, she had no doubt this would _not _go well.

Still, she continued to keep up her spells on the gifts, trying to think of a way to get rid of the mental suggestion and control.

The ring was _supposed_ to do that, but since it wasn't meant that this was probably a powerful type of magic.

She needed to know if it was Being X. If it wasn't him…

She shook her head. _Focus!_

Then, a familiar face came forward. She smiled. "Walter. How nice to see someone competent."

He nodded, his eyes shining. "Of course."

he turned to Iris, and bowed his head. "Princess Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg: the gift from the Barnes Alexei family."

Tanya nodded. That meant that their last names were similar to the 'von' of her own last name-

She shook her head again – she needed to _focus _– and scanned the gift in the hands of Iris.

Nothing was wrong with the present.

She shook her head, panting suddenly. All of the other gifts had been tainted with magic. That meant that _this _was the problem.

No, that could not be right.

Walter was a nice looking man.

Also, there was no sign of Being X. Her Observation spells weren't tainted with-

She shook her head again, and ripped the gift out of Iris's hands. Tanya looked to Lorelei.

"Grab him."

Lorelei ignored her completely, and Tanya swore. She needed… more power.

Tanya grimaced. She sent a mote of mana spiralling into the Circlet of Greatness.

Her arms began to tremble from the weight of the gift in her hands, but she breathed a sigh of relief. She could _think_ again, even if everything was beginning to grow bright and humorous and _**shiny.**_

She grinned and reactivated all of her Observation spells, even as Walter began to plead his innocence. That he was thinking clearly enough to argue was suspicious.

Slowly, her spells began to report something different. There was not a lack of magic, but a _massive _amount of magic.

The screen floating in front of her was bright. Her spells were reporting something _familiar_.

Tanya turned around and waved towards Claire. She rushed over.

"It is… like Iris's sword."

Her eyes widened, but before Tanya could move, Iris snatched the box out of her hands, ripping into the wrapping paper.

"Claire! Hug Iris!" Tanya shouted as she withdrew the mana from the Circlet.

She did not need it anymore.

She had now scanned it successfully.

The Circlet was no longer required.

The black, polished wooden box was opened, but Claire reached Iris before anything else happened. She grabbed Iris, and Tanya picked up the box herself.

Viktoriya walked over, followed by Mitsurugi, while Tanya stared at the item in the box.

The others crowded around her, and Tanya inspected the necklace. It looked somewhat ordinary, all things considered.

There were no gaudy or expensive jewels on it. It just seemed to be a golden chain with over twenty pieces of thin, golden strips hanging from it.

She turned it over, and her eyes widened. "Is that…?"

She didn't need to answer the Japanese Reincarnate. There were indeed Kanji on the back, one character on each of the golden strips.

If she put the necklace on…

She _smirked_. With _three _Divine Relics, she could take on Being X. He needed the help of his other 'gods' to make them, after all, and he didn't have anything like she did, did he?

He was a pathetic, weak coward.

His power had failed her once.

His power would fail him too.

She snatched it up, and was a moment from putting it on. She just _had_ to. She needed it-

"Tanya! Tanya, stop!"

She shook her head, and saw that Viktoriya was holding the necklace. She shook her head.

"I… I'm sorry, Viktoriya. I guess…" she shook her head again. They didn't have _time_!

Suddenly, the sound of clattering armor reached her ears. She looked towards the sound, and saw the guards.

Claire stepped forward. "What are you-"

She never finished. They brushed past her, and began to tear up the wrapping paper.

Tanya wouldn't have been worried – it was just paper, after all – but her memory was apparently much more fluid than she thought, and she _needed _it to remember who the criminal was. She…

She needed to be clear headed, but she couldn't clear her head.

Claire and Mitsurugi cried out, and Tanya saw that they were both on their knees in front of Iris.

Viktoirya seemed to be freaking out about something.

Lorelei was standing stock still, not moving but for the slight twitch of her hair and her face.

The nobles in the center of the room were growing increasingly skittish.

Tanya needed a clear head, and she wasn't used to dealing with _this_ kind of mental corruption.

Wait. Mental corruption…

She blinked as a new idea came to her, and she skipped over the long drawn out sigh she wished she had the time for.

She slipped a hand into her dress and clipped the Type 95 next to the Type 97.

"**Oh holy god, please grant this believer the power to vanquish the unseen foes of these believers!"**

She felt it. The power was flowing into her body. The cloying, disgusting desire to perform for her G-

No! _Not _her god!

She turned to Iris. The guards were destroying the presents. They were scarring the guests.

They were also drunk and open to suggestion, which meant Iris needed to command them. Iris seemed to be heavily affected by everything going on.

Tanya turned her attention to the stinging annoyance that **dared to burn a-**

She shook her head, looked between the ring on her finger, and remembered the words contained in the Kanji on the back of the necklace.

She smirked, making her way towards Iris and grabbing her arms. She had a hunch that the Type 95 was telling her was right.

"Iris. I need you to take this," she said, pointing at the ring on her finger. Claire seemed to have been shocked into silence by the guards actions, while Mitsurugi had moved on to attempting to stop the guards.

He could stop them physically, but they would recover faster than he could stop them all.

Tanya turned back to Iris, who nervously grabbed the ring on Tanya's outstretched finger.

"Your things are mine, my things are yours. I'll turn into you," Tanya whispered, hoping that this would work like she hoped it would.

The whole of the Divine Relic began to glow, and Tanya closed her eyes as the ring on her finger was taken off and **god GOLD GLORY TO HIS EVERLASTING-**

Then nothing.

There was no more pressure. The constant weight of the Circlet of Greatness was no longer on her head. The chains that constricted her actions and thoughts weren't there.

The cursed Type 95 and its suggestions to simply give in, to use its power to slay everything in her path and to believe, _truly_, in their god, were _gone_.

Her eyes opened to find that her body – no the person in her body, Iris – had collapsed. She seemed to be foaming at the mouth and muttering constantly. Viktoriya was hovering over her, desperately shaking her.

Tanya strode over, calmly picking the Type 95 off of her body and taking the _Seitengewehr_ from the ground.

She turned around. "Guards!"

Their actions slowed, and Tanya strode over, her steps growing more sure. She couldn't feel _any _of it.

She smirked.

"GUARDS!"

They stopped, as one, and turned to look at her in confusion. Tanya tried, for a moment, to cast Heal on them – maybe it could cure drunkenness…

But it didn't work. Tanya knew the words and the magic, but she wouldn't use it.

She blinked, and then shook her head. "I order you all to stop the nobles."

Because they were gone. They seemed to have taken leave of themselves, leaving only a few nobles behind.

"All of you, spread out. Begin to search the castle for intruders, and raise our security to maximum. Alert the garrison and have someone man the gates. No one leaves the city without my say-so. Understood?"

They nodded in unison, flocking towards the doors. Tanya strode over towards the ruined wrapping paper.

She could pick out bits and pieces, but it seemed that most of the name tags had been destroyed.

She growled, and turned back to the others, who were still crowding over 'Tanya.'

Tanya rolled her eyes. "She'll be fine. We need to figure out who did this."

They all turned to her, perplexed and confused and hurt, and Viktoriya got a very... _scary _look in her eyes as she glared at her.

She fought the urge to back away from Viktoriya – where had she learned to glare like that? – and smirked instead.

Viktoriya and Claire both paused. Tanya pointed towards her body. "_That_ is Iris. The Divine Relic switches the minds of the invoker and the wearer. We need to figure out who did this."

They all seemed to reel at the revelation, but Tanya wasn't done.

"Does anyone remember who did this?" she asked.

It must have happened during the transfer, but she couldn't remember who had given Iris the gift.

From their precautions, it should be someone near them, but Walter was too nice, Claire and Rain were too devoted to Iris, and Tanya knew she could rule herself, Viktoriya, and Lorelei out.

Walter stepped forward, his face unhappy and angry. Tanya tilted her head in confusion.

"I… I did it!"

Tanya and the others reeled back, but he continued. "I gave the gift to Iris, but since my Father was the one who entrusted me with the item…"

Tanya nodded in understanding. "Claire, detain Walter."

He looked shocked, but Tanya shook her head. "You could be trying to throw him under the bus."

Tanya turned to Rain and, more importantly, Lorelei. She eyed the top of her head, a plan forming. "Can you find him? He is one of the fattest nobles, so he's probably weighing down whatever carriage he has. It'll be a bit harder than listening for those dickwads on our way to Elroad was, but…"

Rain seemed confused by the inclusion of his weight, but Lorelei nodded in understanding. With only a moment of hesitation, she began to undo the hair on top of her head.

The complicated curls were slowly unwound, until all of it hung down. Rain gasped, bug-eyed, as Lorelei's ears were revealed, but she just closed her eyes as her ears rotated on top of her head.

She nodded. "Yes. He's heading west, right now."

Tanya nodded, and grabbed the woman by her waist. It seemed she was physically strong enough without her Reinforcement spells to run fairly quickly and carry heavy loads. Rain still seemed to be gaping at Lorelei, but Tanya began to run out of the doors.

"Oh, please tell me we aren't-"

They were. They rounded the corner, and once Tanya made sure to deploy an illusion before they took off...

But she couldn't. It seemed that even her magic that _wasn't_ dependent on this world wouldn't work for her in Iris's body.

She scowled. That shouldn't be right. A person's soul probably didn't matter for that kind of magic… unless her magic had been affected in a way she couldn't detect by its arrival into this world. Or that magic was _very _particular to that world.

Or a million other reasons she couldn't think of.

She sighed, and came back to the room. She picked up the knocked out Iris, and turned to Viktoriya.

"Carry Iris?" she asked. Viktoriya seemed frozen for a moment, but she nodded.

The four of them began running. Rain, left behind, began to console the nobles that hadn't run off, while Claire began to direct the guards.

Tanya shook her head and turned back around. She wouldn't activate her Reinforcement spells, which meant…

"Lorelei, carry me. I can't fly and I don't have my magic," she ordered.

The beastman nodded, and they began to make their way through the streets with Lorelei directing them occasionally.

Tanya glared ahead of them. They had a piece of shit to catch, and if he was willing to use mental magic against anyone to get what he wanted, Tanya wasn't sure she'd be able to hold herself back when they finally found the fuck.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** And so, another chapter is done and dusted! Enjoy it? There was certainly a lot there.

From Lorelei growing ever-closer to the party, to Claire and Rain's growing mistrust in Tanya, the OCs and side-characters are doing a lot of growing. We've also got Mitsurugi's curiosity with Tanya and Viktoriya, the message of that Demon, and a concerning amount of corruption from the Relics.

But hey! Tanya's got a way to switch bodies, right? Too bad she can't keep her powers, or it would be perfect. Don't worry, though; that Relic isn't simply going to disappear. A certain Thief is still looking for it, after all. At least she'll get a proper suit, and not a dress, right?

Anyway, did you all like what I did to signal the mental corruption, only using six words for a statement? I thought it was kinda neat.

Oh yeah, and it looks like Alderp's involvement is getting wrapped up lightning fast. Still, does Tanya seem like the type to throw away valuable sources of information?

Make sure to leave your thoughts in the Reviews!

**A/N 2:** When the adventurers exclaim in disbelief 'Is that the PRINCESS,' I imagined them saying it like the 'is that a SUPRA' meme. For your reference.

**A/N 3:** Responses to Reviews from (02/17/2020) back:

**fwterrorista:** As it happens, I was thinking of doing something like that for an Omake or two, in response to the idea that Tanya really could simply decide to join one side and then steamroll her opponents.

**PervySageChuck:** I like how you think!

**Pyromania101:** I would call you insane for thinking that 'Megumin in Smash' was possible, but we got Isekai Quartet, the embodiment of fanfiction. And, with that mobile game coming out…

**SoleReclaimer:** Oh, no doubt, it was still an excellent episode, despite the lack of the ship we all want.

**SuperiorFreak:** A bit taller than the Anime, but she'll realize that she's grown a bit soon enough.

Quaver Ava: See, this is what I like. Some people complained earlier on that she was going to get her dick back, but it'll be even more funny seeing everyone else having to deal with Tanya.

As for Viktoriya… she's trying to delude herself, which will be very unfortunate considering who she's going to try and get with in an effort to move on (when she really doesn't even want to). The big change is coming – but not exactly soon. We've got a lot to cover before then, but it is beginning to loom on the horizon.

Thank you for the feedback with Revi – I like what I'm doing with him.

I will – and have been – taking some fan suggestions for small details. However, there won't be any big things – like a vote that will alter the course of the story – for a very long while.

**animeman12:** And I say thank you for reading, even if you don't know some of the source material. It is an… interesting experience to learn about a fandom through fanfiction first, and I hope I don't disappoint.

**MarkoncioX**: That's only if Tanya thinks of her as a threat requiring a battle at all. Since Megumin can't really use that magic in Axel, she'll have to settle for grand claims and insults on Tanya's ability.

**Harmless Orange:**

CH 023 Comment: Since it would be very hypocritical of me to suggest that you not wreck your sleep schedule like that, all I'll say is that I hope it was worth it.

CH 024 Comment: Ah, a fan of puns. I think you'll find the conclusion to the dress situation quite… suitable.

Ba-dum-tss

CH 027 Comment: And you will see something of the sort… though not before you get a few chapters of careful preparation and wariness, along everything else.

And, as always, thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! We've passed over a hundred thousand views, and the story isn't stopping anytime soon. See you all later!


	30. Musings of an Absolute Unit (and More)

Alderp almost leaped out of the carriage as he made his way into his mansion in the city.

His size rubbing against the sides of his carriage's door reminded him that if he did that, he'd most assuredly break a nose or hip or something, so he instead delicately stepped from his carriage, and _then _he broke into a labored run.

He knew that he wouldn't be getting out the regular way – the gates would be the first thing that was guarded, which meant he'd need lots and lots of money to bribe them instead of being able to simply waltz through thanks to his noble status.

He swept into his house. Of course, he couldn't leave behind his other relic. The first one seemed to have made its way into the hands of Iris, which meant that, eventually, Maxwell would convince her to put it on and then erase her memories.

It would make its way to Crown Prince Jatis, and then it would only take one meeting for him to take over the body of the Prince.

It would be child's play to take Lalatina as a wife from there. The Prince needed to produce an heir, even if the next Hero Candidate killed the Demon King and succession passed to Iris.

He growled as he made his way to his room. If only he hadn't pushed his plans forward…

He sighed. Despite the lack of manpower in this capital, security had been increased a while back, leading to him needing to bribe people on the way to his mansion, necessitating his needing to grab more on his way out.

Apparently, Claire and that penniless wretch Rain had made a big fuss about some noble's child who had caused an explosion in the middle of the shopping district, which was why he needed to _get more money_.

He began to sweat as he came to his secret treasury. He would pick up his Divine Relic and some money, and then he'd be on his way.

He grumbled as he fiddled with the lock on the door of his treasury. If that stupid Prince had been at the party, he could have just done it then and there…

But _nooooo_! That idiot, just like his father, was completely obsessed with battle. It was a wonder that this pitiful kingdom hadn't collapsed into civil war by now, but he was guessing that this place wouldn't.

Not until the Demon King was finally destroyed and the only thing keeping the nobles from ignoring the King – the threat of eternal damnation – and keeping the peasants from objecting to high taxes – the threat of eternal damnation and the lethal knights that kept the peace – went with him.

He sighed happily at the sight of his money. He scooped up a few bags of Eris, and then he swiped his Divine Relic from the pedestal. It might have looked like a rock, but Max, for all of his annoying mannerisms, was supremely helpful.

As long as he had him, he could change the memories of everyone there, if he made another contract with him. Even that Degurechaff wouldn't be able to resist the Demon's power if he wasn't splitting his attention between many different people.

He turned around, preparing to make his way to the secret room where Max was held. It wasn't nearly as secret as the cellar in his room back at his main residence in Axel, but it had been fine for now.

He sighed at the thought. Really, if Maxwell's power had functioned on anything even remotely resembling proximity, he would have been found out by the Eris Cultists – and their leader, Cardinal Gabel Montgommery – due to the undeniable trail he left everywhere.

He was just contemplating that terrifying leader of the Eris Cult when his blood froze.

The hallway that had been wonderfully empty and filled with only his own wealth, in the form of paintings, gold gilding, mirrors, and books, was now full of strangers.

Two people stood at the front of a line of guardsmen, all of them armed with spears and swords.

"Ah, Iris. How nice-"

"I am not Iris, although it was… wonderful to inhabit the body of the Princess."

Alderp froze. They knew what it was, then?

Alderp shrugged. "A wonderful gift, is it not? Divine Relics are not easy to come by, and-"

"You know, you might not have been found out. I certainly couldn't remember your name. However, your son was more than helpful in revealing his own unintended compliance with your crime."

He seized up as the girl pulled out his Divine Relic and, before he could say the words, threw it on the ground.

He gulped. He needed to convince her to let him go.

If the royal family got him…

He held up the bags of money and was about to make her an offer, but she shook her head. "I'm sorry, but Claire has already given me more than enough money to ever consider listening to that. Besides, I happen to like Iris a lot more than _you_."

He turned to the… beastman at her side. "And you?"

"You would speak to me?"

He scoffed. "Of course. Beastmen might be reviled by most, but I'm far more pragmatic. If you would provide a distraction…?"

She shook her head, and Alderp waited. He could…

He didn't know what he could do. He had no ability with weapons in this body

"_Seize him! He must be brought before the Princess and executed! There's no telling how much he has corrupted the nation!"_

He opened his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut and began to shout, panicked. "PLEASE! I'll give you guards whatever you want! Women, money, power! Just don't listen to those two!"

He flinched back, waiting for the sound of feet pounding on the ground as they ran towards him, waiting for them to attack him or beat him, but the blows never came.

He peered between his fingers to seem them all standing there, staring at him. None of them were moving…

Then, like they weren't there, they disappeared.

Illusions.

Lying.

MAXWELL!

He began to squeeze the stone in his hand, even as he stuttered out a reply to the sudden disappearance of the guards.

"W- What?"

Tanya smirked. "Viktoriya and Iris are currently looking for the guards. You on the other hand…"

With a curved grin marking the beginning of her approach, she brandished a sickeningly familiar weapon.

A gun.

She had a _gun_.

Who in the _HELL-_

"You are coming with us. You really should learn when to respond to questions, especially when they're in Japanese."

He raised his hands, one with bags of money in it and the other with the stone that was supposed to bring Max to him. Where was that-

She jerked her head towards the other end of the hall, and, slowly, he began to walk forward.

Tanya swiped the money and the stone from his hand. He lurched forward. "NO! You can't! Max is mine!"

She jumped back, and Lorelei delivered a rabbit punch or three to the back of his head.

As he stumbled to the floor, Tanya smirked and bent down towards his head. "Don't worry, Alderp. I won't let them kill you right away. You might be useful to _me_, after all."

Then, he knew no more than the idea that maybe death would be better than whatever that insane smile promised.

-OxOxO-

Alderp took in a breath and tried to readjust his clothes. It didn't do much for their uncomfortable size and material, however, so he just sat back down on his bed and stewed in his anger.

He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, or how long it had been since his capture, but he knew that he had been duped.

Max had used his magic on him. It had probably been his order to have him use his powers on everyone 'closest' to the Princess. That meant physical distance, of course, but that also meant how much you knew about them and whether you had any bonds of friendship.

He was guessing that the bastard had willfully misinterpreted his order in order to assume that Alderp, being a noble and controller of one of Belzerg's most important towns, fell into the category of 'close.'

If not for that _thing, _he wouldn't have blabbed about Max, and he would have taken his secret passage out of the city through the tunnel in his house instead of trying to get money.

He groaned at the memory. Honestly, how stupid was he to respond to his oldest language? Sure, Maxwell had been messing with him, but that was a rookie, even an _imbecilic, _mistake.

He shook his head. He had woken up two times on his way to his current residence. The first time, he knew he was in a cart of some kind, and he had heard the girl – no, the _Reincarnate_, like himself – talk about bringing him to the castle before he was knocked out again.

The second time, he thought he heard the sound of teleportation, but he was put under a spell of some kind almost immediately afterwards.

Now, he was in a small room unfitting of his status as a political prisoner.

Oh, he might not have been one of the grand nobles, like Lalatina and her family, but he was close enough to being one that he could try and wed his child into their group.

That meant he had support from other nobles, money, and power. Why he was in such a small room with such ill-fitting clothes with such bad food, he had no idea, but once he was out-

Then, his door burst open, and in came his captor, a number of Knights, and her…

Friend? He didn't know. They had been sending each other looks throughout the party that made him think that they might be something more, but he wouldn't presume.

Tanya gestured to the Knight at her side. "You asked to speak with him. Guards, leave us."

They seemed to protest, but she sent them a glare that chilled Alderp to his bones. They, the people receiving it, stumbled out unceremoniously.

Tanya leaned against the wall with her friend, while the Knight, taking off his helmet…

Ah. It was his son.

"Father?" he asked, almost unbelieving. Alderp just raised a single eyebrow towards him.

"I thought I taught you not to ask stupid questions," he said, nearly asking it. Walter glared at him.

"You don't really love me, do you?" he asked. Alderp shrugged uncomfortably.

"You adopted me when I was eight. I took it as a sign from the Goddess that I should spend my time giving back to the community what I had earned because of Luck," he began.

He sat down next to his father, and the Knight looked down at his hands. "I learned everything you had to offer, but… you were just too corrupt. You wouldn't alleviate the suffering and taxes of the people for anything."

He opened his mouth, but Walter shook his head. "Don't mention 'this Denmark' or 'that Norway' that have even higher taxes! Degurechaff has heard of them, and she said you were _lying_!"

Alderp sent a weak glare at her, but she shrugged.

He sighed. He didn't remember how much those countries in Europe charged for taxes, but he knew it was a high amount. He'd used them as justifications for the… ah, _taxing _taxes he leveled on his peasants and merchants.

"Plus, she said they used a lot of that money to _help the people!_ Most of our money goes to the war and to lining our pockets! I left for the Knights because I _hated _your policies, but you…"

"You _wanted _that! You simply desired me for my body, to set me up with Lalatina! A tour as a Knight would make me even more attractive to her father!" he accused.

Alderp let an eyebrow rise, but Walter just scoffed. "I thought it was odd how much you would pick and choose my future. You made sure I had plenty of connections I didn't want, you let me go to the Knights, and you wanted me to marry Lalatina, even though that was always _your_ desire."

They sat there for a moment, and then Alderp sighed laboriously. "I loved you for what you represented to my plans – namely, a chance at marrying Lalatina. So, while I loved your body and skill and magic, I never loved you," he said bluntly.

They were silent after that, and Alderp could feel the anger rolling off of Degurechaff's friend. He looked at his son's face, and scoffed at the saddened expression. "You should be grateful that I bothered to scrape you out of that miserable orphanage."

Walter sighed. "I am. But… you've doomed yourself. I won't help you."

With that, he stood, put his helmet back on, and stepped out of the heavy wooden door. Degurechaff's friend moved the table – he had thought it was solid wood, but with how easily she lifted it, it must have been fake – in the corner into the center of the room, and the girl sat down in one seat.

He rolled his eyes, but he rose and sat in the chair across from her.

The other girl placed an item on the table that sent chills down Alderp's spine.

It was a truth-detecting bell. He would be fine if he had an item that allowed him to trick it, but he had had everything on his body stripped.

"Hello, Mr. Alexei. I have been put in charge of the investigation into your crimes."

He glared at her. "Well, it's nice to finally nice to see my captor, but I have to complain about my conditions. Do you really think that my political partners and I will appreciate this treatment of me? We'll raise a fuss once I'm out of here."

She remained eerily silent, like a certain disgusting demon that he had the misfortune of owning.

Instead, she brought out the necklace that he had tried to slip Iris.

"You know, my brother will get me out of here. I can't _wait-_"

"Where did you obtain this relic?" she asked. He grimaced, but he said nothing.

She simply stared at him, and he crossed his arms. "I won't tell you anything. I'll be out of here-"

"I have killed 6527 people."

He blinked, and then focused back on her.

What?

"Judging by your toad-like blinking, you're confused. I'll repeat myself: I have killed _six thousand, five hundred, twenty seven _people between my different lives," the girl in front of him said as she leaned forward across the table.

Slowly, Alderp, leaned back in his rickety wooden chair, attempting to process the information he'd just been given.

'I have killed…'

That was fairly obvious. She was an adventurer, which meant she had definitely killed monsters.

'…6527…'

That was a bit more confusing. She had killed that many monsters in her time as an adventurer?

That was impressive, especially since his brother, after his humiliation, had claimed that she hadn't been an adventurer for more than three months. Alderp didn't need to ask how he knew – both of them bribed adventurers regularly for information. That number was astounding when applied to monsters… but…

'…people…'

Alderp licked his lips, but he said nothing. That…

That was _terrifying_.

Only Demon Generals, monsters and Demons of legend, and magically resistant diseases could claim to have killed that many people personally.

He glanced at the device at the center of the table, waiting – no, _praying _– that it would ring.

It didn't.

"What does this relic do?" she asked, bringing out the rock. There were no words written on it on how to use it or anything, which meant that Alderp probably knew.

He was staring at it, and Tanya rolled her eyes. "I found that 'Max' person, actually."

He froze again, but Tanya continued to explain. "He claimed to be a Demon of some kind and asked about his payment. I told him that you were imprisoned and that your property was being taken away, and he settled for a promise from me that I'd owe him a favor."

Tanya shook her head as she remembered that odd encounter.

After mentioning her 'holy' presence – those stupid Relics were affecting her more than she thought, and the fact that she collapsed once she had left Iris's body and regained her own was even more concerning – the thing had dissipated slowly.

He had faded away in a flash of light like that other Demon that had given her that letter. He had looked unhappy at not getting anything, but he seemed like he was ecstatic about being released.

Alderp felt one of his eyes twitch. "How dare you! He was working for me through that relic! He forgot-"

He suddenly realized that he was spilling his guts to her, but she merely raised an eyebrow.

Tanya sighed and brought out the pistol. "Look, either you tell me, or I shoot and then Heal you."

He growled, but he finished his sentence. "He forgot about whatever deal we made when he completed it, and I got _so _much use out of him because of it."

Tanya narrowed her eyes. "I won't ask about what you did with him. Not yet, anyway. Now, I'm feeling rather lenient, so if you tell me everything I want to know, you'll get to live out the rest of your days in your old mansion.

He sighed, and dropped the nasal voice and haughty accent he adopted like a professional actor. He met her eyes with a frank stare. "Look, I do have a very real fear of someone willing to tell me how many people they've killed, but I _will _get out of here."

Tanya shook her head. "Sorry, but no. I'm afraid that you've already been sentenced by Iris. Claire seemed to want to put your head on a pike, but she's given the task of your disposal to me."

His eyes widened. "But my wealth-"

"Has been… redistributed," she ground out. She didn't like the communist connotations of the word, but it was the most apt description.

"As a reward for helping avert this national crisis and for helping increase her standing in the eyes of the nobles around her, I am now the Governor of Axel, and I own quite a lot of your wealth. Some of it was given to others – guards, Rain, other nobles – but the majority of your holdings are now… mine."

His face fell, and Tanya sighed. Really, this was _way _more than she had bargained for or wanted.

She now had to look out for thousands of people and miles and miles of land. She was trying to restructure everything as best she could, but Alderp and his people seemed to have functioned solely thanks to bribes and that Demon, so it was hard to find anyone that was trustworthy.

Walter was helping her a bit due to the fact he hadn't known of his father's crimes – which were still being discovered without the work of that Demon to cover them up – and that, while an adult, his family was now tattered and needed to be restored.

Iris thought that him working under her would help with that.

Tanya shook her head, for a moment. Why had Iris decided that Tanya could-

His audible gulp interrupted her thoughts. "My brother doesn't know how I accomplished my feats. He'll save me, even if he doesn't know-"

She shook her head again. "Your brother admitted to his own crimes and _testified _as to the extent of your crimes in return for a less harsh sentence. He'll never be anything but a slightly wealthy man, and I don't think that he'll last long anyway, even with the small amount of land and money he was left."

He had started being _particularly _helpful the moment Tanya had shown up and glared at him, at which point he had muttered something about 'horrifying monsters' and sang out Alderp's crimes.

It seemed that her lambasting of him had left its mark.

Alderp began to mentally curse his brother, and then, after considering it, he decided to curse him verbally too. He didn't care if they were both sending him amused looks, he was going to strangle that-

Tanya wasn't done. "Besides, it isn't like he's really your brother."

He ignored the statement of fact. "Why do you want those relics, anyway? I suppose you might also want to become immortal?" he ventured, hoping to gain even a small bit of information.

Tanya scoffed. "That would be nice, but that isn't the main reason I'm interested in their history."

She was, of course, doing this for official reasons, but…

She sighed and wondered if she was really about to do this.

This wasn't what Viktoriya likely had in mind when she had asked Tanya to talk about her past, but things had gotten more bizarre over time.

She snorted. Revealing her past to someone everyone thought was dead probably didn't even get a consolation prize on her list of weird shit that had happened to her.

"In my second life, I was looked down on constantly for being a woman. Oh, the Empire was a meritocracy, but that didn't mean that there weren't any people that thought that women had no place in the military."

She breathed in, trying not to let the memories overwhelm her.

"I… was so, _so _close to being raped by a pedophile, another Reincarnate that I killed was _unabashedly_ interested in me, and your 'brother' tried to solicit me. He was _happy_ that I was not only 'his type,' but that I was legal."

Once that was out, the rest came easily.

"I've had to endure periods, appraising _looks_, and far, _far_ too much scorn just because I look more like a doll than a person."

He scoffed. "So, you just want better treatment, then?"

Tanya stared, and then Tanya breathed in and raised a fist. The fat lard ball shrank back, but she let it fall hard.

The table was broken, splinters were sent everywhere, and he gulped.

"No, you _idiot_! I have been stuck in this body for over sixteen long, _grueling _years, and I want _out_!"

His eyebrows creased, and Viktoriya sighed tiredly. "This is Tanya's third chance at life, while this is my second. She didn't get to keep her body the first time she was reincarnated."

His eyes widened when that bell didn't make a peep, and Tanya recovered enough that she didn't think she'd kill him.

She rose from her chair, her hands held behind her back. She stalked forward, letting the splintered table crunch under her feet.

"Listen here you grotesque piece of lard, and I'll make this as plain to you as I physically can: I AM A MAN! In my last life, I had no chance, no _thought _of a chance, to EVER get back what I had lost, so the most I could do was reassure myself. I had more important things to worry about than whether or not I was really a female because 'god' forced me into this body. But now…"

She felt a stinging sensation build behind her eyes. "Now, I live in a world that hasn't even _HEARD _of gunpowder, let alone tanks and trench warfare. It's peaceful compared to that last world, ever with the threat of a Demon King, which means…"

She took in a breath, and allowed herself to look… _hopeful _as she pushed down the urge to cry as the corners of her eyes warned her that they were beginning to feel a stinging sensation.

"I have a _chance_. I can focus on other things than this 'war.' I have a chance to be something like myself again instead of being trapped in this infernal body without any method of… _release _that I can stomach, _especially _since puberty is upon me. I can get what I want and tell that piece of shit to shove his stupid promises so far up his ass then end up in hell."

She hadn't even factored the _unfortunate _biological process of puberty into her actions thus far, and it helped explain a _lot _of her more… odd decisions surrounding her relationship with Viktoriya. Honestly, she'd been half hopeful she wouldn't go through the process again.

However, a hormonal imbalance certainly explained why she'd even dared to think about Viktoriya, a woman from 20th century Europe, carnally.

As if _that _would happen.

She sighed again, and frowned as she looked into his beady little eyes. "So, if I have to _beat_ every last miserable _scarp _of knowledge out of you, I will do so with a clear conscious and a smile on my face as you begin to resemble nothing less than a cooling corpse."

Alderp nodded, and he looked down at the remains of the table.

He hadn't had to become a woman for years, but he remembered the feeling. It…

It wasn't fun, and he'd changed as fast as he could. He'd actually set back his plans by nearly five decades by doing so, but having a male body back was worth it.

More importantly, he had no options. Even if she was lying about his stuff being taken and his brother abandoning him, he was here.

The most important thing was survival, and the cold, cynical look on her face told him that she would, if she needed to, beat him close to death in order to get what he wanted.

He sighed. He hadn't thought that he'd be able to get away with immortality forever – not with a Goddess of Luck in this world – and that he had lasted as long as he had was astonishing to him.

He opened his eyes wide, smiling nervously. "There's no need for torture. I'll comply with your wishes."

Tanya smiled. "No, there isn't. I know you'll try and keep your cards held to your chest so that I don't have a reason to dispose of you, and I don't enjoy causing people pain. If you try and hold out on me when it counts, however, I'll wring every last speck of knowledge out of you the hard way."

He nodded, and, after picking through the remains of the table and taking the two Divine Relics in hand, she turned away. "I'll have you brought better food and clothing soon. If you harm the servants that come to help you, it goes without saying that you'll regret it."

Alderp nodded stiffly, and then he told them, unprompted, the specific operations of his third, monster-summoning Divine Relic.

They were rather unimpressed, and then they'd asked about his first relic.

Not the Body-Switcher. They already seemed to know how that worked, which confirmed, without a doubt, that Degurechaff was a Reincarnate, if the Japanese hadn't been enough. No, they were interested in his first one.

The one he hadn't bought. The one he had _brought _with him from his death.

He told them a short summary of how it had been destroyed in order to take down a General of a Demon King a long, _long _time ago, and how his treatment afterward – as a Relic-less Reincarnate – had driven him to become immortal.

Both of the women left after that, patronizingly thanking him for his help.

He was honestly amazed that he hadn't voided his bowels, but this wasn't his first run in with this sort of situation.

He'd survive for as long as he could, as he always had. Maybe he'd be given access to his second Divine Relic as thanks for his service and be allowed to take the body of some criminal before running away. Maybe he'd waste away in here, acting as a secret adviser to one of the most powerful people he had met yet.

He didn't know what the future held, but he did know that, for now, he wouldn't be killed.

They had both promised that in front of that bell.

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed as she left the room. Viktoriya, standing on what had been his bed to flip the switch they'd eventually found – is used that damnable metal, like every other replacement for electricity – also sighed as she caught up.

"I thought we weren't going to keep potentially dangerous enemies alive?" she asked hesitantly.

Tanya was aware her face greatly resembled that of a five-year-old that had just sucked on a lemon, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Alderp, _despite _his numerous crimes, isn't the main problem we're dealing with right now," she muttered.

And his crimes were numerous and uncountable. In addition to the ones against Iris – for which he had been condemned to death – now that 'Max' was gone, everyone had suddenly remembered all of the things he had done to them.

Aurip had told them that his brother had fleeced many merchants and people and nobles and shopkeepers out of money, and that he didn't know how he had done so.

Tanya, Viktoriya, and Walter – who would be helping them run Axel at the directive of Iris, who believed that Walter's family name could be redeemed if he helped Tanya – had received hundreds more than just 'many' people during their first day in Axel.

And that wasn't the most important thing, unfortunately.

"We can't throw out everyone that took bribes from him. We'd probably have to chase out a sizable percentage of all of Axel," she said.

They could, of course, throw out almost everyone. They could point to the people that had accepted bribes and have the police bring in the truth-determining device, and they'd be out of a job.

It seemed, however, that almost _everyone_ was helping him or being helped by him. He had bought off guards, bureaucrats, and nobles, if Aurip was to be believed.

That meant that if they threw everyone out, large portions of Axel's bureaucracy, security, and government would be completely gone.

In addition, there were only so many people that could be trained to replace them, considering that education was limited to the upper classes and those wealthy enough to afford it, especially in a short enough time that wouldn't see Axel become a ghost town.

That meant that she either needed to reach outside of her resources for people – not exactly possible with how few people she was connected to – or she would have to work with the least guilty of his collaborators.

Alternatively, Tanya could just take on large portions of the tasks on her own, but she didn't have the time for that… probably. She had other responsibilities.

Iris had told her that agents of the Demon King were heading towards Axel to check on the disturbance, and the blood-red letter she had received had told her much the same.

Iris had neglected to say how _she _came about that information, and Tanya hadn't really cared enough to ask, with Claire and Rain hanging around and looking murderous.

In fact, it was the Undead Mage that she had nearly killed, according to the blood-red letter. The letter had also asked its recipient to work to find out what the disturbance was caused by due to the fact that the Demon King's resources were going to be a bit stretched in the next few months.

He hadn't demanded it, or even asked the recipient to sign a contract. Instead, it asked that she consider the fact that they might not be so different.

One in her position might admit that they could possibly have similar interests. The person in her position probably had no love for Being X, and she doubted that the Demon King was happy about being besmirched by the two religions of Belzerg.

He'd then asked that she would leave any information she came across in front of a certain castle so that she wouldn't break any clauses, and he'd consider himself in her debt. It wasn't exactly a concrete promise of anything, but he had told the recipient that they could discuss the matter with Evan, the Undead Mage, if they wished for something more.

Plus, from her interactions with the Succubi and that one Demon in the capital, it seemed they followed the letter of their contracts much like she followed the rules.

Since she was now the Governor of Axel, she'd leave a record of any information she came across in front of a certain castle. She would be giving all of the same information to Iris, after all, and she didn't technically know what might happen to any information she placed in front of that castle.

Tanya sighed as they walked next to each other and exited the bedroom. Iris…

She had been fine when the two had left. She seemed mentally sound, considering everything that had happened to her, but Claire and Rain could be best described as…

Absolutely livid.

They had, _literally_, wanted to have him tortured and then _drawn and quartered_, which Tanya was now unfortunate enough to know the exact details of.

She didn't know how it was done in her past worlds, but here, it involved ropes around the arms and legs attached to Lizard Runners, Acid spells, a Rookie Killer, thirteen Goblins, and a pair of Giant Toads.

She shivered as she remembered how Claire had described it in detail to an unhappy Tanya and an… intrigued Iris.

Both of the retainers had justified themselves by spouting off about how the practices were old but perfectly acceptable punishments for treason. Iris hadn't seemed all that concerned with what happened to him, as long as he ended up dead.

That was, honestly, the only reason Tanya was now able to sequester him away now. Iris had seemed happy enough to give Tanya his properties, and Tanya had vowed to execute him for his transgressions, once she got more information relating to his property from him.

Everyone in the room at the time – Iris, Claire, Rain, as well as a few of Iris's other advisers – had agreed that that was fine, and the pity shining in Iris's eyes when Tanya had talked about giving Walter a few moments with his father had pushed her past those who doubted her.

She wouldn't be going back on her word. She did need to get information out of him, and he would die.

They hadn't ever specified when, however, and if they wanted it done in a more specific way – by firing squad instead of by old age – they should have been more precise.

As they walked through Alderp's mansion, Tanya's eyebrows creased.

Wait… _was _Iris mentally sound?

She had collapsed when she had been forced into Tanya's body, but despite that, the friendship-obsessed Princess hadn't spoken a word of it to Tanya. Was she…

Tanya grimaced. Was she being influenced by Being X?

She frowned. It seemed like it might be a distinct possibility. And, even if she wouldn't be now that she was in her own body, that thing might have left marks on her.

Tanya sighed. She didn't know _what _he wanted her to do as the Governor of Axel, but it probably wouldn't be good. Would she even know, or was he actually trying to use some of that fabled power of his to manipulate her surroundings like a chess master instead of a construction worker with a jackhammer?

Tanya shook her head as one of the maids bowed their heads to her and Viktoriya. Along with his Governorship, she'd received a lot of the wealth contained in his holdings in Axel.

That included a brigade of maids and butlers that seemed more than relieved to not have to work for him.

She scowled. Many of them had been reporting abuses he had performed upon them.

That wasn't what they remembered thanks to the loss of the Demon. Many of them had suddenly remembered who had _fathered their children_.

As with everyone else trying to seek compensation, she _could _ignore them, but both Walter and Viktoriya thought that giving them something – money and support, mostly – would be the best idea to ingratiate herself with her new town.

Since their arrival to the town in yesterday's early hours – Lorelei had refused to teleport, and after a whispered explanation as to what secrets had been revealed in their bath together, Tanya had decided that flying to Axel, despite Lorelei's skittishness, would be the best option – they had been receiving complaints.

Tanya had barely been able to sequester Alderp away in that dungeon before merchants, nobles, shopkeepers, farmers, adventurers, and anyone else that had ever had a problem with him had shown up at her new doorstep and demanded his head on a plate.

She'd looked into his records – he had a surprisingly large amount of documentation for a criminal – and found that huge portions of the taxes he raised were being funneled into his own private coffers, as well as the pockets of dozens of guards, nobles, and other bureaucrats.

She'd chased off the people that he regularly bribed – most of the nobles were just complaining about not receiving money from her as his replacement – and given others money and directed them to the Mithril Foundation if they needed more support.

She was hoping that she could get something that resembled an uncorrupt form of government in place, but that could take a long while.

As she sat down at the long table next to Viktoriya, Lorelei, and Walter, she wondered how she would be able to do this. She didn't have the time to do everything herself, which meant she'd need to find someone trustworthy…

She grinned as a figure, clothed in blue and yellow and looking entirely too overworked, popped into her head.

He could work.

And, while she was looking for him, she could catch up with everyone else. The Succubi and Wiz had both said they were doing well in their letters, and that she should pick up her cut of their profits. Tanya wanted to know how the 'friendly' reincarnates in town were doing, if only to make sure they wouldn't betray her… and maybe to recruit them for her government.

A growing list of things to do growing in her mind, she wondered just how much time she'd actually get to spend in her new place of residence trying to create more inventions and weapons.

-OxOxO-

Tanya, slouched over and wearing her usual Adventurer clothing, groaned as she walked through Axel.

This time – because she had been groaning nearly all morning when their coffee had finally run out – she didn't even have Viktoriya or Lorelei by her side.

She was going towards the Adventurers Guild, which was an unfortunately long distance away from the police station.

The three of them had been busy for two days straight, vainly attempting to stave off the hordes of people claiming to have been slighted by the noble they had locked up.

When they'd complained to that fat bastard about his crimes, he'd simply suggested that Tanya bribe the nobles, and then threaten to bring out the guards for everyone else. That was way easier than hoping they wouldn't stab them in the back later, since you could always increase the amount of money you gave them by taxing people more in the next year, during the tax month.

Tanya had been tempted to, and after her lunch on the second day – interrupted by people knocking on her door and demanding compensation – she'd dumped three million of her hard-earned, Claire-given Eris into the Mithril Foundation and told them to go ask them.

That had solved the problem for all of _that _day, but they'd been talking with Walter for the last three hours about how they would continue to pay the Guards – most of whom were horrible at their job and willing to let anything through the gate for a couple hundred Eris – if they were decreasing the taxes so much.

Tanya had decided to order half of them fired. Walter had delivered the order, and the Guards had threatened to rebel.

She had asked Walter to start attempting to placate the nobles – who were all starting to wonder if they should leave Axel entirely if Alderp wasn't there to protect their shady businesses – so that they wouldn't take a third of the town's business with them.

Tanya had finished demonstrating to the Captain of the Guards exactly why they wouldn't be rebelling.

Mostly, she'd just shown up and scared them a bit, but Tanya had also ordered the Knights Walter had told to listen to her to back her up.

Things had worked wonderfully, and the Captain of the Guard had resigned with his head held high instead of having it pushed into the dirt to get the same outcome. The rest of the Guards, remembering how she'd defended the town and trembling from her threats, had fallen in line and promoted a woman named Melodia to be the captain.

She had supplied Tanya with a time when she could help train the Guards.

Now, she had to go to the police station to talk to Gerrard about the new captain. She hadn't needed to know before today – she didn't exactly need to know their schedules if she was just an adventurer – but Alderp had taken the time to explain how the protection of Axel worked.

The Guards patrolled the borders of Axel. That meant the walls of the city, mostly, but ten dozen guards were supposed to patrol the lands surrounding Axel and the towns that were nearby.

'Supposed to' was the operative phrase, because Alderp had bribed the whole of the Guards to not do that, which allowed smugglers carrying contraband to trade in the smaller towns.

The Police patrolled the internal mechanisms of Axel, ensuring that the adventurers weren't causing trouble and that squabbles between everyone were solved amiably.

Their secondary job was to ensure that criminals were apprehended. Tanya had been shocked to hear that, and Alderp had agreed with her. He had also pointed out that since becoming an adventurer was so easy, people who might become criminals could become adventurers instead, leaving only the truly depraved to seek out criminal activity.

The Police had been able to stave off Alderp's corruption, mostly due to Gerrard, but those that worked under him could be intimidated by Alderp's noble titles.

The Knights were subordinate to both the Guards and the Police. They were trained for combat, and while they had some education as nobles, the people who became Police and Guards were specifically trained in how to patrol, how to recognize crime, and other specific tasks that the Knights weren't.

She sighed as they arrived at the police station. She was given appraising looks by the blue-clad police and the Knights that littered the corridor, but none of them gave her more than that.

Some of them didn't even try to hide the fact that they were talking about her as she walked by. "Hey, is that Tanya?" one dusty-blond policeman asked his friend.

Tanya smirked. Honestly, she had been getting very tired of the people in Iris's castle being so deferential.

The dusty-blond policeman and his friend – a blue-eyed man with an inquisitive smile on his face – walked towards her.

Both bowed, and Tanya frowned. "Lady Tanya-"

Tanya's frown turned into a grimace. It seemed she'd be reminded of her forced gender switch at every opportunity. The nobles at that party had called her that enough, and Iris's 'proclamation' that she be given the Governorship of Axel referred to her as 'Lady.'

Obviously, these two had heard something about the party from whichever of their relatives had attended.

It was time to nip that in the bud.

"Actually, it's Governor, now."

Both of them, slightly bent at the waist with their eyes closed, suddenly looked up, confusion on their faces.

She gave them a mirthless smile – she didn't have the energy for more, after trying to run this cesspool of nepotistic corruption. "Alderp attempted to… harm the Princess, and I was tasked with overseeing Axel and his death."

Immediately, both snapped into a salute as stiff as any she had seen – and the 203rd had tried _very _hard not to disappoint whatever standards she could think of after those first months together – and began to apologize.

She waved a hand and dismissed their apologies as her expression once more settled into a tired grimace. "It's no problem. Could you please bring me to Gerrard? Or, if he's already been replaced, to whoever the Chief of Axel's Police is? I have some things I need to discuss with them."

They shared a look, and then the one with blue eyes gestured forward. The one with the blond hair began to walk away, rounding a corner towards where Tanya knew the interrogation room was. "Of course. In fact, I could give you the tour-"

She shook her head, her grimace receding into only a tight frown. "No. I'm on a schedule. Axel needs to be run, and I have several other meetings to attend to today."

She really _was_ getting tired, and it was beginning to look more and more like she and Viktoriya would have to start doing the work of _all _the incompetent people until they could get replacements.

-OxOxO-

Gerrard stood from the seat behind his desk as he finished giving the two other people in his furnished and frugal office the rundown on what they'd be doing.

The two women in front of him were easy on his eyes, which he supposed would be one of his only consolation prizes, considering one was here on noble business and the other was his replacement.

Aloerina Vola Essex had a documented history in Axel. She had been working as a guard protecting some of the farther-flung towns around Axel. She had been recommended for transfer by Alderp's brother, which meant she was either an attempt at corrupting the police, or she was as incorruptible as he was and had less than half of his experience.

From what he'd seen of her so far, she was inquisitive, and, while she seemed eager to state her mind, she had been able to temper her excitement with very particular questions about how things were run. She seemed like she might be a good replacement, on the off chance it wasn't all a front.

He sighed, but he waved off the concerned expressions of both of the women in front of him. He couldn't let them know his thoughts. Both of them were reverent of the nobility.

Sena Jemail, in comparison to Aloerina, had no history here. He knew that she came from Alcanretia, but that was all he knew.

No matter who he had look – the highest ranking being the second son of the Klein family, a man who had joined the police after becoming exasperated with his father's practices, tendencies, and devotion to the Axis Cult – couldn't find anything on her.

Other than the hair and eyes – sleek black and violet-blue, respectively – her face seemed to be made for disapproving expressions and a steely, dutiful will, which was why he'd been shocked by the fact that, whenever he asked what she'd do when confronted with a noble, she responded by assuring him that she would bend over backwards at the first sign of their desire to become involved.

He scowled as they walked past him and out of his office. Officially, she was here as a replacement for the prosecutor that had died in the fighting against the Undead Mage that had attacked. And, if he was honest with himself, he didn't want to find out anything else.

It seemed like it was above his pay grade, and as long as she wasn't working for Alderp, he'd be fine with her.

He had almost convinced himself that she was there to investigate him and the other male police, but he had managed to assuage his fears when she seemed completely unfamiliar with Demons of any kind.

He frowned as a faint, echoing sound began to make itself known outside his office door. Uneven and pounding, they made him wonder what was so important that someone would…

He looked around the corridor outside his office, and he saw that Fischer Tennessee was trying to run towards them at full speed. His uniform was ruined, and, as he stumbled to a stop in front of them, he didn't even manage a salute.

Gerrard raised an eyebrow. Why had he run through the cells? It was much faster to come through the armories of the Knights and Guards and the other offices than-

"Alderp is dead."

He blinked, and he ignored both of the women gasping after they had a moment to register the information. He stepped past them and crouched down in front of him to better look the man in the face. His arms wobbled as he struggled to hold himself up.

"What else?" he asked. He knew there was more to it, or he'd be breaking out alcohol for a celebration.

"Degurechaff is here. She was tasked with his execution, and she is now Governor."

With that, he collapsed completely, and Gerrard suppressed a groan. No doubt, she was coming here to ensure that he would stay in line and wouldn't dispute her appointment.

Honestly, he was suppressing the urge to grin or to burst out into laughter. Alderp being dead was probably good, as long as Degurechaff could be convinced to discontinue his policies of corruption. If not… well, he had misjudged her, and he would continue his efforts to keep Axel cleaner than most places with nobles – which was everywhere.

He turned back around, and gestured to his office. "Please. You'll want to meet her, if she's the Governor now."

Aloerina spoke up, staring nervously at the collapsed policeman. "What about…"

He turned around, and he sighed. "Right. I'll put him in one of the cells for now. You two go in and wait."

With that, he bent down and began to drag the body towards one of the empty cells. He really hoped that today would be getting better because of this.

-OxOxO-

Today had just gotten a lot worse.

Gerrard was now panicking. Both of them, in the twenty seconds he'd been gone, had managed to find his dream journal.

The Succubi had given it to him as a gift for his years of loyal patronage and continued help in hiding them.

It contained records of everything he'd ever seen from their dreams.

For rather obvious reasons, he didn't want them to see it what was contained in it. Those dreams were for him and the Succubi, and no one else!

Of course, the more pressing issue was that they had all signed the inside cover of the thing with their titles, all of which contained the word 'Succubus' and some kind of physical feature.

He opened his mouth and began to explain while praying they wouldn't see the jack shit. "Well… my wife has been dead for a bit over five years now. I miss her terribly, and have been keeping records of… my mind's subconscious desire to be reunited with her."

Aloerina was looking at him with a very… odd look in her eyes, but Sena seemed to be on the verge of glaring at him. His fears that she was there for him and the other male police came roaring back to the surface. He began to pray that something would-

And something did. Or rather, two somethings came in and interrupted the unofficial interrogation.

One, he knew well. Michael Perdun was a studious policeman that tried to ignore the fact that, like Gerrard, he was one of the few people not related to nobles in the entire force.

The other one, he knew enough of. Tanya von Degurechaff had extensive files inside the Adventurers Guild, and he'd interacted with her far more than every other adventurer, except for The Degenerate.

He blinked. Would they help him cover up the Succubi? She'd talked to them, from what little they had told him after he had claimed his three months of free dreams, and he had once seen her enter the back of the building on one of the few days off he allowed himself.

"Chief Gerrard, I've brought Governor Degurechaff to meet you," Michael said in a voice that nearly hid his nervousness. Gerrard could see in the way his eyes were flicking between him and her and the two other women in his office that he was probably terrified.

Gerrard stood, and walked towards her. Tanya smiled widely at the sight of Gerrard.

"How wonderful to see you again! I thought you were getting replaced?" she asked, a hint of humor in her voice. Her face showed none of that humor, and seemed to hold only the barest hint of life.

Honestly, she'd been thrilled to hear from the nervous man that just hurriedly left the room that Gerrard was still around. That meant she wouldn't have to make a trip to his house, because she _was_ getting his help.

"Sena, Aloerina, meet Tanya von Degurechaff," he said, dragging Tanya's attention to the two other people in the room.

Both were dressed like all of the other police in the place: blue clothing with yellow highlights, a tie, small hats that did little to actually cover their heads, sensible black leather shoes, and no visible weapons.

Unlike the rest of them, however, the one on the left has small, triangular glasses and a clipboard. She also had black hair – something Tanya thought was restrained to the Hero Candidates – and a… mixed expression.

She seemed to be trying to keep up a stoic front, as she held out a hand for a handshake, but her hand was oddly clammy.

She was… well, by this world's terms, she probably wasn't that well-endowed, but comparing anyone to Darkness was rather futile. In either of her last universes, however, 'stacked' was probably the best term to describe her.

"Sena Jemail," she stuttered out. Tanya gave her the warmest expression she could with how tired she was – completely neutral – and then turned to Aloerina.

She looked much more like the annoyingly familiar nobles back in the capital. She had bright blonde hair that was close to Tanya's hair in color than any of the other nobles, barring the obvious, and she wasn't nearly as developed as Sena, Viktoriya, or even Lorelei, were.

Tanya shook her head for a moment, before holding out a hand. She seemed to be using sweetness to hide her nervousness. She smiled widely as Tanya shook her hand. "Aloerina Vola Essex."

Tanya surveyed the office as everyone began to settle down. There was a small bookshelf with what looked like recreational reading material on it. She had to blink as she continued.

Behind the large desk overflowing with paperwork, were two filing cabinets, which was odd to see in a room made of stone. Other than that, a picture frame faced his seat, and light came in and lit the small room up much better than most of the building.

Gerrard made to enter a small closet opposite the window, but Tanya shook her head. "I'd rather stand, thank you."

He paused, and then nodded, taking a seat once more. He needed to word this correctly. He ended her help taking suspicion off of him with the Succubi business, and…

He grimaced for a moment. He needed to warn all the other policemen. They needed to keep their mouths shut for as long as these two women were around. Tanya, if she even knew what the Succubi really were, had to be the only woman he'd ever met that wasn't freaked out by the thought of Demons or outraged that they were hoarding the men.

"Tanya, I was thinking," he began, looking her directly in the eyes while trying to think of what he could say that wouldn't inform the other two police, "that you should talk to these two."

All three of the other people in the office looked at him strangely, but he didn't look away from Tanya. "You have a lot of experience in Axel, and you know about some of the… seedier places in the town."

Tanya blinked, and then nodded slowly. She didn't really want to talk to them, but she wanted his help.

He smiled, fighting down the urge to smirk. That might be considered suspicious. "Wonderful. I'm going to go tell the other police that you've become Governor."

He got up, and only paused to take back his 'dream journal' from Aloerina. He needed to hide this thing-

"Say, what's that?" asked Degurechaff. Gerrard paused, and he was sure that if a truth-detecting bell had been in the room, it would have rung, even if he was only going to lie through omission.

Aloerina answered for him. "It's his dream journal. He dreams about his… deceased wife, apparently."

She sounded suspicious, but Gerrard turned around to see that Tanya was smirking at him.

Uh oh.

"Yes, Gerrard. I'll tell them a bit about Axel and what I'm planning on doing with my position. Are you going to be telling the police you see about your absence as well?" she asked, staring at him knowingly.

Gerrard gave her a shaky smile, nodded, and resisted the urge to attempt to smooth down his thin mustache. The two policewomen knew how to look for signs of nervousness.

"Absence?" asked Sena. All the suspicion was now gone, and she seemed only curious.

He glanced at Tanya, mentally pleading that she'd tell him what she was signing him up for. She turned, looked past the two mountains on the woman's chest, and smiled sweetly into Sena's eyes. "Yes. I'm a bit new to running an entire town, and there aren't many other people in Axel I'd trust to help me in setting up something that resembles an uncorrupt government."

He nodded, slightly more sure now. He turned to leave, but Tanya spoke up again. "Gerrard, I hope you realize that if Alderp was the reason you were being forced to give up your job, that you can keep it. You have experience that would go to waste if you were forced to quit, especially since I'm Governor now."

He paused at the dull way she delivered what was honestly the best thing he had heard all month – besides the voice of his wife in his dreams – and he shook his head as a smile began to form. With how corrupt Alderp was, she could probably get Gerrad replaced even faster simply due to suspicion, if she so desired.

He was fairly sure that she wasn't going to be continuing his tactics then.

With a muttered farewell, he quickly opened and stepped through the door. He made his way through the station, informing everyone that Tanya was the new Governor and, using a few agreed upon had signals, informing the male police that they needed to be more careful about mentioning the Succubi.

Everyone smiled and thanked him, though the men were certainly more adamant about their praise.

He finished in the offices, and made his way to the armory. He had to inform everyone, even people on break and not in the building, before either of the women caught wind of what was happening.

Who knew. Maybe he'd even be able to take care of some of the corruption in the Knights and the Guards if Tanya really was going to try and help him out?

-OxOxO-

Tanya turned her attention to both of the women, who were looking a bit nervous to be in the room with her alone.

She shook her head. "Well, he wanted me to tell you about the town. What do either of you know about Axel?" she asked, well aware that she had next to no idea about a lot of the town.

Sure, she had been in the city for around two months, but that wasn't all that much time in the grand scheme of things. Gerrard had probably been around for years, but she wouldn't be calling him back.

She was resourceful, if nothing else. She could…

She smirked. "One of the organizations you should probably know about is the Mithril Foundation."

Both of them became curious, and Tanya felt momentarily brought out of the lethargy that had gripped of her.

"They provide help to the poor and to orphans. They provide money and education and help finding jobs, too," she began.

Sena interrupted her. "For what? Which noble controls them? It sounds like the organization is very influential, so-"

Tanya cut her off. "They aren't associated with any religion or noble specifically. They don't ask that they serve anyone or devote themselves to anything out of desperation. As far as can be told, they operate independently, taking donations from grateful people they've helped in the past."

Nothing she said could be disproved, either. She'd helped set it up, sure, but it was out of her hands, even if a lot of those jobs she mentioned were making items she had thought to recreate.

"To have a town of such noble people…" she trailed off, awe shining in her eyes.

Tanya was too tired to repress her snort of derision. "I think not. Most of the adventurers, as is expected of them, use their necessary position in the defense of the town to ensure that they are given preferential treatment. Luna cried when I left because no one else has ever done community service."

Both looked disgruntled, and Tanya continued on for the next hour, informing them of some of the better places to visit – shops and restaurants that Tanya had heard good things about and hadn't had the time to visit herself – as well as outlining the fact that the Hero Candidates appeared in the city.

Tanya had to pinch herself a few times in order to keep her voice from drifting into a toneless stream of drivel, and she thought that maybe she should get a bit of sleep.

Appearing this way in front of other people, regardless of how much work she had to do and how little coffee she had, reflected poorly on herself.

She shook her head as she finished describing the Eris festival that had occurred. Sena and Aloerina seemed a bit wide-eyed, but that must have just been a figment of-

"Wow! You've done so much here, and that was all in two months? Astonishing for one so young," Sena said. Aloerina nodded her head in agreement, and Tanya almost missed the movement of her head due to the thoughts that had just popped up.

_Twitch._

She sighed. Maybe she should get a business card that says that she was sixteen and not a noble? It would certainly cut down on the time she had to explain the same damn thing over and over.

"I'm sixteen actually, even if I look closer in age to the Princess." She smoothed out her annoyed expression as both of them began to blush.

"Ah…"

Tanya cleared her throat. She had pretty much finished telling them about everything she could, which begged the question: where the hell was Gerrard? It had been over an hour, if the grandfather clock in the corner was to be trusted, and there couldn't be that many police.

She was beginning to wonder if she should ask them about how they were trained – she didn't have much more to tell them unless the topic of travel came up, but she didn't think that either of the professional looking-

"Well, um, you are older than fourteen, and you have taken over for Alderp, so…?" asked Sena.

Tanya raised an eyebrow. She wasn't sure what she was trying to ask, but she was fairly sure she wasn't going to like it.

More work – this sounded like – was not on her agenda, considering how much she was having to do to run the town.

Both of the women looked to each other, for a split second, before scooting their chairs forward and leaning towards Tanya. She took a step back, and found herself nearly against the wall as both of them gave her conspiring looks.

Being slammed against a wall by two beauties might have been a wonderful position in different circumstances, but the crazed looks in their eyes, so similar to Darkness when she thought of being abused, told her that she wasn't going to like this at all.

"Have you ever heard of the Seven Mysteries of Axel?" asked Aloerina. Sena had her eyes glued to Tanya as she shook her head. Seven Mysteries?

Sena nodded as Aloerina began to explain. "Well, there are some very odd things about Axel, and the most odd things have been made into very piercing questions that no one can answer. Why do the Hero Candidates announce their presence in this town specifically, when most of them end up travelling to the front in a week anyway? Things like that."

Tanya nodded slowly. Sena spoke this time. "One of the Mysteries is why female adventurers and employees are not popular amongst the men. Everyone who works in the city seems to just… not be interested in females, in any way, shape, or form."

Aloerina pouted. "It's maddening."

She raised an eyebrow. Why was this important? "How so? Is it a requirement that they get married?"

They looked at each other again, and they sighed helplessly. "Not technically – the King can't demand that much with how high his taxes are – but the Eris Cult constantly preaches that producing children that might one day rise up to fight Demons is a virtue."

Tanya was able to hold herself from gnashing her teeth or outright sneering at the thought, but she just didn't have the energy to fight the frown that overtook her.

Both of them nodded happily and smiled. "That's why we've joined a… _group_."

Tanya raised an eyebrow, trying desperately not to begin glaring at them. If they were asking her to try and-

Sena straightened up. "Even though I'm new to Axel, I am the president of this group, after they heard that I'd been divorced by my husband."

Tanya mustered all of her energy to give her a weak smile and a small condolence as she tried to push past them. Neither had moved, however, and she couldn't get past them without _very _physically pushing them.

Aloerina nodded encouragingly. "Yes. We had no choice. She was given the pleasure to be married, and then had that ripped away by her husband's choice after less than five years," she said. Sena nodded, and Tanya frowned contemplatively as she wrung her hands nervously.

Aloerina continued, oblivious. "She is the youngest of us, at 20, but the Association to Protect Women's Chances of Marriage is growing by the day!"

And _that _was all she needed. She didn't care one way or the other if people in this insane world married at fourteen or whatever – she had more important things to do, especially now – but she sure as hell wasn't getting roped into it.

She pushed past them both, walking towards the wide window. "No thank you. Honestly, why you would _want_ to get married to anyone in this town is beyond me, but-"

"We are desperate." Tanya turned around to see that Aloerina was looking very saddened, but Tanya rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth-

_BOOOM!_

The room shook, dust drifted down from the ceiling, and Tanya choked on her words as memories assaulted her unprepared mind.

She was in the east and she was falling and falling and something broke and unnatural sweet smells and something was _burning_ her wrists and-

"...orner?! What… what's wrong, Lady Degurechaff?"

She shook her head, and everything was sane again. The women were leaning down over her, grabbing onto her wrists. She wasn't wearing anything made of that _despicable_ metal.

She finished taking a dozen deep breaths in an attempt to keep herself from hyperventilating, and shakily rose from the ground.

"What… what was that?"

Both of them looked at each other, and then Sena frowned. Her face lost all of the nervousness and eager wonder from their earlier conversation.

"That would be…"

Aloerina made a face like someone had shoved her into the bottom of a trench without an Oxygen Conversion Spell to help with the smell. Sena sighed.

"While I haven't had time to investigate, there were some rumors among the guards that there some crazy Crimson Demon that's obsessed with the Explosion Spell, and who won't use any other spell," Aloerina said. Sena sighed.

"It isn't as bad as it would be without the Monster Rush system, but-" Sena began. Tanya held up a hand.

"'Monster Rush?' What's that?" she asked.

Both blinked, but Sena straightened herself up and began to lecture. "With Verdia taking residence in the castle, it was necessary for drastic measures to be taken. The town was on the verge of economic collapse, when a famous former adventurer proposed using potions that attract monsters to a person for the rest of their lives."

Tanya nodded along. She knew that much, even if it was phrased quite… fantastically.

"Five people volunteered, and monsters were killed in large numbers. With the retreat of Verdia from his castle following the defeat of his Undead Mage, regular operations resumed in the guild," she said, finally taking a breath.

"However, many people liked the new system. It allowed for more experienced adventurers to help everyone instead of just their party, and, while rewards for monsters were decreased, it allows for more experimentation. Every week, the guild gathers together in order to go out to one of the plains near town," she finished.

Tanya nodded, and she wondered why neither the Succubi nor Wiz had informed her of the change.

She shook her head. Obviously, that Crimson Demon was a bit more helpful out on the plains, but learning a single spell, especially one that was supposed to be the most powerful one, was extremely inefficient.

"What do those Crimson Demons look like again?" she asked. Sena provided with her a brief description – red eyes, black hair, odd clothing and very good magical equipment – before Gerrard _finally _came back.

She smirked. Finally, she'd get out of here. She rose, bidding the two goodbye and telling Gerrard to meet her at Alderp's mansion tomorrow. She had plans.

With that, she wound her way through the police station. Her next conversation was going to be much better.

After all, the Succubi couldn't have gotten into too much trouble, or the Eris and Axis Cults would have likely eradicated them.

-OxOxO-

Viktoriya suppressed the urge to tear her hair out, and instead just groaned as she pushed came closer to the guild. Why was this world so… woefully lacking?

If there was anyone in this town that was uncorrupt and able to help them, Alderp would have mentioned them, if only to complain that they hadn't bowed to him in the same breath.

She and Tanya had to spend all their time trying to run this place on their own instead of working on replacing the dozen rounds the two of them had or on fixing their now slightly-malfunctioning Computation Jewels.

Why couldn't they be doing either of those things, or taking a bit of time to relax from the tedious adventuring, or taking a nice, hot, relaxing bath _togethe_-

She shook her head and pinched her leg. She had managed to get to the guild half-asleep. She needed to be awake, if only so she could handle everyone in there.

Tanya was, apparently, the more recognizable half of their duo in Axel, and they had decided that her going to the police station to meet with Gerrard, who Viktoriya had not exactly talked to a lot, was the better option, especially since Viktoriya was much less likely to be mobbed when she went in the guild thanks to the aforementioned eye-catchiness of Tanya.

Lorelei, since she wasn't yet associated with them – and how the beastman had seemed to glow at the implication that they would publicly associate with her – was going to visit Wiz.

The part-rabbit woman had been shocked to learn that Wiz was a Lich, but they'd needed some way for Lorelei to confirm to Wiz that she was working with them. That fact about the shopkeeper would get things rolling fastest.

She shook her head, hoping to gain one last ounce of wakefulness, and pushed through the doors of the guild.

Thankfully, no one recognized her or cared enough to bother her. She smiled faintly, and made her way to the front desk. She needed to talk to Luna first; the possibility that she'd be willing to help them run Axel was tantalizing.

She made her way through the place, avoiding bumping into a harried waitresses. Viktoriya smiled as she remembered Darkness mentioning something about Tanya wearing one of those costumes, and-

She shook her head again, trying to banish the thoughts, and then groaned and gave it up. She didn't have the energy to function, network, and curtail her own thoughts at the same time.

If she had to prioritize, then of course she'd choose the first two and forget about the third. And, since they were just… thoughts, they couldn't be _that _bad. She wasn't actually telling anyone, and, soon, she'd find someone she liked and stop having those distracting things rattle in her head.

Finally, she was at the front. For once, it seemed like there wasn't anyone there, but it was midday. It was likely that most everyone was out adventuring right now.

She walked closer, and cleared her throat. Luna looked up, apparently surprised, and then her face lit up like Christmas had come early.

"Viktoriya!" she cried. She hurled herself over the barrier, and Viktoriya tried not to feel embarrassed as Luna kneeled down in front of her. She looked around to try and avoid the embarrassment.

After a quick look around, her embarrassment faded. There weren't that many people there. It looked like three groups were huddled close to the bulletin board, with a few more scattered throughout.

She groaned as she couldn't locate the Reincarnates. She had come here to hopefully recruit them, but if they weren't, she'd have to come back tomorrow.

She shook her head and turned her attention back to Luna, who hadn't stopped kneeling. Viktoriya sighed, bent down, and patted her on the shoulder awkwardly.

"Come on. It couldn't have gotten _that_ bad…"

She stood, and Viktoriya blinked as the woman's smile disappeared, and a scowl – an actual sign of negative emotions beyond the wax smiles she usually wore – took its place.

"You have _no _idea. The people who took that potion you guys recommend are getting angry that they'll be stuck here forever, even though we _told_ them what they'd be getting into, Dust took all of three hours to completely drown himself in debt and become more of a nuisance than ever, and not even four weeks after you left and we've got _another_ destructive loli-"

"I hope you aren't referring to Tanya." Luna blinked, and then looked around.

She felt a great sense of foreboding…

She shook her head and looked back at the simple-looking Adventurer. "Uh, I mean…"

She grimaced as the foreboding increased, and then blinked. Though Viktoriya looked normal – her face hadn't changed from the inquisitive, tired stare – she could feel… _something _coming from her.

She realized what it was in a flash, and she tried not to gulp. "Uh… no. Of course not."

Immediately, the force retreated, and Viktoriya shot her a smile. "Okay. Well, I just wanted to let you know that Tanya has taken over from Alderp. He attempted to harm the Princess, and Tanya was tasked with carrying out his death."

Luna blinked, and then nodded slowly. Like most everyone who wasn't being paid by him, she disliked the fat noble for his policies, especially since he often tried to 'hire' adventurers to sing his praises.

The brown-haired woman nodded again. "Well, she was looking for help. She's a bit overworked trying to undo a lot of his policies, and she was wondering if you'd like to earn triple whatever you're being paid now."

Luna gulped audibly. That…

Well, it would certainly be nice to earn that much money, and, really, why would she want to hang out here?

Sure, she was hoping to marry some strong adventurer eventually, but everyone in this town seemed completely uninterested in such a thing. If she were to work for her, then…

"Actually," Viktoriya said, seeing the unguarded uncertainty on her face, "could you direct me to wherever Darkness is? We could really use her help right now."

She opened her mouth to respond – she'd been adventuring with that silver-haired Thief for the past few weeks – but she was unable to finish the thought. She couldn't.

She spotted, over the shoulder of the woman in front of her, the crazy Crimson Demon walking in. She was stumbling around, hardly able to hold up her own weight, but the unsubtle movements of the adventurers near the bulletin board seemed to fill that loli with the anger needed to accost them.

She shook her head. "Sorry Viktoriya. Can't talk right now." With that, she calmly walked behind the guild's counter and shut the doors to the windows.

It was rude, sure, but she wasn't risking that Megumin character coming over. She was probably insane, especially with how much brooding she seemed to do whenever Tanya was brought up.

Luna thought, for a moment, about opening the doors and warning Viktoriya not to mention Tanya in front of her – Luna had been forced to kick the Archmage out of the guild for swearing to 'outshine any hideous pretenders to the name of Best Explosion Mage' – and then thought better of it.

It just wasn't worth the possibility that the girl would grab her clothing and try and drag her over the counter. It was somewhat pathetic – she wasn't strong enough to actually accomplish her goal – but she'd had to go to the Eris Cult yesterday because she'd bruised her chin when the girl had yanked her out.

Meanwhile, Viktoriya blinked at the now closed windows, and then sighed again. Well, if Mitsurugi – who had claimed he was coming to Axel at that party – wasn't here, and the Reincarnates weren't either, and if Luna wasn't talking right now, then there wasn't really any reason for her to stay.

She turned around, heading for the door once more. Maybe she should eat a bit of lunch soon? Tanya had claimed that the Succubi would probably treat them to something, and if they didn't, that they had food at home.

"Hey, you should really think about showing a bit more skin. I know it's getting close to winter, but that doesn't mean you should hide everything away from us men."

She continued walking past someone having a rather odd conversation, until something blocked her path. It took her a moment – she _really _needed to find some decent coffee in this town – and realized who it was.

"Oh, it's just you, Dust. Have you got the money to pay off your debts to Tanya? You haven't been helping her much, and while you only owed 100,000 Eris when we left, you now owe her 300,000 again due to interest," she said.

He just blinked at her, and Viktoriya glanced to the side. It seemed his friends were all eating, split between sending Dust murderous looks or sending apologetic looks – in the case of the girl and the Crusader – and lecherous looks – in the case of the Ranger – towards her.

He opened his mouth, cleared his throat, and began to speak. "Yo- You know, since you're blocking me, I could have run into you. I think you should pay me for getting in my way and ignoring my compliment."

Viktoriya looked into his red eyes, smirked, and scoffed loudly.

He seemed to grow confused, but she was happy to explain. "Really, how pathetic are you that _that_ is considered a compliment? I know you have some sort of 'tragic backstory' you don't want us talking about that you think justifies this behavior, but people who've experienced worse have risen far higher."

He seemed taken aback, but she didn't let up. "And that ego? Sure, you aren't half bad, as far as looks go, but your personality paints you as the pathetic leech that you are, whose only redeeming quality is that you are only a _petty _criminal instead of something _actually _dangerous."

"Hey, even I will start to cry if you say stuff like that!"

Viktoriya rolled her eyes. "If you don't want to get insulted, then maybe you shouldn't make it so easy. Take the easy out next time, you-"

"Are you alright?"

Viktoriya blinked at the sudden question, and found that the girl was peering at her curiously. She took a deep breath, and the rest of the world came back into focus.

"No. I'm trying to help Tanya run the entire town, which isn't exactly _easy _with how corrupt everything is," she admitted. The girl nodded.

"What is your name? I think Tanya mentioned you, but…" she trailed off. She banished Viktoriya's returning nervousness with a wave of her hand.

"It's fine. My name is Lynn Cetane," she said as she extended a hand. Viktoriya nodded.

Maybe she had been hanging out with Tanya too much. Insults like that were her style, even if she usually saved them for incompetent people and their enemies. "Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. I'm sorry for insulting Dust, it's just-"

"Don't worry about it," she said. She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Honestly, he probably needs it."

"Hey!"

Both laughed at the grumbling Dust, and Viktoriya excused herself with an apology and a promise to talk more later. As she walked away, she felt her lethargy returning. She had things she needed to do and-

Her eyes narrowed as she saw a man arguing with two girls. He was passionately pleading with them, gripping onto the one with a tie tightly.

She stepped forward, hoping that Luna wouldn't look out at her anytime soon.

-OxOxO-

Megumin glared at both the kneeling man that was attempting to grope Yunyun's shoes and at the girl herself. Yunyun wasn't really going to give in, was she?

The rat-faced man dressed in shabby black clothing and reeking of something – she wasn't sure what it was, but it was more pungent than even the crazy materials her father used in making his bizarre potions – looked up occasionally, but he always lowered his head and continued to beg Yunyun.

Megumin stepped forward with a drawn out sigh. Usually, she'd jump into Yunyun's troubles quickly, but she was feeling very tired.

She had been in Axel for eight days, not including the afternoon when she had arrived in Axel, and she hadn't been able to keep a party for more than a few hours.

Oh, on her fourth day she had impressed everyone by taking out a large amount of monsters during the 'Monster Rush,' but that hadn't done anything. Everyone still looked down on her Explosion magic and called her crazy.

Or, they did something worse. Instead of being filled with awe at the thought of her power, they'd shrug, say they'd seen something similar, and accuse her of attempting to _rip someone else off!_

She didn't have to guess to know exactly who they thought she was copying.

Tanya. Von. Degurechaff.

Everyone mumbled about missing her, and wishing that she was there instead of her, and basically daring her to demonstrate just why _she_ was the greatest user of Explosion magic. And not some faceless, haughty noble.

Megumin shook her head and saw Yunyun begin to break down. She looked far too afraid and troubled for the obvious lies of the man in front of them. She leaned down, gripping one elbow and looking as stereotypically nervous as possible.

"Ugh… Th- Then, just for… a while…"

"Really?!"

The man's face had broken out into what seemed to be, at first glance, a genuine smile. Yunyun, ever inexperienced with interaction, couldn't tell that it was fake.

She stepped in at the perfect time. "Of course not! What are you up to!? Exploiting another person's kindness!? Want me to call the police?"

"Wh- What are you saying!? Ah, oh. You are-"

The man stopped speaking, and Megumin could not blame him for it. A chill seemed to strike all three of them at the same time, and Megumin's thoughts were sent back to the short time – relative to other Crimson Demons – she had spent in school.

One question the less studious Crimson Demons had was the matter of killing intent. How could people just 'sense' a thing's intent to kill them?

The teachers had assured them that they probably wouldn't ever feel the full effects of it. Front line fighters would acclimate to such things, while Archmages and Priests and the like, who didn't often face their enemies very closely, would only feel a small bit of it.

Megumin turned around stiffly, wishing that the teachers had brought in someone to demonstrate the effect, if only so that she wouldn't be freezing up now.

"Excuse me, is this thing attempting to harass you?"

Megumin blinked. There was no towering adventurer of legend standing behind her, or a Demon of some kind, or even something wider than Megumin was tall.

No. Instead, it was just a woman. She might have been twenty-four, with light brown hair, bright blue eyes, a face with a rounded chin and sharp cheeks, and seemingly mundane clothing and equipment. A curious light near her chest seemed to be shining through her clothing.

"Let me ask again: is this thing attempting to harass you?"

Despite the facts of her appearance, it was like standing in front of a storm. Her eyes, despite being the color of a clear, sunny day, held no warmth or compassion. Her cold words and the frigid tone she'd spoken with were at odds with a small and oddly creepy smile on her face.

Megumin quickly glanced to her right, and saw that Yunyun seemed frozen, and that the man at her feet, halfway through the motion of rising, might have been changed into a statue.

The woman stepped forward, and that broke the man out of his trace. He managed to get to his feet, muttering, "I'm sorry, I'll just be going now," as he brushed past Megumin.

Fast as a Lightning spell, the man collapsed, choking. The woman's hands, which had been close to her sides, were now held up. One was outstretched – she must have punched him in the throat – while the other was reaching down towards the man.

The woman turned to Megumin, and she took a step back.

She looked at Megumin's eyes, and a confused expression came over her. She blinked, and the killing intent faded away.

"Ah… I apologize for frightening you."

Yunyun said nothing, so Megumin took the lead. "About your earlier question… he was definitely planning to do something to Yunyun."

"Hey! What do you mean? He just wanted to take me to see his sick mother...!"

Megumin scoffed. "That was definitely a lie! Did-"

But the woman reminded them of her presence. "Okay. I'll take him to the police station, then. If he's afraid of them, then he might be wanted for something. And if he isn't…"

Both looked at her with interest, and she held out a hand. Megumin stepped back at the unnaturally calm look in her eyes.

"Dehydrate."

The man began to shrivel up, and Megumin backed into Yunyun as his cheeks sank in. The woman bent down, grabbed the back of his shirt, and walked out of the guild.

If Megumin's lecture on why Yunyun shouldn't be tricked so easily was any less harsh because of what that woman had done, neither of them mentioned it.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei looked down at the small piece of paper that denoted the address of the shop their friend owned, and then looked back up at the shop.

This was the place.

She opened the door and looked around at everything. There were potions covering the walls, jars and containers were stuffed everywhere, a shining glass ball on a red pillow lit up the area around it, and various oddly shaped items that she was sure had some magical purpose. She could even see a few pieces of Manatite.

What drew her attention most, however, were the pieces of merchandise on the tables in the center. Flashy pieces of… hardened paper? She didn't know what they were, but it cried out that the 'lighters' and 'matches' and 'Swiss Army Knives' were supremely helpful.

On another table, she could see small wooden boxes emblazoned with a white plus sign surrounded by a red circle, along with ever smaller leather bags with the same sign. The hardened, brightly colored paper above these declared that 'they could save your life long enough to find a Priest.'

Just as her attention had been drawn to those tables, a pair of adventurers were also looking at the table, picking up items and gasping at what they did. Both hurried to the countertop where the shopkeeper was and bought their items quickly, only slowing down their rapid pace to stare at her as they left.

She shook her head and looked up from them towards the shopkeeper. She was pale – something to be expected of a merchant focused on creating and selling magical items, but even more expected of what she really was – and had lovely red hair that contrasted nicely with the simple but high-quality purple and yellow robes that she wore.

She seemed startled to see her, but Lorelei smiled kindly, hoping to put her at ease.

It didn't, and Lorelei sighed. Even if Lorelei hid almost everything underneath her clothing – her pants weren't the black, flowing pair that she usually wore, but something closer to jeans. She was wearing her usual pastel blue and white jacket, but she'd decided to wear a white shirt today – and her friends looked past her ears, it seemed that some people couldn't help but focus on what was most prominent.

Wait… if she was a Lich, why was she looking at her like that? Surely she'd-

Wiz opened her mouth, probably to greet her, but Lorelei wasn't in the mood for it. "I'm not here for any merchandise, Lich."

She immediately stopped attempting to greet her, and Lorelei nodded. She walked forward, around the merchandise, coming up to the counter. She towered over the woman, and the sword at her side seemed especially prominent, considering the lack of any other equipment.

"Ah… I have already told the Demon King that he'll get some money back soon. I've actually been able to make a profit this month, though I have been thinking about buying more merchandise…"

Lorelei tried not to lash out, took a calming breath, and summoned the vestiges of her energy.

She might not have been working as hard as Tanya and Viktoriya – she just didn't understand the terminology that they rambled on about, and neither of them was willing to take the time to teach her for fear that they'd be even more overloaded with work by the time they were done – but she had still spent hours with them, attempting to give them ideas.

"I am working for Tanya, actually. She told me that you'd know that I was working with her from the fact that they told me you were a Lich," she said with a raised eyebrow. She didn't add that she wondered whether Wiz was actually their friend if they'd misjudged her that badly and she thought the same of her as most did.

Of course, there was the possibility that they hadn't misjudged her and they were going to kick Lorelei to the road at the first opportunity and-

She cut off that unfounded thought and looked at the Lich, who wilted at her glare.

"You told her that you have some money for her?" Lorelei continued, trying to ignore the look on her face. It wasn't Lorelei's fault that the Lich thought she was working for the Demon King, but she hated being thought of as an enemy by everyone just for her ears.

"Well… yes, I do," she replied stiffly. She ducked down behind the counter, and brought up a bulging bag.

"I took five percent off of all the sales of her merchandise, and… she's got two million Eris, now," she said.

Lorelei nodded, and grabbed the bag. "Fine." With that, she turned away, intending on going straight to the 'special' shop that Tanya had been talking about.

Well, talking was a strong word. She mentioned it often enough, but she hadn't ever said _exactly_ what it was that they did that made it so special. Lorelei hadn't heard of it, which meant it probably wasn't something related to adventurers, but-

"Actually… actually, could you tell Tanya that I don't want to sell her stuff anymore?"

Lorelei paused, and then turned around, her annoyance and anger fading away into confusion. "What? Why? All this stuff is amazing – they've only _just _convinced me that none of it is even magic – and she's got even more stuff in the works."

Tanya had pitched a few of her ideas to Lorelei – not that she would tell her where she got them from – from a handheld watch that almost seemed like it must run on magic with how intricate it was, to sleeping bags that would make even the most secure, warm bedroll obsolete.

The Lich shrugged uncomfortably. "It… it just feels like cheating, to be doing this well…"

Lorelei rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip as she peered at the woman skeptically. "Why? Is it _bad _to be doing so well?"

Again, the woman shrugged uncomfortably. Lorelei sighed without a hint of irritation.

"Wiz… Tanya holds you in high regard. She does admit that some of your purchases are… odd," Lorelei said.

Tanya had shared a letter or two of Wiz's, asking her for clarification on how certain magic items functioned. Lorelei wasn't a huge help in that regard, but Tanya was often able to come to a conclusion about what certain items were 'really' for.

"Like… you made a whole bunch of fans to help people keep cool, right?"

The woman nodded and looked forlornly at a corner of the shop, where several metallic fans were located. A letter had stated that she'd made them with insights gained from Tanya's items, and she'd been interested in them.

"Well, those aren't going to be sold for much right now due to the cooling weather, but," she said, stalling the woman's falling features, "you can always hold onto them until the summer. Plus, while you can't use them to keep cool, Tanya pointed out that you might be able to push enough mana into one to use it to dry wet clothing or hair."

The woman's eyes widened, and she nodded absently as she stared at them. Lorelei walked closer to the counter.

Wiz turned back to her, looking up at her face. "Besides, she probably wouldn't trust anyone else to sell her stuff without trying to steal from her. She knows she can trust you," she finished with a smile.

Wiz nodded in a revitalized manner. Lorelei reached down to her belt, drawing out her own bag of money. "Now, I'd like to purchase one of those lighters, please. Oh, and as many of those explosive potions that you sell to Tanya as possible. Also, Tanya recommended that you get some kind of name card with the store's location on it, to help customers find it."

After that, she was soon out the door and heading towards the shop Tanya had told them to meet at, a lighter in her pocket and a crate on one shoulder. The leader of their party wanted to meet up with some friends at the shop and try to get their help with her paperwork.

Soon enough, she found the next shop. Both Viktoriya and Tanya were talking outside, though it looked more like they were trying to stay awake. Other than that, Tanya looked more upset than she had in the past two days, including when they'd run out of coffee.

That didn't bode well. She hurried up her pace, rushing to their side to catch the tail end of their conversation. "…go in later. For now-"

"Go where?" she cut in. Both jumped a foot off the ground, and she smirked. "I thought I was the rabbit beastman here, but if you guys are so skittish…"

Both glared at her, but she just laughed at the annoyed gazes. Tanya rolled her eyes at her antics. "Whatever. We're going into the Adventurers' Guild tomorrow afternoon in order to try and recruit some… Hero Candidates to help us."

Lorelei snorted at the mental image of Hero Candidates, the very images of strength and character and defense against the Demon King, doing menial paperwork, but she didn't make any noise beyond that.

After looking at the beastman and getting no explanation as to why she'd snorted, Tanya wrote it off. She needed to get in, ask how the Mithril Foundation was doing, ask for a bit of help, and get out. She was already getting tired, and she needed to nap for an hour or two before she started doing paperwork again.

She pushed open the backdoor into the hallway, and drifted down it with Viktoriya and Lorelei in tow. They ducked to the right, into the back room, a place they'd told her they did lots of the drier work that went into running their business and the Foundation in, and…

She blinked as she pushed open the door and looked at the room of scantily-clad demons.

Her mental processes took an entire three seconds to focus on anything but the expanses of flesh and skin before her. She shook her head to try and snap out of it.

Right, they had told her in a letter that an increase in the number of adventurers in Axel had necessitated that they wear their work clothing so they could cater to anyone that suddenly showed up. They'd even given her a way to contact them so they could dress more normally through some bizarre 'ritual' so that Viktoriya wouldn't see them like this.

Whoops.

Tanya tried to ignore the way that neither of the people behind her were talking or how the people in front of her were staring questioningly and looking between her and the other two.

She stepped forward, trying to think about how she would justify this. She hadn't ever told Lorelei who these people were or what they did, and this might not paint the best picture of either her or them, especially considering the wings and the tails…

She frowned tiredly. She wasn't sure she had the energy to care, honestly.

She made her way in between the Succubi – most back here were wearing a bit more than usual, with how cold everything was getting and how no one had invented air conditioning or indoor heating beyond refrigerators and fireplaces and, accord to Revi, expensive, massive pieces of magical equipment that could only be afforded by the wealthiest…

She filed away that idea for later and cast a glance around. All of the Succubi were still staring warily at Viktoriya and Lorelei, while Viktoriya and Lorelei seemed to be on the verge of slack jawed bafflement.

She shrugged. They'd adjust… probably. She looked around again, and saw that Receptionist Succubus was nowhere to be seen. She looked around for the second-in-command, and soon found her.

"Hey, what are you guys doing? I need a detailed briefing of what you all have been up to," she said.

They all waited at least another moment, and just before she could get mad, Loli Succubus shook her head and looked at Tanya.

That seemed to be the signal, and everyone burst into motion and decided to ignore everything but their jobs. It wasn't their business to wonder why Lorelei and Viktoriya were getting to see them as they really were, so they wouldn't ask.

The small girl in front of her stuttered only for a moment. "Well… uh, we have been doing… exceptionally well. We're getting more business than ever on the Succubi side of things, while the Mithril Foundation has been getting increasingly noticeable."

Tanya nodded. Good. "I'm sorry about telling everyone that came to me to go to you guys, but-"

She cut her off. "What do you mean? That was you? They just complained about an 'irritable noble loli' who became Governor telling them to come begging to us."

Tanya blinked at the worried expression on the girl's face. Had she worded it that harshly?

That question quickly jumped out of her brain as it realized the storm that was being birthed by how they had described her.

"They called me _what!_"

Loli Succubus backed away a bit, and Tanya let the anger drain away. She really didn't have the energy to care for more than a few seconds. "Fine. Whatever. Did you help them? I didn't just donate a couple million Eris because I was feeling extra charitable."

She nodded, and Tanya sighed in relief. Having to try and find everyone again and compensate them would have been hard work if they hadn't helped those leeches.

She moved on to her next piece of business. "Would any of you be willing-"

"No."

Tanya blinked at the speed of the reply, and then took the time to consider the emotions on the face of the Succubus in front of her.

Earnest. Apologetic. Unyielding.

She blinked and continued to look at the Succubus, even after she finished figuring all that out. She looked pretty… pretty.

She shook her head and fought down a blush. Focus.

She looked upset by her own words, and the way she was leaning back suggested she expected a reprisal or some kind of explosive argument.

Luckily for her, Tanya didn't have the energy for it, and she knew, from their letter, that they were as stretched as they could be. They just didn't have the energy to work any more.

Tanya sighed. "Fine. If you can't help me, then I've got… _other _ideas."

Alderp had, after all, made regular contracts with dozens of people to work as servants, butlers, maids, and even as his personal artists and musicians.

She owned those contracts now, so she could use them.

She didn't trust them – Alderp had thought hiring them was a good idea, which meant that some of them were probably corrupt or only loyal to him and not to her – but she had few other options.

She sat down in a nearby chair, trying not to fall asleep and providing the Succubi with ideas about how to run the school and help the orphanage and their own business and the dozens of workers they had producing the merchandise and tools she'd recreated.

After an hour, they were out of questions. Tanya stood up, ready to go back to the mansion and take a bit of a nap. After that, a meeting with Walter was sure to happen, and-

"Tanya?"

She spun around, an inquisitive frown on her face. The Succubi who had walked towards her – a purple-haired one that had asked Tanya to address her as simply Tiffany before she had left – seemed concerned for her.

Tanya shrugged. "Yes?"

"Are you… okay?"

Tanya nodded. "Sure. I'm just a bit sleep deprived. Cleaning up after Alderp is hard work, but I should be able to finish it."

With that, she turned to leave. Loli Succubus spoke up again. "How about I get you guys some tea?"

She almost sneered – why didn't anyone in this town have fucking _coffee_? – but she nodded all the same. Viktoriya and Lorelei rose from where they'd been quietly asking questions or helping to figure out and followed her out of the door.

They went down a few hallways, and then into a small room that greatly resembled what Tanya remembered of the break rooms from her own place of work. It was honestly kind of comforting.

She quickly poured them a bit of tea. "Thank you, Loli Succubus-"

"Actually," she interrupted, "I, uh, hung out with Dust a while back. Without you here to save him – why do you do that, anyway? – he racked up a bunch of debt."

She finished handing out cups to both Lorelei and Viktoriya. "He actually went out to get a quest, but he didn't think he could do it on his own. He tried to trick one of the more powerful teams – a guy named Rex leads them – but they saw through it. They agreed to help him for a bit of the payout, and he managed to pay off a bit of his debt by making me act as a Mage using Sleep."

Tanya nodded again, and again, and again…

She snapped up, and looked down at the tea. It wasn't bad, and she had nearly nodded off drinking it. She looked at the Succubus.

"Uh… the point is, he dubbed me 'Lolisa,' so you can just call me that, if you want," she finished.

"Do you prefer that? It certainly sounds more like an actual name instead of a derogatory title…" she trailed off, looked at her.

She shrugged and began to grin apologetically. "Yeah, I prefer it, and I don't mind being a loli. I mean, everyone has their tastes, right? Some of the people specifically ask me to make their dreams for me because of it."

Tanya nodded again, slowly, and tried to ignore the sound of laughing coming from behind another door. It probably led into their… _business _area. She looked down at her tea, trying and failing to focus more on it than on anything else, especially how tired she was.

"Anyway, why did you buy his debt?"

Tanya looked up from her tea to see that Lolisa looked curious and…

She shook her head at the idea that she looked hungry. The small girl wasn't some sort of gossip hound right?

"Well, he might not be the best adventurer out there, but he handles a spear well, if-"

Tanya was cut off, not by a well-meaning interjection or an understanding nod or a clarification, but by a spray of still-hot tea.

She flinched away for a moment, and then sighed and cast Heal on herself.

She looked up to see that Lolisa was looking at her apologetically. "Uh… sorry about that. It's… it's just that I didn't expect that. I mean, Dust? Couldn't you do better?"

Tanya froze.

She breathed deeply. Lolisa _wasn't_-

She was still rambling on. "Of course, your preferences are your own, but you would think that I would have seen something like that in his dreams. Still-"

"Lolisa."

She paused, turning to Tanya. She blinked as the blank look on her face began to recede. She hadn't shown any kind of emotion earlier, besides annoyance or grudging acceptance or-

Lolisa took a step back as the emotions bubbling up on her face showed pure rage. Every iota of tiredness was now gone, replaced by a snarling mask of nearly unrestrained hatred.

"If you ever suggest I'd sink to such… _things_, I will _personally _witness you begging the Eris and Axis Cults for deliverance before _ending _you."

She retreated into the corner. How? Why? Who was this? How was she so powerful? She was just a human-

Then, it was gone. Like a light switch, the mask of tiredness was back on.

She breathed deeply again. "I apologize for that. I'll… make it up to you or something. I'm really tired and not entirely in control of my facilities. Sorry."

With that, she turned to leave, not even taking the time to leave the cups. She muttered "Dehydrate" under her breath, and sighed as her clothing, still dripping from the tea, became markedly less wet.

With that, the three of them were gone. All three of them.

Tanya nodded to herself, trying to keep her thoughts clear of any drowsiness and to keep her train of thought away from anything but her goals. As long as she had them – these two wouldn't dare her to kill them by suggesting that she'd fuck _Dust_ – she would be fine. They'd beat this town's corruption into submission, even if-

"Uh, Tanya?"

Not that Dust was a completely horrible person. He hid it well, but his skill with a spear and an odd, regal-looking helmet she'd seen him bring to one of their training sessions told her that he wasn't totally horrible. She just wasn't – and wouldn't – ever be doing _that_ with another man.

"Tanya?"

She swiveled around, staring blankly at Viktoriya. She looked just as tired on the outside as Tanya felt on the inside. "Yeah, Visha?"

A small blush seemed to be all that she had energy for at the sound of her nickname. She quickly glanced at Lorelei, and then back to her. "Are you really okay with them?"

Tanya blinked, processing the question. Was she okay with them?

Well, the question was a bit vague, but she was obviously asking about their clothing. Tanya had said that they were Succubi to her friend often, and the only clarification she had asked for then was about the nature of their powers.

She shrugged. "Yeah, I'm okay with them. They don't usually wear that little – they aren't forced to wear that stuff or anything – but they have a lot of business. Something about adventurers staying for longer because the Generals aren't fighting on the front as much."

She shook her head. Honestly, she wouldn't mind if they wore even less. Then at least-

Her train of thought was cut off by another flood of tea raining down on her, this time on her back. She sighed angrily, cast Heal and Dehydrate in quick succession, and then turned around, an eyebrow raised.

Viktoriya, it seemed, was the perpetrator, but Lorelei – if she hadn't abandoned her cup somewhere – would have probably dropped it and shattered it. Both were looking at her in abject terror.

Oh. Wait. Had she said that last part about their clothing and not minding less of it out loud?

Lorelei spoke. "Uh… I just wanted to know if you were okay with them being Demons. Viktoriya told me that you explained it best."

Well.

Fuck.

She cleared her throat and turned on her heel, trying to push down her embarrassment. Was she really slipping so much?

"Considering I was probably going to be sent to Hell if I died back in the Empire, I uh… thought it would be a bit hypocritical to judge them for that minor detail." She continued to look forward and away from both of them, ignoring whatever looks of befuddlement, disgust, or horror that Lorelei was probably sending her.

Viktoriya knew about her physical attraction to women, so she didn't have to fear anything from that quarter.

She had explained that she was a guy deep down, after all. There was no way either of them didn't understand each other completely, especially since neither really had enough energy to focus on lying.

She cleared her throat. "Besides… I thought it would be remiss of me to judge them just because they came from Hell."

None of them talked until they began to drift away from the city's center and towards the estates of the nobles. "The place you came from must certainly be an odd country…"

Tanya shrugged uncomfortably. If she was thought odd because she didn't buy into the dogma of religion, then fine.

She groaned as Alderp's old mansion came into view. Now, they had to take a quick nap and get back to work.

Although…

Hitting herself with Heal had given her an idea. The Pain-Reducing Reinforcement spells accomplished their purpose through stifling nerves and giving the user a bit of a high, right?

Maybe that could be useful in staving off the effects of sleep deprivation…

And as Tanya discovered something that couldn't _possibly _come back to bite her in the ass, Lorelei thought of many questions, all of which she knew were probably not getting answered anytime soon.

She half wished that she had access to the rumored memory-altering potions the nobility had access to to forget what she had just heard.

Of course, if she forgot those words and the… _look_ on Tanya's face, she would also forget all of the other questions she had.

She really wanted to ask why she was okay with _Demons_, and were they really going to start doing adventuring again, and how did those weapons actually worked, since they had given her the excuse of 'advanced magic,' and literally nothing else, and-

She shook her head and just trudged inside.

Viktoriya soon followed Lorelei, shaking her head.

She must have misheard Tanya. She never… said _anything _like that. She was always composed and refined and protective and not in any way interested in anything to do with sex or love.

Again, she shook her head. She really needed to find some way to forget all of this.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **So. Story time.

At the end of the 'I AM A MAN' scene, I kinda… completely lost my will to write thanks to writer's block. Since last spring to… around last fall, I believe, I just didn't have any idea where this would go, since I was sort of… _aiming _to hit that scene and didn't know where to go next.

Thankfully, I figured out which scene I would aim for after that, and I got there and have taken aim at another. I've only got… seven-ish chapters in the backlog now, and after them, updates will be much more sparse…

On the other hand, I won't have to edit as much, so yay!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed everything, from Maxwell's introduction, to Alderp's incarceration, to Lorelei's discovery that Tanya reinvented cardboard, to Tanya's being forced to take over for Alderp and the incorporation of some more plot lines from the first Dust LN and, as we look into Axel, the plots of the third Explosion LN. Plus, we met Yunyun on time and Aloerina early!

**A/N 2: **And hey, Alderp as a Reincarnate. Plausible? We never do get an explanation behind him, besides his desire to marry Darkness and him being wealthy and having access to Maxwell. Has anyone else done this? Give me your thoughts.

**A/N 3: **Also, was her kill count… reasonable? From what we see in the Anime and the Movie… probably not, but taking into account what happens on the Eastern Front in the AU I laid out at the beginning, I think it just _might_, especially since the Adventurers Card takes into account everyone she's killed, whether or not she knew she hit them in things like shelling enemy lines and such.

**A/N 4: **Responses to Reviews (on time, this time):

**Indbrony: **I do try and update on Tuesday (but, you know, I always end up staying up past midnight and posting on Wednesday anyway).

**MarkoncioX: **Well, Visha didn't mean to, at least. Still, Tanya will pressure her into helping out with the punishment, assuming they don't die of sleep deprivation first.

**Boyzilla: **That's what we like in this fandom, right? Insanity with just the thinnest veil of Tanya-logic to make things seem rational.

**Harmless Orange: **Thank you thank you thank you! It's always great to get long reviews like this! I'm still trying to write that to be as good as possible, and it's getting there.

**Navarone2013:** An interesting idea, her explaining her situation. Unfortunately…

Well, she _does _trust that the Succubi aren't going to sell her out, since they're demons, and Lorelei is pretty well tied to them…

Hmm… I might need to make some changes. Thank you very much.

**Guest: **Eventually, 'm gonna change the scene so she notices some people doing just that lol

**DNWorks: **Walter is, thankfully, fine. Though, with him training under Tanya…

He might become Revi's wingman or something.

I'm just gonna save that idea for later.

**Acerman: **Good. You are supposed to feel some confusion. Since Tanya doesn't have the strongest grasp on the situation, it makes sense that the reader shouldn't, if it's from her perspective, right?

**Tylermech66: **Oh HELL no I ain't gonna cuck you guys like that. Don't worry, you're going to get plenty of full-blown VikTanya say… around her birthday.

Now, if only there was a consistent calendar…

Once again, I am thanking you all for your continued support! Look forward to more – especially in the Charming Omakes side story. With Tanya finally interacting with Kazuma and co. soon, we'll have many, _many_ more opportunities for funny stuff.


	31. A Whole Hoost of Problems

Tanya sighed tiredly, which was something she had gained an unhappy familiarity with during the last years of the war and that she was being acquainted with now.

Just as she had thought, she had only been able to sleep for two hours before being interrupted.

Walter had shown up with more problems. Gerrard had shown up and helped them out too, but she, Lorelei, and Viktoriya were beginning to lose their energy. They would need to resort to drastic measures soon, like juicing herself with Reinforcement Spells to combat sleep deprivation.

It was fine, though. Today was a new day.

That statement was usually followed by some kind of happy platitude that things were in the past. While that might be, that just meant that today had its own problems – Lorelei was asking more pointed questions about their pasts that Tanya didn't really want to lie about anymore, and she had to drop another million Eris on the Foundation – as well as the problems carried over from yesterday. They would hopefully get some help at the Adventurers Guild today, which would be enough.

If it wasn't, then finding all of Alderp's old servants would be next. She wasn't sure what she would do after that, but she had a few ideas.

She smiled as they walked past people slowly meandering home in the dying light of the sun. She had managed to do one good thing.

She had called for a bookmaker in Axel to come to her, and given him an offer to print the many leisure and learning books she had taken from the vault of the Royalty. She hadn't been able to offer him too much – she hadn't had much time to translate yet – and she had thought that things would go poorly, despite – or maybe because of – her status and how new she was at this.

However, he had agreed the moment 'vault of the Royalty' came from her lips. Apparently, some other Hero Candidate had done much the same, even if they claimed to have written them himself. She had suspected much the same with Shakespeare floating around, but it was nice to have confirmation.

She had signed a deal to take a cut of all the profits he made in return for translating them, and he got exclusive rights to distribute the book. Hopefully, once she had a bit more time, she'd be able to sit down, translate the books, and actually hold onto a bit of her hard-earned wealth long enough to invest it somewhere other than Axel.

They arrived soon enough, passing by regular townsfolk, worried adventurers, and an odd pair of dirty people stumbling towards the construction efforts near the gate of the city – complete, as of two days ago, but over budget, as the reports she had received told her – and out on the plains near large craters that had begun to pop up.

She glared at the air in front of her, and the light foot traffic coming out of the guild suddenly evaporated. She didn't much care what other people were thinking of her, however, since she was unhappy.

Someone was supposedly creating them using Explosion magic, and she wanted them to stop.

They were causing all sorts of problems – nearby lakes, rivers, and ponds were becoming polluted from all the extra runoff, the various guilds were complaining about their hunting and fishing being disturbed, and the townspeople were also frightened by it – and she would be having some words with whoever it was.

Wordlessly, she pushed through the doors, noting, for a moment, that the sunset's light coming through the colored windows looked rather nice.

She groaned. She didn't have the energy for things like that. She needed to get her help and then leave.

She searched, for a moment, and then nodded to herself. They were here.

She walked forward, hoping that the other two were following her. Soon enough, they came up behind the black-clothed woman with her back turned to her. She was speaking animatedly to her two companions – Shizuka and Takashi – who had both noticed her and her friends.

"…that we should leave? The guild's asking me to do actual work instead of sitting around, even though they promised me a stipend. I really don't see why they didn't just feed that potion to some animals, though, considering… why are you two looking behind me?"

Tanya smirked. It sounded like she was having a problem. "Aya. How nice to hear your… _lovely _voice again. Are you having problems with the guild?"

She spun around, her face going white as a sheet as she jumped from her chair. Then, she glared at her, attempting to hide her fright. "Jeez, don't sneak up on me like that. You'll send me to an early grave."

She chuckled at her own joke, and Tanya gave her a bored smile. "Yes. Well, I was going to offer to help you with your trouble, but I can just find someone else to help me."

Tanya was bluffing, of course – she didn't really have anyone else to ask, besides Mitsurugi, if she could ever find him – but they didn't know that.

She stilled, and the whiteness of her face faded as a scheming smirk took its place. "Well, I don't know how much you could do, seeing as you just got back, but-"

"Listen. Tanya is now Governor. She could have you locked up and executed on a whim if she wanted. We are tired from trying to run the whole of Axel and its surrounding lands." Tanya blinked in mild surprise. She would have been to sit through Aya's attempt at haggling. It seemed Viktoriya wasn't

Tanya turned to send a perplexed look at her friend, who was staring coldly at the table. "Agree to help Tanya and she'll fix your problems with the guild. Otherwise, sit down, shut up, and pray to whatever God you believe in that she won't destroy you for refusing."

Aya looked – as obviously intended – rather intimidated. Viktoriya stared at the other two. "The same goes for you. Help us, get rewarded with whatever, or sit there."

Both jumped up. Shizuka's head was bent down, while Takashi was staring defiantly into her eyes. Tanya shrugged.

Tanya sat down at the table and tried to ignore how odd – and not entirely horrible – it felt to have Viktoriya run things, even for a few seconds. "Explain what the guild's doing to you," she asked Aya.

Lorelei also sat down. All three of the others turned to her, and then to Tanya.

She shrugged. "Takashi, Aya, Shizuka, this is Lorelei. She comes from… near the capital?"

She looked to Lorelei, who nodded and seemed content to lean back and watch them. Tanya turned back to the others, gesturing towards Lorelei. "She got in an accident and was forced to be an adventurer. Insult or demean her and we'll extract retribution."

All three of the others flinched at the bluntness, while Lorelei rolled her eyes fondly. Tanya continued to talk with them. Takashi as first. "I might be financially secure because I resold that staff, but…"

Viktoriya scanned the guild. While these two were who they were mainly looking for, she was wondering…

She blinked. Yes, Mitsurugi was indeed there. Good.

She'd drive off those stupid thoughts about Tanya soon enough, now that she had time to focus on other things with how relatively easy Belzerg's 'war' with the Demon King was.

Like how she loved it when she called her Visha. Or how she loved that glint in her eyes when one of her plans were working out exactly as she thought. Or how her eyes lit up whenever she made her coffee or surprised her with chocolate.

She paused in her walk towards him. Wait. Was Mitsurugi in a relationship with those two friends of his?

She glanced at them. He was drinking a pint of ale. Dust was staring enviously at… well, she wasn't sure if he was staring at his money or his drink, but she was sure he was envious of something. The other two…

Both were staring at him, but neither seemed to be all that interested in making a move. Besides, Tanya had muttered something about them probably tearing each other apart if one of them were actually his girlfriend, and if they were in a relationship, they'd probably be…

She shrugged her shoulders as she walked past a pair of oddly familiar black-haired Mages that were leaving. They would probably be holding hands or making out or… something.

She wasn't exactly experienced in those sorts of things.

The war hadn't been a good time to get acquainted with other soldiers, and Weiss had admitted to her that none of the men had dared approach either her or the medic for fear of being given extra time training for thinking of anything but the 'glorious march on Moskva.'

"Ah, Mitsurugi! How nice to see you again!"

Viktoriya jumped as Tanya's voice sounded to her right. She looked around, and saw that Tanya was looking as pleased as punch.

She looked back at the table to see that Lorelei appeared to be grilling the three Reincarnates about their lives. Aya looked calm, but the other two betrayed the nervousness she was also probably feeling.

The armor-clad Reincarnate turned to them, blinking and then smirking. "Degurechaff! Fancy running into you here."

She smiled at him. "Yeah. Trying to run Axel isn't exactly fun, rewarding work right now, but I'm hoping it gets better."

He winced. His two friends noticed that he was talking to Tanya and were glaring at her, but Viktoriya just glared right back.

"Hey," Tanya asked, suddenly interested in the conversation, "you haven't met Darkness, have you? I want to ask for her help, but I haven't been able to find her."

He shook his head. "Sorry, I haven't. And what's with that name? Was she cursed or something, and now she carries the name as a symbol of her pain?"

Tanya grinned, but Viktoriya tuned the conversation out. She needed to ask him if he was seeing anyone. Considering how jealous those other two were, she couldn't imagine that either of them were in a relationship with him; otherwise, they'd probably act a little less defensive about him.

Unless, of course, they thought he'd run off after anyone that looked halfway decent. She blinked.

Maybe this wasn't a good idea? There wasn't exactly anyone _else, _though-

"EVERYONE!"

Viktoriya turned to the front desk, startled out of her thoughts. Tanya ceased her conversation, Lorelei stopped trying to grill the three – people? Hero Candidates? She wasn't exactly what they were – about Japan, and Mitsurugi stopped trying to talk about one of his efforts to locate a nearby Dragon and take it down.

Luna was standing in front of the bulletin board, waiting for everyone to look at her. Soon almost everyone was looking. She gave an exasperated look to Taylor, who roused a nearly passed out Dust, who looked around with a start.

His eyes landed on Luna, and they wasted little time looking her over lecherously. She just sighed.

"Everyone, it has just come to my attention that a Greater Devil is in the northern forest. All quests in the area are hereby rescinded, and nobody is to approach the area."

With that, she retreated back behind her reception desk. Tanya looked to Mitsurugi. "What threat does a Greater Demon pose?"

Mitsurugi looked at her, confusion on his face. Even his two sycophants were staring at her warily, as if she were completely insane.

"Uh… it's in the name, right? They're ridiculously strong, have more magical and physical power than most anyone besides the Demon King's Generals, and they can wipe away the lives of any who dare approach them," he explained slowly.

Tanya tilted her head. "I heard that the more powerful a Demon is, the more pain they feel from physical attacks. Is that incorrect?"

He shrugged unhelpfully. "No, but they've lived for so long – over ten thousand years, at the very least – so they're not unfamiliar with pain. They're so experienced and powerful that some of them gain extra lives by dealing with other Demons or powers of precognition to predict their opponents movements or even histories."

Tanya nodded uncertainty. She would probably be able to handle it, but she'd stay well away from it.

It sounded like he might be on either Verdia or the Amalgamation's level, and she had been able to destroy one of those… with a bit of trouble. However, she didn't have the foggiest idea of what went on in hell.

For all she knew, there could be thousands of little girls with mental and gender identity issues and too much power running around down there, ready to back this Demon up if Tanya killed him.

Besides, he was probably working for the Demon King, and she didn't want to anger him, since she was trying to work wi-

She winced, and then she waved away Mitsurugi's concern. "Well, when you put it like that…"

He shook his head. "That isn't to say they can't be defeated. They obviously don't deal well with Priests, and-"

Her interest in the conversation died, and she turned towards the reception desk. Luna was taking questions, and that meant she needed to hold up her end of her bargain with Aya.

She walked towards her. Viktoriya looked between Tanya and Mitsurugi, and chose to follow after her. Maybe she'd ask him about a date later.

She obviously didn't want to commit if it turned out he was shallow enough for either of his friends to not want to date him because he'd run off at the first sign of someone better.

Tanya smirked as the line dwindled away and she was faced with an exhausted Luna.

"Hello, Luna," she greeted her. She bolted upright, staring down at Tanya uncertainty.

"I was wondering when you'd get here…"

"Ah, you've heard of my new appointment? That makes this a lot easier," she said, staring at the woman. She frowned, but she held her head high and replaced her unpleasant expression with a fake smile.

Tanya rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to fire you. I want you to treat the people who took that potion better."

She blinked. "What? Why-"

Tanya cut her off. "'Why should you' is a valid question, and I'll gladly answer it. I'll go to the various guilds that might not appreciate you telling them to stay out of the closest forest and smooth things over, and I'll provide the guild with a bit of extra funding."

Luna blinked, apparently surprised. Tanya didn't care to mention it and continued. "Besides, with the Greater Demon in the area, you'll probably have to rely on the 'Monster Rush' system a bit more, right? If you don't treat them right, they might not be cooperative when you need them."

Luna nodded slowly, and Tanya smirked. "Lovely. Send a request for additional funding to me through official channels and I'll get to it soon. I have a lot of work to do, and I doubt I'll be out of Alderp's Mansion for a while."

With that she turned around. Viktoriya didn't move, and Tanya turned to look at her. She smiled kindly at Luna.

"If you see Darkness, would you tell her to seek us out? We could probably use her help."

She nodded uncertainty, and they headed for the exit. Lorelei soon jumped up from the table she had been sitting with the people – she knew they were Hero Candidates, even if she couldn't tell _what_ that odd Takashi fellow had – and followed them out.

She would regret not sticking around for a bit longer. The next week would be… hellish.

-OxOxO-

Darkness smiled brightly as she walked down the street. It had been a busy week for her, but…

She was fine, now. Better than fine!

She felt rejuvenated, completely and utterly. Things were going better than ever.

The thought of her current affairs darkened her mood only slightly. There was a slight problem, but even that was negligible compared to all the good.

Axel, as a whole, had been improving. The lights that lined the main roads were making their way down smaller, less important ones. The guards and police weren't allowing shady merchants and other characters into the city as much anymore. Buildings had been improved, and everyone had begun to look happier.

She had figured out the cause of all that after finally breaking her father's resolve. He had revealed, after a few hours of patient needling, that Alderp was dead, his brother had had his titles and privileges stripped, and his son was helping the new Governor run the town as penance.

Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to extract what it was that killed Alderp, and considering none of the other nobles knew when she asked, it must have been very secretive. Still, she hadn't minded much, and since her father didn't have anyone else lined up to wed her, she had been off the hook.

She'd been amazed by all of the improvements, and she had wanted to figure out who the new Governor was. Unfortunately, she was impaired by meeting a certain someone.

She grimaced as she walked down the lane containing some of the most opulent mansions in Axel.

Chris…

With Tanya and Viktoriya gone, Darkness had gone to search for a new party. The Thief had approached Darkness and asked to be allowed to explain herself. She claimed to be under the influence of Demons, sent to assassinate Hero Candidates.

Darkness hadn't exactly bought it at face value, but even she knew of the growing presence of Demons in the town.

You could practically taste them, even in the streets. Even the weakest Priest could sense that much, not to mention that she'd been asked about it by several church-goers in recent weeks.

Most adventurers didn't seem to care, and the Priests, though they'd raided the wealthier areas of Axel – the place where people with enough money to hire people to summon Demons for them might be – nothing had been found.

She also had heard the rumor that a Greater Devil was making use of the forest near Axel for some nefarious deeds.

She still hadn't believed Chris, not entirely, but a night's rest after speaking with her had done her well. She had received tidings from Eris, who had declared to her, in all of her glory:

"**You must look past the mistakes of those around you and learn to work with former enemies in order to overcome a greater evil."**

Darkness hadn't thought her connections to Eris was that strong, and she hadn't manually leveled into the more esoteric branches of the Crusader's skills to where she could receive portents of the future.

However, there was no mistaking the feeling of her Goddess.

After that, she had declared to Chris that she would give her a chance to prove herself, and the two of them had taken a few quests together for a few days.

Then, her father had upset her fun and called her back, a whole new selection of husbands to choose from, all of who fell quite far from her ideal husband.

Oh, they were all much better than that horribly perfect Walter, but none of them were abusive enough, horny enough, or dismissive enough to suit her tastes. Still, she might have taken a bit more time to get through them, if only to humor her father, but that vision she'd received had pushed her to ignore most of them.

Her father, after hearing the reason for her desire to brush them off, had only sighed and told her not to get herself killed under pain of his anger.

Then, today, after finally getting through all of them and getting access to her mail, she had heard the best news yet: Tanya was back.

She was the Governor, even. That had shocked her like nothing else, especially since Tanya had claimed she wasn't a member of the nobility.

The letter from her cousin – and how had little Sylphina even met Tanya, anyway? – had been proven true when Luna had gone on and on about how much Tanya was doing for the town in her new role.

Luna had told her she was staying in Alderp's old mansion, running the entire city on her own in order to prevent corruption from taking hold. The shining light in Luna's eyes had told Darkness that she wasn't lying and that she greatly admired Tanya for it.

The only complaint she had was that anyone that went into that mansion wasn't seen for several days, and that she was giving Darkness a quest to go get her so she could participate in the large attack on a Greater Demon that had been confirmed to be using the northern forests as a hideout.

So, here she was. Standing in front of Alderp's Mansion and looking for the people she had expected to come out to meet her.

Her eyebrows creased. Where were the guards?

She looked at the gate and at the garden beyond it, looking for… anyone. Gardeners, guards, knights…

Hell, she would even take Alderp, though she would be somewhat concerned that he managed to become an undead. Everyone knew that the dead needed to be put to rest, even if they weren't rich and wealthy.

She blinked, and then she licked her lips in anticipation at her earlier thought. An Alderp that was undead, totally unbound from his already loose hold on propriety necessitated by their positions…

She shook her head. No! She had to focus. If no one was out here, then it was possible that Tanya was in danger.

And if something was dangerous enough to take out all the guards and attack her, it was likely a worthy, dangerous, foe. Maybe if she traded herself for Tanya, it would give her away and subject her to whatever-

She couldn't take it. She roughly pushed open the metal gates, rushing past what were probably very beautiful trees and statues and flower bushes under normal circumstances. She ignored the fountains, reached the second, inner gate, and pushed past that too.

She was at the front door. This house, unlike the ones of other noble houses, included very few columns and pillars, instead choosing to take on an appearance much more similar to the regular houses in Axel.

It was obvious past that first glance that this place belonged to a noble, however. It had three floors and attic space, judging by the windows near the top, a tower jutting out of the roof for better defense on the off chance that invaders made it into the house. All of it had a nice, even coat of paint, something unthinkable for any commoner's house.

She knocked heavily on the door, waiting the customary five seconds before knocking again. She repeated the action twice more, hoping that no one would answer.

When no one did, she shook her head in complete, _totally _sincere pity. "Oh well. If a servant hasn't come to answer yet, it is my duty as a Crusader and a noble to ensure that the occupants of the house haven't become the slaves of a Demon or the meal of a monster. After knocking again, of course."

That she was ignoring her duty to inform the police – or anyone else, really – would tell informed listeners what she was really after, but she knew, after demolishing the door with a punch-like 'knock,' that no one else was around after one look at the foyer.

There were no pieces of artwork or expensive weapons and armor or even historical artifacts. Instead, the walls were barren. Even the lights were on the lowest power setting, and she could only really see thanks to the regular windows in the corridors.

All of that was technically excusable for very low nobles. Alderp wouldn't contemplate stooping so low, but Tanya was a fair bit more pragmatic than even the most frugal noble. Darkness could see her focusing so much on simply having a roof and walls.

What was not excusable was the air. The floor. The walls. All of it…

It was… _dusty_.

That was horrible, as far as nobles were concerned. If you couldn't afford servants to even clean your front living area, then you were quite pathetic indeed.

Even Tanya wouldn't let this happen; she didn't strike Darkness as a person who enjoyed living in their own filth.

She was spurred to look through the house by the lack of… anything. The famed – rumored to be abused – servants of the Alexi family were nowhere to be seen.

She blinked and began to pant as she ran through the house. Being a maid for that despicable, horrible man…

She shook her head. Even if she ticked off every box she had, he treated the people of the town unfairly. She couldn't excuse someone in power using their power to hurt people.

Unless it was her.

She shook her head and headed to the receiving room. Perhaps she would find some clue as to what had happened?

She roughly pulled the door open, expecting to find nothing and to have to find the dungeons that such a horrible noble would have.

Instead, she again at the sight in front of her. This was…

She blushed as she looked around the darkened room. This was not what she had expected.

Close to her, to the doors that she had pulled open and to all the walls of the room, were people. Servants and butlers and messengers and maids were huddled close to the doors and to the corners of the room.

Many of them were groaning or quietly praying under their breaths, but a concerning number of them were also completely silent.

She cast a quick glance towards the ones closest to her, that were clawing at her casual footwear like zombies clawed at flesh, and saw that their hands seemed to be rubbed raw.

Blankets and pillows seemed to be the only comfort for those that were passed out.

Closer to the center of the room, she could recognize people dressed in the chain mail and leathers of the guards of Axel. Among them were also a few of the higher-ranked personnel of Alderp.

Most of his higher ranked servants – sons and daughters of nobles that hoped to attach themselves to a different family and learn secrets through them – had left this mansion over a week ago, looking to rejoin their family or find a new family to spy on.

Still, she could recognize that those that had stayed within the mansion, presumably to work for Tanya, were among those clustered in a rough ring between the walls and the center of the room.

In the center of the room were four tables. She could see paperwork scattered across all of them, with pens, markers, and pencils laid forgotten next to the sheets.

Underneath one of the tables, the one closest to her, were three people. She vaguely recognized them as having watched Tanya demolish the Amalgamation over a month ago with her.

None of them were sleeping, but they appeared to be very frightened. They seemed torn between shaking their heads as if trying to warn her and eyeing the door, likely out of a desire to escape.

Darkness licked her lips again. This was…

Horrible.

Completely horrible.

Yep. Really, it was just not good.

She needed to save these people and take their place and get worked to the bone and forced to continue her work anywa-

At one of the three remaining tables, people were collapsed. She recognized one as the esteemed Police Chief that her father had often complained about being too independent. Another person she recognized was Walter, who had also collapsed over a piece of paperwork.

At the last table without people working, she saw-

She flinched. A beastman? Were they the cause of this?

But no, it seemed they were just as exhausted as Walter and the Police Chief were.

At the final table, two people seemed to be sitting quietly. The sound of paperwork being filled out reached her ears, but it sounded ominous compared to when Darkness did it near a window by the sun's light.

She recognized both at once. Tanya on the right, Viktoriya on the left, were filling out paperwork. They were turned away from her and towards a set of larger doors in front of them.

She stood there, for a few seconds, and nearly jumped when the monotonous _scritch, scritch, scritch_ of their pens was interrupted by their voices.

"The police have passed more reports to Gerrard that the guards are getting sloppy. We'll have to give them a lesson in procedure when we get the chance."

"Yes, Colonel."

Darkness blinked as they continued, talking about meeting issuing another sum of money to some of the nobles and offices of Axel in order to lower the rent of various properties to attract business.

They seemed to be running things well, even if the room was a bit… spooky.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a guard jumped up. His face was panicked, and he wasted no time in trying to knock her down and flee from the room.

_CRACK!_

The telltale sound of the odd staffs that Tanya and Victoriya had echoed around the room, and the man collapsed to the ground screaming. Darkness stared down at him, and then looked towards the other two.

Viktoriya rose from her seat as Tanya spoke. "Now really. You know full well that I need all the help I can get, and you _did _agree to help me. It's your fault for thinking that I need protection beyond what I can provide myself and not realizing I had another duty in mind for you."

Viktoriya grabbed the man by the leg as he was dragged back to them. She gave Darkness a passing "Hi," and continued as if she hadn't seen her.

Tanya rose from her chair. "Heal. This would get done faster if you actually did your work, you know."

In an instant, the man's flailing and wailing quieted to sobs. Tanya seemed to deflate.

"Reinforcement spell: Pain-Reduction."

With that, she bolted upright. The light that shone from her chest whenever she did a lot of magic was flickering, but she seemed energized.

She shook her head and finally took the time to notice Darkness, who was off in her own world imagining what it would be like to be at the tender mercies of the two in front of her and loving the indignity of being ignored.

"Oh, Darkness. How good to see you."

Darkness was pulled out of her fantasies and looked at Tanya. She took a full five seconds to take in her appearance, and then she visibly winced.

Her hair was more unkempt than usual. It wasn't even in a ponytail, and it seemed to have taken a liking to sticking up in random places. Her clothing was unwashed, and one of her eyes was twitching.

Speaking of which, her eyes seemed to be seeing something she couldn't with how out of focus and glassy they were. The bags under her eyes looked heavier than any amount of shopping Darkness could do.

Darkness was quickly realizing they wouldn't be helping in the coming battle.

Tanya blinked at Darkness's lack of speech and then turned back to her work. "I was wondering, Darkness, if you could help us out. I would have asked sooner, but you never told us where your house was."

"Uh… it's rather close actually…"

The sound of the pens stopped, and the small girl shrugged. "Oh well. We don't have anybody that we can trust with lots of this work, so we've been having to do it ourselves. Viktoriya and I have been up for 72 hours straight, and we weren't exactly sleeping well before that."

Then the noise of the pens picked up again. Darkness walked closer, ignoring the soft warnings of those around her that she should leave.

One of the butlers near the door opposite of her cried out. "Please! Let us go! We've been working for a week without-"

Tanya interrupted him by throwing a knife Darkness hadn't known existed at the wall, embedding it next to another one she hadn't noticed.

The blonde girl continued her work even as she spoke. "You wouldn't have lasted a week on the front. This work might be a bit more taxing than watching a border for days without sleep, but we aren't even being bombed here."

Here, she stopped writing. "Of course, if you would like to continue working towards getting out of here, I could simply give you one of our Reinforcement spells."

He shook his head and laid back down. "Hell no! The last person you gave that to jumped through the ceiling. They're still in a coma, for crying out loud!"

Darkness stopped panting for a moment, blinked in surprise, and looked up. Sure enough, she had missed the hole in the ceiling.

Viktoriya spoke now. "You're just not used to the dosage. I promise that next time, something like that won't happen. Of course, your heart might explode, but we all take risks in the line of duty."

A number of people Darkness had thought unconscious groaned loudly, but they were silenced by a glare from Viktoriya and a wave of killing intent. Darkness began to mutter.

"Please… wo- would you let me take their place? I can't allow something like this to continue, and if I must sacrifice myself, then I will do so. As the people go free, I'll writhe under the punishments for not completing so much paperwork in time, and-"

But they didn't seem to be listening. They were talking to each other in low tones, so low she couldn't clearly make out what they were saying.

Darkness blinked and walked closer, and peered at the pair as she realized that she wouldn't be able to understand what they were saying, regardless of how close she got. They were speaking that odd language of theirs.

She was nearly at their table when a harsh, "_Psst!"_ interrupted her thoughts. She looked down to see the tallest of the two women huddled under the table mouthing the words 'save us!'

She looked… completely horrible. Or, Darkness assumed she did. Darkness didn't think anyone should have bags quite that heavy under their eyes, and she was fairly sure that if eyes are windows into the soul, then this woman had bartered away her very being to a Demon with how empty they looked.

She looked up to see that both were still talking. She interrupted them. "Uhh… to be ignored so thoroughly is wonderful, but I am seriously concerned for a number of these people. Won't you allow me to help you and take their place?"

Both paused and turned their heads to her. Their pens were not yet down, but from what little emotion that was on their faces – besides tiredness and a small amount of misery – she could tell they were interested.

"Uh… my father is a rather highly placed noble. We run a lot of land on behalf of the King, and I could even ask for my Father's help, if you two want to lighten your load," she offered.

Hopefully, they would accept and she could spend more time getting punished by the two people as her father took over the work.

Serebryakov looked towards Tanya, who nodded after a moment. They both looked back down at their paper, and Tanya pointed a shaking hand at the table the beastman had passed out on.

"You can take over for her," she ordered.

Eyes sparkling with desire, she almost sat down when another loud, "_Psst!" _crashed her thoughts into the side of a mountain.

She looked back under the other table to see the other two – the small female with a wand she couldn't see and a well-dressed male – violently shaking their heads.

Her eyebrows furrowed, until the male spat out, "Make them deactivate their magic!"

The sound of the pens stopped, and Darkness became ramrod straight. She stiffly turned towards the questioning gazes they'd leveled at her.

She cleared her throat. "Perhaps… you should deactivate your magic? It is seen as somewhat, um… odd to be using magic in the presence of a noble if they haven't requested it."

Serebryakov jumped up indignantly, but Tanya put a hand on her arm. "No, she's right. We'll work without magic for a little bit so we can use more later."

With that, Serebryakov sat back down, their backs still turned away from her, and began to fiddle with something outside her view.

A moment later, both collapsed. Not in a cute, resting-your-head-against-the-table kind of way, but in more of a fall-to-the-ground-and-hope-you-haven't-broken-something kind of way.

With the sound of their fall, everyone in the room – even the man who had been wounded by her odd staff – looked towards them. Not a word was spoken, and before Darkness could say anything, a butler stood up.

"She can't get all of us!"

With that, a flood of people rushed towards the door she had come through and the one across the room, not even fighting each other to get out. They seemed united by a single cause, and the room was mostly empty a moment later.

Even the people under the table only spared her and the others a single worried glance before leaving as fast as their tired feet could carry them.

Those that were left were her, the two that had just collapsed, the Police Chief, Walter, and the beastman.

The latter three all rose with a groan. Walter seemed to be the most able, as he was the one who spoke first. "Thank you, Lady Dustiness, for your help. I'm afraid that they might have ended up working themselves to death if they'd continued."

She winced momentarily, and then she began to imagine herself being forced to work in some long-forgotten mine of the Demon King for the rest of her life, having to use her body to get even the most meager of supplies and eventually-

The other two soon rose as well. The Police Chief straightened out his blue clothing, even if it didn't seem to help all that much in banishing the state of disarray he was in.

He walked around the table and bowed to her. "Lady Dustiness, I thank you. We've been pretending to be asleep for over six hours. If you hadn't come in, they probably would have used that magic of theirs on us again."

They and the beastman shuddered in unison. The Police Chief shook his head as he made his way to the door. "I'll never do her another favor. Nothing would be worth it. I'd rather be fired, in all honesty…"

With that, Darkness, Walter, the pair of Adventurers and the beastman were left. Walter, after sending one last look at the two collapsed on the ground and the beastman, who was rubbing her eyes, cleared his throat.

"Well, I need to… attend to the house. Requisitioning food for them and… something else… are musts right now, so with your leave, Lady Dustiness…?"

She nodded slowly, and he too took off, leaving her alone in the room. It really did seem that she wasn't going to be able to get them to help in the coming march into the forest. She'd simply take her place. Maybe-

"Sorry about not helping out earlier, but we were getting worked to the bone, whenever they forced us into working and didn't believe we were sleeping anymore."

Darkness blinked and looked at the beastman. She tilted her head as the woman extended a hand towards her. "I'm Lorelei. They, uh, recruited me on the way to the capital. They mentioned you a bit while we were there. They seemed fond of you, if exasperated, for some reason."

Darkness smiled at their supposed admission, and then stared at the hand. For a moment, she thought about doing what most nobles would do.

Instead, she hesitantly took it. "I'm Darkness, if… they didn't tell you, I guess." Darkness ended the conversation there and stared at them.

Lorelei nodded and followed her gaze. She sighed. "Yeah, they did. It might have been very… dreary to do so much work, but I think they'll be fine if they only have to deal with running Axel. They seem used to having a close watch on everything going on under their watch and don't really want to trust in people they don't know or that they feel are… grossly incompetent. Which includes… a lot of people."

Darkness nodded absently, mentally noting that her father should provide them with advisers for running the town.

Lorelei continued. "Don't get me wrong, they could probably run this place better than anyone, but I think they have other plans that they want to get to."

Darkness tilted her head. "Why did they even get so much land? Neither of them are nobles, but to be handed the land Alderp without a second thought is extreme."

The beastman looked at her in confusion. "Well," Darkness began, wondering why this beastman was so nosy, "Alderp wasn't a grand noble, but he was very influential, and the King probably would have elevated Walter to that position due to how much money Alderp extracted and the importance of Axel in training Adventurers."

Lorelei nodded. "I don't think they were expecting all of this. When they saved Iris's life-"

"What!?" Darkness was now looking away from Serebryakov and Tanya, staring at Lorelei. She blinked at the sudden outburst and continued talking.

"Yeah… uh, the party that Iris had to celebrate getting Elroad back on Belzerg's side was being manipulated by a Demon. She almost put on a Divine Relic of unknown origin. Tanya figured everything out and executed Alderp."

Darkness looked back at the two on the ground, speaking mostly to herself. "Why didn't my father tell me any of that?"

Lorelei continued where she had left off. "Yeah… neither of them seemed to be expecting so much, but they also didn't want to refuse it. Claire and Rain were both very…"

Darkness looked to her, and she sighed. "They looked quite murderous," she said, giving up on trying to put things nicely, "and Tanya and Viktoriya were complaining about not being able to set up their 'factory' like they wanted."

Darkness shook her head. "Yes. The Shinfornea family has always been rather… _zealous _in their duties."

Darkness looked to the beastman, only to squint her eyes in confusion at the raised eyebrow on the tall woman's face.

"Yes…" she provided. She busied herself tidying up some of the papers.

If what Tanya had said about the Dustiness heir – that she took sexual pleasure from doing her Holy duty – was true, and Darkness thought that _Claire _was zealous, then Lorelei had been underestimating how far Claire's devotion for Iris went.

"Anyway, they were starting to seriously consider execution for people that were 'treasonous' and 'incompetent.' They said something about Axel being backwards, but…"

She trailed off, glancing at them in confusion, before just sighing exasperatedly.

Darkness nodded in understanding. Axel, while not especially large, wasn't a backwater by any stretch of the imagination.

It had lighting for its roads, large festivals for every occasion, and even a large noble population. It had at least a few representatives from the Capital for its largest duties, and a good portion of the travel into Belzerg first passed through Axel.

Just how advanced were Japan and the Empire that they considered _this place_ backwards?

She shook her head. Both Viktoriya and Tanya were often surprised about the simplest things, things that even Darkness, with her sheltered background, knew about. It was probably just something to do with different cultures or something…

Darkness looked to the beastman to see she was looking at her curiously, her head tilted. Darkness sighed, and she answered the unasked question about what she knew about them.

"Tanya and Viktoriya are from a distant land. Tanya supposedly comes from 'Japan,' that place where the Hero Candidates come from, originally, and to have moved to the 'Empire,' where she met Viktoriya, though I do wonder what those places were like…"

Lorelei nodded uneasily, digesting what that meant. "I'll tidy up in here. Uh… send over that help you mentioned soon, alright? And thanks."

Darkness nodded, and she was halfway through turning around when something caught her eyes.

She spun back around and squinted at the beastman, who seemed surprised by the sudden scrutiny. She followed Darkness's gaze, and then began to blush.

"Ah… I was complaining about being a bit stiff, and they suggested that I not try to cover up my tail," she said. Darkness nodded slowly, and then, in an unmistakable movement, she moved a hand to the hilt of her sword.

The tuft of white sticking out of her pants reminded her that the thing in front of her was a beastman. "I would like to remind you that if you attempt to sell them out to the Demon King, I will have to defend them, at which point you'll have to tie me down and punish me with your superior strength to stop me from ensuring your death."

Lorelei sighed. She'd stopped listening halfway through – she was probably insulting her for daring to walk around despite being obviously forsaken my Eris – and she was reminded, yet again, why Tanya and Viktoriya were weird.

Darkness blinked as she finished her rant, and, seeing that she was visibly cowed, the Dustiness heir walked out of the room, to participate in the coming attack on the Greater Demon. Maybe she'd be tied up and forced to become a hostage and tortured for information and-

Then, however unfortunate she would be if she wasn't captured, she was going to find out why her father kept the information about Iris from her. She had stayed at that castle for years playing with Iris! She deserved to be informed of her well-being, as both a grand noble and as her childhood friend.

Lorelei, meanwhile, was already trying to ignore Darkness's words and her ever-present fears – Maybe they'd abandon her now that they had their friend back? Maybe they'd pick Darkness, a noble and a Crusader, if forced to pick between them? Maybe – and was instead looking at the two women sprawled out on the floor.

She narrowed her eyes. They had said, many times, that they weren't Axis Cultists. But…

Maybe they didn't know what being a part of the Axis Cult meant?

Yes, they were supposed to be from some faraway land. She'd heard Tanya mention Japan when she'd served ramen during their trip, and Viktoriya had even taught Lorelei a few words of 'Germanian' from the Empire that both had mentioned a few times.

She blinked. Tanya definetly had to be gay, then. She'd said such a thing about the Succubi, and she hadn't even tried to defend herself.

Besides that, they had odd weapons that made loud noises and that did a lot of damage. The explosions had, in fact, rendered portions of the monsters they'd killed on the way to Elroad unsalvageable, not that they had noticed.

Darkness had confirmed that they were from a faraway land through their conversation, as poorly as it might have ended.

If they had such odd ideas, and even a _different language_, maybe they didn't have the Axis or Eris Cults?

Looking down at the two, she nodded to herself. She'd try something to see if maybe she should direct them to the Axis Cult. They might have a different Goddess than she did – and who did these two worship, anyway? – but Lorelei still tried to do her best as an Eris Cultist despite being ineligible due to her supremely unlucky accident.

If they wanted to join the Axis Cult and be gay, who was she, an unlucky Eris Cultist who'd been turned into a beastman, to judge?

-OxOxO-

As they trekked through the forest, Kyouya was deep in thought, trying to puzzle through the information he knew about Degurechaff and Serebryakov. He wasn't even really focusing on the coming fight, despite how important it was.

He was interested in Aqua, and her Cult hated Demons. They were allies of the Demon King, so he was here to help destroy them, along with nearly a hundred other adventurers.

He knew, based on all of that information, that he should be focusing on his present quest.

"Man, I can't believe we really let her trick us into doing all that work," grumbled someone off to his right.

He gave them a glance. He now knew that not following the request of the receptionist Luna to check up on Degurechaff had been an incorrect move.

He wanted to find out more about them. The information that Viktoriya had given him during that party at the Princess's castle was… very troubling, and now that they were in Axel, he could try and figure out more.

Even as small monsters – Rookie Killers and Horned Rabbits – assaulted them, he was thinking about them instead of the fight.

"Kyouya!" He looked up, turned, and saw his teammates in danger of being attacked by a slime. He spared a few seconds to utilize the Cursed Sword Gram to destroy the slime threatening his teammates, and then he was ruminating once more.

He was fairly sure that, despite Degurechaff's mastery of Japanese, they weren't from Japan.

Oh, he knew they didn't look Japanese – they looked like textbook westerners, if anything – but he hadn't been willing to simply judge them based on their race.

Serebryakov had given him enough information to piece his conclusion together, however.

Her questions about Japan could technically have been a curious citizen from the past wondering how their country could develop. However, they had been phrased as if she hadn't even the slightest clue about Japan.

Additionally, he had told her that Japan had never been very isolationist, and that the British opening up their ports with gunboats had been unnecessary.

That had been a test, and she had failed. The Americans forcing a very isolationist Japan into the open was a basic fact of Japanese history, and that she had accepted his story at face value told him that she wasn't from Japan – like the rest of the Hero Candidates – especially a Japan where that event had been even closer to the present.

He shook his head and looked around. They weren't being attacked by monsters anymore, and the other Reincarnates were talking again.

He hadn't been able to party up with them – and how he had wanted to finally get a Mage – but Shizuka and Aya had politely declined, stating a desire to keep Aya company and a need to stay in Axel, respectively. He thought he had also heard them mutter something about 'conceited pretty boys…'

He sighed. Maybe keeping up that act wasn't worth the effort…

He shook his head and continued to think, even as his teammates talked to him about something or other, but he knew that they let off a lot of hot air when they were talking. He filtered out what they were saying and focused on the much more interesting conversation going on nearby.

"And really, how were we supposed to support them all that much when half their orders were in German?" asked Aya. Takashi, sword in hand, just shrugged his shoulders, while Shizuka tilted her head.

"That was German?" she asked. Mitsurugi blinked, and he prayed that Aya would say she had misspoken.

"Well… it wasn't _exactly_ German, but it was very close to it. I took a course in foreign languages, and…" Aya went on, but Mitsurugi didn't need to focus on them anymore.

His worries had been confirmed. If they spoke German and they fought in war with the technology of the second World War and the ideology of both.

They might be Nazis.

He really hoped they weren't. They looked nice on the outside, and nothing they had said thus far showed any desire to kill a ton of people just because of their religion.

Perhaps Tanya was the daughter of a German ambassador to Japan? That would explain her knowledge of his language, since the two had been allies in the second World War.

He gulped. If they really were Nazis, and they were trying to spread their ideology of intolerance to this world, then he needed to stop them.

As another monster – this time, a slightly more intimidating Griffin that he sliced in two with a magical slash of his sword – came towards him, he knew he couldn't jump to conclusions.

It was entirely possible they weren't Nazis, since he vaguely remembered that one of the World Wars didn't have Nazis…

Probably. He just didn't know, and he was hit by an odd, long-forgotten longing for his homeland, even if it was just so he could open a history textbook to try and contextualize their arrival.

If he was ever able to get information from them – perhaps by working with them, if they ever got rid of the beastman his teammates seemed so worried about – then he might have to stop them.

He scowled. How was he supposed to stop them? If they had bullets and guns, then would even Adamantite armor work against them?

He shook his head. He needed better armor, then, but he didn't have a clue as to where he'd find something stronger than Adamantite. Perhaps the weapon of another Reincarnate that had been slain in battle?

"Look out!"

He looked up from where he had been thinking to see someone else, clad in armor and yellow leathers, taking a hit from…

He steeled his nerves. A Demon, black as night and gleaming metallically in the light on the midday sun, was brandishing its claws at him, eyeing the person who had just taken his attack.

The person in front of him was able to remain standing for a moment more, but she collapsed. He heard someone cry out. "Darkness!"

He looked down at the woman. He couldn't see her injuries – he must have damaged her front – but she was still breathing, if shallowly, which was a testament to her strength and armor.

He looked up at the demon, who was eyeing him alone. The other adventurers – the twenty of them that were here instead of… battling monsters, by the sounds he could hear coming from elsewhere in the forest – were surrounding him.

"Foul Demon! Return to the master you serve and leave this town in peace! There are only a few teams with the strength to stand up to you, and-"

In a blur of movement, he had moved towards him, bringing both hands down in an attempt to smash him.

He glared up. Fine, if he didn't want to live for long, Kyouya would gladly take care of him now. "Stance Change!"

His movements were enhanced, and he brought his sword up to block the attack. The fists sounded against his sword, and Kyouya brought up a foot to kick him.

"Ha! I know your tricks, Kyouya Mitsurugi!" His eyes widened as the demon grabbed his sword with the hands he'd forgotten about, attempting to rip it from his grasp.

Thankfully, he had enhanced strength from wielding the sword, so-

"HYAA!"

Kyouya realized that it had not been the demon's intention to take his weapon. He and the sword were flung through the air, crashing to the ground in a heap.

"Bind!"

Chris attempted to use Bind on the hulking, insufferable, disgusting demon in front of her. He held up an arm and let it hit him. She smirked, but her smile fell as the cord bound itself around the arm and nothing else.

His booming laughter echoed around the clearing. "You have to hit more than one part of me if you wish to bind me, stupid Thief!"

She snarled, but a groan caught her attention, and she realized Darkness was still on the ground, bleeding heavily.

She grimaced, but the other teams were distracting him. She weaved through the battlefield, trying to make her way to the Crusader.

The gigantic, hulking Demon named Hoost, meanwhile, was having a blast. It wasn't often he got to smash small fry into the ground, but he could now. Honestly, it was kind of cathartic after being ordered around by that small – _not _puny – Crimson Demon for so long.

He finished bashing another pair of adventurers – a puny pair of Warriors – and turned to his next foe.

Three tired faces stared at him, and he almost dismissed them. Then he caught sight of their hair, and the weapons in their hands, and he scowled.

More Hero Candidates, then. He rushed forward, to destroy them before they could attack him.

"Lightning!" came the cry from the shorter of the two girls, while the male, simply stood between him and the women, sword in hand.

He brushed past him, attempting to get to the Mages first.

His fist pounded into the ground, missing both.

He stood up to his full towering height. He looked down on the three. None were moving, too intimidated by what they assumed was a fearsome glare of hate, but Hoost was mostly confused.

How had he missed?

He squinted, looking towards them, and his eyes landed on the weapon of the taller woman dressed in black.

Now, he really did glare. That weapon had caused him to miss.

Again, he tried to swipe at her, and again, she was able to dodge out of the way, a smirk slowly working its way onto her face.

He scoffed, and turned to the other two. If he couldn't hit her…

Then, he felt a presence approaching him from behind. He turned to see Mitsurugi again, screaming as he flew through the air in an attempt to take off his head.

Hoost smirked and dodged out of the way, using his wings to propel himself towards the group of adventurers he had already lightly wounded.

"Snipe!"

He turned away from the wounded adventurers – who had caught the eye of a Priest – to see a group of Rangers raining arrows on him.

He rolled his eyes. "Hurricane Barrier!"

A wall of howling wind diverted the path of all of the arrows and came rushing towards them, picking up branches as it flew towards them. It was weaker than Tornado, despite the name, but it would protect him and do damage in a single direction instead of causing a lot more chaos.

He gave one last look at the wounded adventurers, and then he turned to Mitsurugi and the other Hero Candidates. He needed to take them out first.

Then, his hearing picked out sounds coming from the forest around him. The other adventurers were beginning to come towards their fight, likely to either watch or attempt to harm him.

He began to calculate the odds. If he wanted to get Lady Wolbach, he needed this muscle-brained idiot out of the picture. If he wanted to wound him, however, he'd have to take damage. There was no way he was going to get in enough damage to stop him otherwise.

With a sigh, he raised his wings up, preparing to charge. They readied their defenses, and-

"Flash!"

Everyone cried out, and Hoost chuckled to himself as he flew towards Mitsurugi. He wasn't affected by such magic due to his body not being the real deal, and he landed a blow on the exposed head of Mitsurugi.

His sword began to glow as he prepared a blind attack, and Hoost lowered his right wing to take the blow, even as he reared his head back.

Everyone was regaining their senses, and all of them saw the Greater Demon cry out in pain as his right wing was sliced cleanly in two. Chris almost cried out in triumph.

Then, his head set at an angle, Hoost lowered his head at a speed hardly anyone there could track.

With a sickening squelch, the horns on the side of his head pierced the armor on Mitsurugi's body, slipping easily into the Adamantite. He let out a cry of pain, and Hoost backed off.

He panted. That… that had _hurt_.

He was used to pain, however, and he let out a triumphant roar as the two females that often accompanied that Mitsurugi descended on him, dragging him towards the Priests.

Hoost looked towards the other Reincarnates. "Would you like to fall like he has, or will you retreat? I, Hoost, have more important matters to attend to than the goings on of _pathetic _rookie adventurers."

Takashi opened his mouth. Tanya was in town again, and she could take him on. Not easily, but she might not even have to resort to her worst weapons.

He _knew_ it, and-

Aya bowed her head, as did Shizuka. He looked around, and he realized that they wouldn't survive long enough to get Tanya if they didn't bow out.

He lowered his head too. Shizuka muttered to him, her words calming his temper. "Degurechaff's not at full strength right now. My wand only works once thanks to breaking that contract. Don't make me waste it on you."

Deep booming laughter echoed around the clearing that had been made by the magic and Mitsurugi's sword. "Leave me. If you attempt to find me again, I shall burn down this forest, and anything else surrounding Axel. I will ensure you adventurers will never be able to work again."

With that, they scattered, carting away the wounded and trying not to feel too horribly bad. They were all alive, and since they didn't have an Archpriest, that was the most important thing.

He blinked. Wait… hadn't an Archpriest come in a few weeks ago? Where had they gone?

Grumbling to himself about unreliable people, he wondered how long it would take Tanya to defeat this Demon. With how much Mitsurugi had damaged him, he wasn't betting on it taking long.

His thoughts ground to a halt, and then he sighed tiredly. That was, of course, if she even fought him. It was entirely possible that her desire to not die – a rational thing to have that many adventurers seemed to lack – would push her to find a solution that was technically fine but would confuse or anger people.

He shrugged. It would be humorous regardless.

-OxOxO-

As Megumin dragged herself back to her room, she wondered what they were supposed to be doing.

That receptionist had told everyone that the expedition was a failure, despite the help of that famous hero with the magic sword. He'd been badly wounded, and the Priests at the Eris Church could only do so much to help him.

He was going to be there for a long time, and the other adventurers that had been wounded, while not completely out of commission, weren't faring too much better.

Furthermore, they weren't getting help. Other towns all throughout Belzerg were wary.

Several of the Generals of the Demon King hadn't been spotted for several weeks. This wasn't ordinarily unusual – some of them weren't seen for years at a time on the front, only to surprise everyone and deal a grievous blow upon their return. The most senior one had been missing for years now.

However, in place of the Generals, huge numbers of powerful and high leveled undead had begun to appear on the front lines. Everyone was having trouble defending against this many new combatants.

To make matters worse, word had reached those in the capital that a large number of those new undead had suddenly disappeared. No one had reported a large increase of undead attacking them farther away from the capital, which meant that a large number of undead were missing.

That had put many towns on edge, and they were unwilling to lend Axel any support, according to the receptionist.

She had said there was hope, however, by placing their trust in an Archpriest that had recently arrived. Megumin had spent a few hours looking for her, and had yet to find anything.

She scowled as the words of that supposedly famous Rex came to her mind. He'd asked if that Tanya von Degurechaff could do anything.

Megumin had almost unleashed her devastating and completely superior Explosion magic on the spot, but the receptionist had reported that a close friend of the new Governor of Axel said she was out of commission.

She dragged herself back to her room, wondering when Yunyun would be back so she could unleash her Explosion magic and prove anyone that thought that anyone was a better Archmage than this noble was.

-OxOxO-

Breathe in. Breathe out.

He was just… looking. He wasn't scouting out this area for the Anniversary. He wasn't trying to figure out if he could try and get out from the uncompromising thumbs of the Gods and Goddesses. He wasn't here to learn her schedule to try and sneak in.

He was there to… talk… to the newest angel. That was all. He'd seen her flying through one of their relaxation zones – an area he hadn't visited more than a dozen times in his centuries of existence, and an area that was nearly abandoned with the preparations for the Anniversary.

He wanted to talk to her and learn about her.

She did, after all, have a rather interesting-

"Is there something I can help you with, Duke?" came a question right in his ear. He jumped a foot off the ground, and jerkily tried to find the location of that voice.

He found it eventually, and he felt himself begin to sweat as he realized it was _her_.

"Uh… hello. I was… was wondering if you wanted to talk?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't blow him away. She was more powerful than even he was, and he wondered why she hadn't already been made into a-

She gave him a look. Skepticism shined in her eyes, and the way she looked him up and down made him think that she knew and he'd get reported and-

She shrugged. "Sure. Just to talk, right?"

He nodded slowly, and she touched the ground, no longer hanging in the air. She went into the vast space he'd been peeking at, and he hastened to follow her.

Like everywhere else in Heaven, this place was a… room of sorts. Everywhere was connected by vast currents of air that propelled people through hallways, and most of it could be avoided by using one method of teleportation or another.

This room was, as every room was, built for a purpose. He knew that purpose well, and with the Anniversary coming up, many were beginning to remember that it existed and what it was for.

It looked… breathtaking. Trees – fir and oak, primarily – were everywhere, contained in a private space for each individual specimen. Concrete sidewalks acted as lines separating the squares of the different trees, forming a great checkerboard of concrete and nature.

He could hear birds singing, and, though he couldn't see it, he could hear a waterfall.

Suddenly, some of the birds swooped overhead. Ravens and swans passed his head and flew away after dodging around the angel in front of him, making her smile.

He could hardly believe that all of this hid one of the most dangerous, taboo, and despised – in the eyes of the highest Gods – spots in all of Heaven.

Soon enough, they arrived at a square with a wooden bench instead of a tree. Items surrounded the bench, and he guessed that they probably had some personal significance for her.

Slowly, he sat down on the bench, while she sighed. "I know you're not here to talk to me."

The wonder he'd been feeling was immediately replaced by dread. "What? Of course-"

She glared at him, and the light above her head cast her brown, flowing hair in an intimidating light. "If any of you actually _wanted _to get to know me, you'd have talked to me in the few months that I've been here."

He tried to speak up, but she didn't let him. "I've had exactly one God to talk to this entire time. No Gods or Goddesses or angels either dared or cared enough to interact with me, until now. Now that I'm the one He put in charge of the Descent, people suddenly care enough to bother me."

He steeled his nerves – he was centuries older than this whelp – but another glare stifled his words. "You're the fifth angel to come speak to me here. It isn't exactly _hard _to guess why you all 'suddenly' want to talk to me."

He couldn't contain his anger any longer. He jumped up from the bench. "That's because you got special treatment! No one has gotten the treatment you have. You just fly around, doing whatever you want. Do you know what the other angels would do for something like that, instead of having to do backbreaking and thankless paperwork?"

His words sent her stumbling backwards, but she regained her stance quickly, glaring down at him. He shrank back.

"You think that I _wanted _this? I would much rather be with my father, but He decided that I would best serve Him here, and…"

She trailed off, and she sighed tiredly. She stumbled towards her bench and took a deep breath. "I… I never wanted this. I wanted to grow up and marry and have children and watch my parents grow old. I never got any of that."

He was quiet now, wondering what she would say. He realized, after that outburst, that insulting her would probably lead to him getting killed for plotting to leave Heaven.

She shrugged. "And I can't have it anymore, and I can't even get it back. That means that about the only thing I have left – since no one up here cares about me – is a chance to get revenge."

His eyebrows knitted together. She didn't mean…

He looked up from where he'd been staring at his hands to see that tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. "Tell anyone else that wants to leave that as long as they can get here, I won't stop them."

He nodded slowly, and then he grinned. "Thank you! I think I must have underestimated you. Maybe you're not that bad after all?"

She smiled at him, and he took flight to leave, and then looked behind her. Through the rows and rows of trees, she could _just _make out the entrance to the Descent.

She breathed in. She breathed out.

Soon, she would leave, free to be her own person once more. She would leave, free from having to fight battles she hadn't wanted to take part in in the first place. She would leave, free to extract her revenge after gathering her resources and allies.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **And there we go! A bit of a shorter one, but we're getting into the meat of the Explosion spinoffs, as far as Megumin's story is concerned. Additionally, it seems that all that work piled up on poor Tanya and Viktoriya. It's a good thing that using a malfunctioning Computation Jewel to administer literally mind-numbing drugs to yourself definitely has no bad side effects, right?

Anyway, we also got a bit more on Mitsurugi, Megumin, as well as a bit of an update on the forces of Heaven. Wonder when an update about the forces of Hell will show up?

**A/N 2:** Ah, I haven't done a suggestion in a while. How about… Chronicles of an American Woman by Seng2? It's a pretty good start, and though it's different than the majority – it's more based on the writing style of the YS LNs rather than the Manga and Anime – it's a really good read and worth the investment!

**A/N 3: **(Responses to reviews coming soon)


	32. Production and Espionage

_Click._

Consciousness returned slowly to Tanya. As she muddled through her thoughts and the oddly plush surface she was leaning against, she wondered why that was.

_Woosh._

She sighed deeply as her memories of her last… week? Was that how long it had been?

_Hehehehe…_

She shook her head a bit. Yeah, her last week. They'd been absolutely flooded with work, and Tanya had declared they wouldn't fail. Iris was the Princess, after all.

_Click._

Her eyebrows furrowed together, even as her eyes were closed, but her face relaxed as she realized why they had been so overworked.

_Woosh_

This town's laws were a muddled mess of loopholes and asterisks, most of which were hardly enforced anyway, as long as you had enough money. She let out a little sigh.

_Hehehehe…_

They'd spent so much time and effort doing that so if Iris turned up out of the blue – and Tanya knew that with how much power member of the royalty had in these times, it was a distinct possibility that she'd simply drop everything to hang out – to ensure that her retainers wouldn't have a reason to try and execute them.

_Click._

Tanya held no illusions that both of them disliked Tanya, at least a little. She'd introduced Iris to 'dangerous' ideas, like not being racist towards beastmen and thinking of politics like the ruthless, cutthroat game that it was, but neither had argued with Iris when she'd declared Tanya the new holder of all of Alderp's lands.

_Woosh._

Tanya tried to move an arm to rub her eyes, but it didn't move. She was thrust into wakefulness by adrenaline, and her train of thought jumped from Iris to what had happened right after Darkness had come in.

_Hehehehe…_

She'd tricked them into deactivating their Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spells – the dosage of which they'd steadily increased so that they could stay up longer – and then…

_Click._

They'd collapsed. Lorelei and the others probably wouldn't let them get captured or something, so she was probably…

She blinked as she finally remembered. Right, they'd fallen asleep while standing. She was probably just tangled up in some sheets that Lorelei had thoughtfully gotten them.

Distinctly annoyed, she pushed against the plush chair she'd been set in and-

"Ah!"

Tanya froze, and her eyes burst open as the last of her tiredness was blasted away. _Not a chair. Not a chair. Not a chair._

_Woosh._

She looked around to find that she hadn't been taken to a different room. She wasn't in the room she'd claimed as hers, and she wasn't in the room Viktoriya had claimed, or even in the master bedroom, where the entrance to Alderp's secret dungeon was located.

Instead, they were still in the room they'd commandeered for work. She was sharing a chair with Viktoriya – which was obvious from the sound of that voice that had cried out – and…

_Hehehehe…_

She fought back the urge to yell out in anger as she realized what was pointed at them.

_Twitch_.

She scowled. She'd felt that stupid strand of hair move _again_, and-

_Click_.

The cause of the clicking was readily apparent. There was an old-timey camera on a tripod pointed directly at them, and it would take an occasional picture. Said picture would slowly come out of the camera, developing in a scant few seconds, and then…

She watched as the latest picture was blown away by what looked like a regular old desk fan. It flipped through the air several times, before it was blown across the stone-that-was-probably-marble through an open door. Tanya could hear faint giggling coming from around the corner.

The dial on the front of the camera reached its zenith, and Tanya hurriedly closed her eyes, hoping that Lorelei wouldn't notice the change in her position.

The continued giggling – and not hurried fleeing from Tanya's anger – from out in the hall told her she hadn't. Tanya began to think about how in the hell she'd figure this one out.

Her arms were laced between Viktoriya's, and her back was resting against her side. Her head was…

Her face colored. Her head was probably resting against Viktoriya's lovely large tit-

She shook her head slightly. No! There was no way anything like that was working out, and the heat she felt rising in her cheeks, while a normal reaction, didn't justify anything.

She took a deep breath. All she needed to do was convince Viktoriya to let go of her. Without waking her and making this incredibly awkward.

Tanya's eyebrows almost furrowed. How the hell was she supposed to do _that_?

Grimacing, Tanya leaned up, adjusting her position so that she was closer to Viktoriya's head. That had the unfortunate side effect of pushing her back into the woman's boobs.

Tanya's face colored as Viktoriya let out a small moan, and she began to repeat the phrase 'this is a mistake, not sexual harassment, we're both adults technically' over and over in her head.

Finally, she had worked herself up high enough to position her mouth next to Viktoriya's ear. Her expression seemed happy – hopefully, she was having pleasant dreams and not one that morphed into being murdered or attacked or raped-

She shook her head and leaned towards her. "_At ease, soldier._"

She said this in a professional manner. She was hoping that the familiar phrase with all its usual inflections – a slight growl at the end, but otherwise indistinguishable from her usual tone of voice – would make her relax and release her.

After which, Tanya could go beat Lorelei for daring to-

"_Oh _Yes_, Major-General Degurechaff._"

Tanya's face, which could have previously been charitably compared to a stop sign thanks to their position, now resembled a neon strobe light set to the reddest possible setting. She tried desperately not to suffocate on the air, which seemed unusually heavy.

Why the- why had she sounded so very, very… husky?

Brimming with libido?

_Fuckey_?

And why had she decided to call her by her official rank _now_, of all times?

Still, she relaxed, Tanya's arm was released, and Tanya jumped out of her chair. She quickly maneuvered around the displaced furniture, and set the dial of the camera – which probably controlled how often it took a picture – to the highest setting. Slowly – much more slowly than before – it began to turn again, and Tanya breathed a sigh of relief.

She looked back at Viktoriya, trying to digest what she had heard.

All of a sudden, the answer came to her, and she smiled knowingly as her misplaced blush faded. Her adjutant was obviously just having a good dream of some kind.

There had been little time to sleep on the front, and you were much more likely to have nightmares than you were good dreams.

One of the only times Tanya had had a good dream was when the scent of Viktoriya's coffee had manifested as rows upon rows of coffee-filled cups growing on vines underneath a sign marked 'coffee land.'

Tanya shook her head. _That _had been a weird dream.

She looked back at Viktoriya, who had curled up on the chair and whose expression had changed from pleasantly smiling to slightly frowning.

Tanya stared at her.

She smiled, shaking her head ruefully, this time. Viktoriya looked as lovely as she always did, even half-asleep.

Tanya was honestly just a bit upset that the woman wouldn't ever love her…

She shrugged. She'd just blame Being X for making her have a girl's body and not letting people who followed his idiotic cult marry who they wanted to. Maybe she'd sprinkle in a bit of vitriol about Europa's views towards homosexuals in general as well.

Not that she had researched the subject. But, really, what was there to research? Europe might have been more advanced than a lot of places, but it was the 1920s…

She continued staring at Viktoriya, the word 'lovely' circling through her mind as she stared at her. She tried to shake it, but it wouldn't leave.

Her eyebrows knitted together.

Lovely.

Lonely.

Alone.

Vulnerable.

**Weak target.**

Tanya nearly stumbled to the ground as she backed into one of the tables. _What-_

**She's weak. You can kill her now, take her out before she tries to stab you in the back. You need no one but yourself and the father, venerable is his spirit and-**

Tanya shook her head and tried not to throw herself to the ground. She ripped into her clothing, tearing off the Type 95.

**Pray to god. Destroy his enemies and any who dare not to praise his holy name with your own fanaticism.**

Tanya tried to take a deep breath, but she couldn't. Why-

She was choking on the air again, for a reason entirely different than a compromising position, and all she could do was stare at the deactivated Type 95.

It wasn't even _on_, and it was still talking, still urging her to… to…

She threw it across the room, a slight adjustment of her wrist ensuring it flew into a chair instead of a wall. What…

The voice quieted.

**Give in.**

The voice was _not _gone.

_Click._

Tanya took a deep breath as the camera pushed out a picture of a partially empty chair. She'd deal with that later. She'd have an honest talk with Viktoriya, and she'd find a more powerful ring to block out Being X and… _that_.

First, however…

_Woosh._

The latest picture twirled through the air, skidding across the polished flooring and out of the room. Tanya followed it out.

Tanya saw Lorelei's ears poking up above the armrest of a plush couch, bobbing up and down. Her hand dipped down to catch the photo and place it in a pile with other, similar photos, not even taking the time to look at it.

"This was _so_ worth skipping the Cult's services today," she giggled again, and Tanya fought down the urge to do something rash – like pull at the beastman's ears really, _really_ hard – as she continued on.

"With this much blackmail, she won't ever think about putting me through the training her 'battalion' went through. Maybe I'll even find out a bit more about the places they're from, too."

Her back pressed into the couch, she held up the most recent photo to the light. "I'll even be able to look at these myself, after helping-"

"I hope you weren't about to say 'helping yourself' to those pictures, because I think I might actually have to be charged with murder then." Lorelei's smug grin became fixed in place as Tanya's voice sounded directly behind the couch she was sitting on.

Lorelei bent her head backwards and made eye contact with an irate Tanya von Degurechaff.

She blurted out the first thing that came to mind and the whole reason she'd set up the elaborate system of taking pictures. "Uh… hey, I wanted to know if you've actually ever heard of what the Axis Cult does. It-"

_Twitch._

_Click._

"Reinforcement spell: Strength."

The boost she got was smaller than normal, but that was expected with the Type 97 out of commission and the Type 95 as far as it could be from her.

The Type 97 had failed her a few days into the paperwork marathon, after weeks without any maintenance. Still, she had been able to use a few Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spells which had obviously convinced her that she must have somehow thought using the Type 95 for _paperwork _was a good idea.

And now, she was hearing a voice, telling her to **give in **to Being X. Was this the result of her years of using it during the war, or was this world throwing something _else_ new at her? Maybe Being X had worked some 'miracle' while she had swapped bodies.

Meanwhile, the small, hopefully placating grin that Lorelei had been wearing disappeared, and she tried to get off the couch. Tanya didn't give her the chance.

She flipped the couch, sending everything on it flying. Lorelei hit the ground running, and Tanya was right on her heels.

"If you ever so much as _suggest_ that I'd ever willingly submit myself to the dogmatic teachings of a religion, I'll turn your appendages into a costume for the Succubi!"

-OxOxO-

Thankfully, at least one of them was looking chipper as they walked to the Adventurers Guild. Viktoriya didn't know why Tanya sent a glare towards Lorelei every few minutes or why the very tall woman would shrink away whenever it happened, but Tanya had declared they were going to the guild to ask about what specifically happened yesterday involving Darkness and that Greater Demon.

Tanya, once again, glared at Lorelei, whose ears, once again, hung low and flat against her head. With a huff, Tanya turned away.

She shook her head to try and remove the memory of what had caused her to lash out at the beastman – the words Viktoriya had spoken, and, more specifically, how they'd been said. She looked down at the bag by her side, hoping she'd grabbed everything.

The small leather bag – which was made of a similar material as the bandoliers that held where her and Viktoriya's extra ammunition would go if they had any – hung by her side. This bag contained much more benign things, relative to bullets, like legal documents as well as paperwork.

After she had chased the beastman around promising revenge, Lorelei had revealed the paperwork that had built up in the last few days.

Thankfully, it was a pile that was only six inches tall instead of three feet, now that Darkness and her father were handling everything coming in from the villages, hamlets, and other towns that were located in Alderp's old holdings. Unfortunately, the first report had been one from the guild asking for their help in the coming battle against that Greater Demon.

Tanya wanted to apologize to Luna and everyone else that she had… convinced into helping her, of course, but she also wanted to get a handle on the Demon's abilities and identify if he could be reasoned with, among other things.

Now that… someone in her position was supposed to be passing along information to the Demon King about a disturbance – the arrival of a Hero Candidate with more than two Divine Relics was possible, if worrying – that person might not really want to kill someone that was, in all likelihood, working for said Demon King.

The doors of the guild were pushed in quickly, and Tanya began to walk towards the first people she was going to apologize to.

Again, Aya had her back turned to her, and the other two spotted her first. Unlike last time, however, they didn't attempt to hide the fact that they'd seen her from Aya, and she spun around the moment she recognized the fear on their faces.

All of them stood, but Tanya had made sure to position herself between the door and them. Takashi rested a hand on his sword's hilt, and-

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Would you all stop that? I'm not going to abduct you or anything."

Shizuka spoke up. "N- No! We're not going anywhere with you! We nearly died yesterday because we were so tired."

Tanya blinked at the information, and then grinned wolfishly. "Wonderful! You can tell me about that Demon's capabilities, then. After that, I'll…"

She grimaced, and then she sighed tiredly. Even over twelve hours of sleep and a half hour of chasing Lorelei around their mansion hadn't completely banished her tiredness. "I'll give you all a bit of money as an apology. I didn't exactly tell you all that I'd be working you so hard."

Their hostility began to fade, and Tanya allowed her face to show a bit of mingled worry and fear. "Really, I don't know what came over me," she said, knowing that she did have at least some idea of what had happened. "My relics are very… difficult to handle."

She ended her last sentence by sending a look at Takashi. His eyebrows furrowed, for a moment, and then his eyes widened as he understood. The other two were staring at him suspiciously, but he sat back down.

Tanya grinned. The power that he had once had and that she had made him give up – Mindreading – had allowed him to scan her mind and gain an uncomfortable understanding of her and her abilities, but it had also allowed him to guarantee her in situations like this.

After reading her mind, he'd given up, informed her that he would die like the last Reincarnate that had accepted a special power instead of an item, renounced heaven's contract, and been Healed by Tanya enough to allow him to live, despite screaming his head off.

Both of them were alive, and she had gained someone that resembled an ally that knew _exactly _what she was capable of.

The other two stared at them, and then they sat down uneasily. Viktoriya slipped into the seat at Tanya's right, while Lorelei sat to her left.

Tanya aimed one last glare at the beastman, who flinched away, and then she turned to them. "Tell me everything you can about that Demon."

The next half hour was informative, even if Shizuka and, uncharacteristically, Aya spent more than half the time waxing on and on about the awesome battle between Mitsurugi and 'Hoost.'

The Demon was big, metallic, and very, very strong, both physically and magically. Only Mitsurugi had been able to do anything more than fight him evenly, and the thing claimed to have important business to attend to that it didn't want disturbed.

Tanya nodded. It made sense that the Demon King would send forces to inspect Axel, though she thought that he would be sending that Undead Mage, not some powerful Demon.

In the end, she was leaning towards leaving it be. She didn't really want to fight something that powerful, especially with the state of their equipment.

Tanya's Type 97 no longer worked, and she had shut the Type 95 in a box and shoved it to the bottom of the bag she now carried out of worry of hearing that voice. Viktoriya's Type 97 would probably fail any day now, and they didn't have even a handful of bullets to go around.

_After _she got her equipment back, however…

She shrugged to herself as Lorelei and the other Reincarnates discussed something inane. If the Demon continued to be a nuisance, then she would have to remove it, regardless of it's affiliation or not. She was the Governor now, and that meant that her job was to ensure the prosperity of the city for the benefit of the entire Kingdom, regardless of Alderp's example.

She stood quickly as she was reminded of why she'd brought her bag in the first place. "Thank you all for your time. I have other business to attend to."

She opened up her bag and brought out three pouches of money. She had needed to dip into her funds a little bit – made up of whatever money she had been able to scrounge up by selling the various extraneous artifacts in Alderp's mansion, a pile of use things that filled a room and from where that stupid camera had been saved from – but she'd come up with 50,000 Eris for each of them.

Lorelei looked between her and the other Reincarnates. "Uh, I think I'll stick around here for a bit. I've been wanting to get a bit of adventuring work in, and-"

Tanya waved off her excuse. "It's fine. I don't control your life, just be sure to be back at the mansion before dark. I don't want to have to search the city for you."

She nodded slowly, and then Tanya walked towards the counter. She paused.

"And, you know. Don't die."

Lorelei scoffed. "As if. We were near the capital, remember? The stuff around here is small fry," she responded, flipping her head back.

Tanya grinned. "Ah, it's just that, you _do _still owe me for making me wear that dress, and after this…"

She let Lorelei's imagination fill in the rest, which was nearly worth the exclamation the three other Reincarnates let out. "You got her to wear a DRESS!?"

She sighed and continued towards the counter. She had quite a few things she needed to take care of, the first of which was figuring out why there were so few adventurers in here.

She had seen many of them running all over Axel, jumping in and out of every store and screaming about needing a 'legendary' Archpriest to heal the 'famous adventurer with a magic sword.'

She could guess easily enough who the second person was, but if there was a new, powerful Archpriest in Axel, they might be the person heaven had sent down in that massive magical wave.

Luna, wearing her standard clothing, seemed frazzled, for lack of a better word. Even her smile seemed to be stretched thin, and…

Tanya blinked in surprise as she took a better look. Luna looked absolutely horrible, actually, which was weird, since she didn't have an entire section of the country to run. Could running the guild be that hard?

Tanya's thoughts flashed between the weird enemies and uncooperative adventurers who never did their work and never paid for the damage they caused and Dust, and she realized that it just might be.

Tanya nodded to herself as she walked forward. She'd try and keep this brief, then.

"Hello, Luna. How lovely to see you again," she said, hoping to keep things casual. Even if there weren't that many people here, she didn't really want to broadcast her identity, especially if people here thought she might be able to take on the Greater Demon.

Luna, who was staring down at a piece of paper mournfully and hadn't even noticed her approach, looked up suddenly. Her eyes widened, and her smile became… genuine, if strained.

"Tanya! How nice to see you again. So, you're the Governor, right? How lucky!"

Tanya blinked at the enthusiastic reaction, and then she smiled back, trying not to look like she was searching her face for signs of something being wrong.

That statement sounded very much like Luna was jealous, and if she was right…

"Yes, yes, it is quite nice, when I'm not having to work for a few days straight. Honestly, I kind of envy you a bit," she said.

It was a complete lie – she much preferred to at least have power if she was staying up past midnight working – but Luna's blonde hair and the… unexpectedly yellow eyes told her anything, she was probably related to a noble or something. She'd enjoy being told that Tanya thought they had anything in common.

Luna seemed to grow quiet at that. "Huh… I would have thought…"

She shook her head. "Never mind. What are you here for? I wouldn't suppose you'd like to help us out with our Greater Demon problem?" she asked, referencing the request for her personal aid and her authorization to bring in the guards.

Tanya shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe. I have a few things I want to discuss with you. The first is, of course, what the adventurers are doing outside of the guild running around and hollering about an Archpriest."

Luna blinked, but then she shook her head mournfully. "Mitsurugi – do you know him?"

Tanya nodded, and so did Viktoriya, who seemed oddly interested in the conversation all of a sudden. Before Tanya could give that anymore thought, Luna continued.

"Anyway, he was nearly killed by the Greater Demon. He managed to slice off a wing, but that was pretty much it. He shrugged off most other attacks with ease," she said, sighing at the end.

Tanya's questions about reinforcements were rebuked with the knowledge that the Demon King had been getting a huge amount of undead all of a sudden, and a contingent of well-known undead had gone missing.

Again, Tanya didn't ask her how she had gotten the information about the second report. She didn't know who had the courage to spy on a Demon King, but she greatly applauded them for doing something she wouldn't do if given any better options.

"And… they're trying to find this Archpriest?" she asked. Luna nodded tiredly, and Tanya opened her mouth to ask for her description.

Then, she realized what the easiest solution to this problem was. She fought the urge to facepalm. Luna was even more tired than she looked, if she hadn't thought of the most obvious solution.

Tanya nodded confidently. "Alright, then. Bring her out."

Luna blinked owlishly, and she seemed to have developed a nervous tick, if the way her body lurched in time with the twitch of her eye. "B- bring her out? As if I just have her in the back or something… ha…"

Tanya peered at her quizzically, and then turned to Viktoriya. "Serebryakov, what would you do if you needed to find someone in the city quickly?"

She tilted her head quizzically, crossing her arms and closing her eyes to think. "Well, there is the announcement system, but if she hasn't already used it to find her, then it must be malfunctioning. If I had just the resources of the guild…"

She went on for another five minutes, outlining how best to comb the city and deploying several layers of redundancy in case someone had accidentally missed her. Tanya was proud of the assessment – maybe she wouldn't try and translate that journal after all? – but she was having a lot more fun watching Luna's emotions play out across her face.

First, she was shocked to realize she could have just used the magic announcement system. Then, Viktoriya's continued assessment of how to comb the city drove her to anger, while Tanya's smug look of _knowing_ ensured that she'd probably be having blood pressure problems for the rest of the week.

She didn't look tired, at least.

Luna decided, as Viktoriya finished her assessment and as Tanya raised an expectant eyebrow, that she _wouldn't _be warning the Governor about the Crimson Demon pair. If she was going to go out of her way to tease her, then she'd let her get drawn into a public and possibly embarrassing conflict with Megumin.

Even if she only experienced embarrassment through association instead of feeling legitimately insulted, it would make up for this.

As she reached over towards the mouthpiece, she sent a glare towards the other two receptionists. They seemed oddly stoic, and she glared at the obvious poker faces they wore. "Not a _word_."

They both looked downward as Viktoriya looked confusedly at Luna and Tanya shook her head. "It happens to the best of us, Luna."

She only just held her tongue – Tanya was an actual noble, Tanya was an actual noble, Tanya was an actual noble – and instead flicked on the device.

She felt a drain on her mana begin to build up through the mouthpiece she held in her hand, and made her tired, annoyed announcement quickly. "Would the Archpriest with high stats, all of their skills unlocked, water-blue hair, and Goddess-like beauty please report to the guild?"

The other adventurers in the guild all looked towards Luna with varying levels of confusion, skepticism, and annoyance, but Luna didn't seem to be feeling any better after that.

Tanya smiled widely, while Viktoriya seemed to have been thrown deep into thought. "Don't worry. I'll go and try my best to Heal Mitsurugi. Where is he?"

"He's at the central Eris Church," she replied, staring down at her with a very… hostile smile fixed in place.

Tanya winced at the look. "I meant that I wanted directions. Please."

She made sure to sound as genuinely apologetic as she could. Luna's patience seemed to be at an end.

Luna blinked owlishly at her, but she did eventually relent and give Tanya the directions. "I thought you would have already dropped by there, with what happened to Darkness…"

Tanya's eyes narrowed. "What happened to Darkness?" she asked, her voice filled with a mixture of malice and suspicion.

Luna held her hands up in front of her – bountiful – chest. "She took a sneak attack for Mitsurugi. She hasn't regained consciousness since that silver-haired Thief brought her in."

Tanya blinked, trying to hide her doubly potent shock. The sudden grip Viktoriya had on her arm was reassuring, if somewhat reminiscent of their morning together and that-

She shook her head to banish those memories. "Alright. I'll try my best, I suppose. I want a bit of advice about approaching the guards as well."

Tanya, after explaining her situation, was told that approaching the barracks that the guardsmen were deployed from Axel was a much better idea than going to Gerrard first. If she tried to take away the power of the guards by making them act under Gerrard's orders, they'd find a way to retaliate.

Tanya upgraded Luna from a hard working receptionist with a mean streak to a competent, hard working receptionist. Really, she hadn't even thought she'd get that much out of her, and she was pleasantly surprised.

"Good. Then, finally, I-"

"Ahem."

Tanya's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. She turned around, missing the wary look that had taken over Luna's face, to stare at the person that had interrupted her.

Tanya couldn't help the look of confusion that overcame her face. What was standing in front of her was…

The most stereotypical, blatantly cosplay-ish image of a Mage she had ever seen. Complete with a tall, pointy hat, a black and gold cloak, and a ridiculous wooden staff with a floating gem, the girl's only break from the image of a typical Mage was the eye patch she wore and the fact that her skirt wasn't some floor length robe.

Tanya then noticed that she was staring at the mage in her red… _eye _and she realized that they were nearly the same height.

She turned back around to face Luna. "Buzz off, kid. I'm currently having a discussion. There are plenty of other receptionists, if you want to talk to them so much. Otherwise, wait your turn."

She turned back to Luna, and she was surprised to find that she looked… resigned about something. She wasn't even smiling!

Tanya tilted her head in confusion, trying to stare into her eyes. "Hey, are you alright?"

The person behind her couldn't help but ignore Tanya's words. "Hey, are you trying to pick fights with me, the top genius of the Crimson Demon Village? Not facing strong enemies sounds like a pretty stupid decision to me."

Tanya's concern for Luna dried up as the annoying brat behind her identified herself as Tanya's enemy. She spun around, glaring at the girl.

The red-eyed girl took a step back at the sight of Tanya's face, but before she could scoff at the lack of thought – she clearly didn't know what she was up against if she had backed away after a single glare – Tanya thought back to her words.

Again, Tanya began to scrutinize her and the shy-looking companion behind her.

Red eyes, check. Black hair, check.

"Hey, what's your name? And why do you need to talk to Luna specifically?"

This, apparently, spurred the girl into action. She brandished her staff in the air, bringing a hand to her eye and striking a pose. "I am Megumin! Wielder of the most destructive magic known to all and the best Archmage in Axel! I spoke to her because she looks the most interesting and most likely to give us important quests! You, copying-"

"Yeah, yeah, thanks for the introduction."

Tanya shot her down quickly after confirming that she did have a ridiculous name. The girl sent a murderous look at Tanya, but she'd seen more terrifying things in her reflection.

Even Viktoriya could be scarier than this midget.

Tanya began to fiddle with her bag, and stepped to the side so she could look at both Luna – whose wary expression hadn't faded in the slightest – and this 'Megumin.' The girl behind Megumin seemed to be embarrassed – hopefully it was due to the middle-schooler syndrome her friend seemed to possess and not some other, weirder reason.

"By the power invested in me by Princess Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg, as the Governor of Axel, I, Tanya von Degurechaff, issue a fine to 'the crazy Explosion Crimson Demon,'" she said, reading off the first part of the official document.

Said Crimson Demon, who had looked ready to try and cast her magic in the middle of the guild, stopped as Tanya's words sunk in. "W- What?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Don't play coy. You broke _five _laws regulating the usage of Advanced Magic, over a _dozen _on the particulars of landscaping, _and _thirty windows."

Megumin didn't hesitate. "Ju- Just typical! A noble using their position to-"

Tanya interrupted her. She was on a streak, and her upcoming training with Lorelei and the guards wasn't enough of an incentive to make her stop venting a bit of her anger. "You interrupted the lives of each and every resident of Axel. You made my job harder by forcing me to deal with the various guilds – the hunting, fishing, and merchant guilds highest among them – so they wouldn't leave the town and cause our already fragile economy collapse."

She seemed slightly less energetic. "B- But… if I don't use my Explosion magic once a day, I'll pass from this world and-"

"Then use it somewhere else," she all but shouted at her. "Do you have no regard for the lives of other people, or do you think that you're so high above them as the 'smartest Crimson Demon' that they just don't matter?"

The girl seemed uncomfortably aware that she was being scrutinized by everyone in the guild. That wasn't all that many people – it was Sunday, after all – but it was enough to make her stay quiet.

Tanya straightened her posture. "Now, you have exactly a week to pay one million Eris to the guild, or you get thrown in prison."

The Archmage's spirit was once again inflamed. "What!? A million! I don't-"

Tanya shrugged, handing the piece of paper in her hand to a somewhat-conflicted Luna. "Not my problem. The town is already having to pay several million to have those holes you made filled and the damages repaired. The guild is taking on most of the costs, and they've even called other branches for more money on your behalf."

Megumin's gaze fell on Luna, who looked very suddenly uncomfortable. Tanya continued on. "I'd suggest getting really cozy with the guild, or you _might _be hauled off to jail."

With that, she turned away, planning to sit down at one of the nearby tables and listen in on their conversation while having a large meal. Luna, however, flagged her down first.

"Did you come to me for the same reason as she did?" she asked her, a curious look on her face. Tanya was confused for only a moment.

Tanya had picked out Luna… for the reason – or, the two, chest-height reasons – that all the other male adventurers did.

She couldn't say that, obviously, and Tanya was beset by panic, for a moment. She came up with her go-to option in these sorts of situations.

Blame anyone else.

"Dust recommended you to me. I have no idea why."

With that, she turned away from what was likely to be a very irate Luna on the hunt for Dust. Viktoriya gave her a knowing look, and Tanya tried not to blush too much. She opened up a menu a nearby waitress placed down, and then she turned and looked directly, deliberately at the Crimson Demon.

She glared at Tanya, for a moment, before marching up to Luna with her nervous friend in tow.

She watched as the girl explained their plan about trying to find a Rookie Killer to placate that Greater Demon and getting ambushed by the brute before dropping Rex and his team off at the Eris Church before coming here.

As Tanya ordered her food – Two Giant Beef Burgers with extra frog legs – and Viktoriya sank deeper into thought after deciding on her order, Luna and the other two receptionists currently in the guild that didn't look half as nice as Luna all began to panic.

"What should we do now!?"

Then, after a moment of panic, they turned to her. The pair of Crimson Demons reporting to Luna also turned to her, and Tanya shook her head. "No thanks. I've got other things I want to do today, and fighting against someone that might kill me doesn't sound appealing. Just get that Archpriest to do it when she gets here."

Tanya might be able to kill whoever this 'Hoost' was, but she really didn't have any motivation to.

Dejectedly, they all turned away, but Tanya wasn't done. "Of course, I'll be stopping by the Eris Church to Heal the wounded there as best as I can. Maybe they'll help you."

That Megumin character's eye lit up, while Luna and the receptionists looked like they actually had a spot of hope.

First, however…

The waitress brought their food over, and Tanya and Viktoriya dug in with gusto, savoring the feeling of having food in their stomachs after nearly a week of subsisting on Viktoriya's Create Water spell.

If anyone dared to think they looked nauseating eating so quickly, they didn't voice their opinions.

-OxOxO-

In the back room of a small but profitable shop in Axel, a man, obscured by darkness, labored over his newest creation. It was almost done, and-

_BANG!_

The door was flung open, and the man squinted in the sudden deluge of light. He nearly dropped his latest creation, but he held fast to the tools he was using to hold it. He opened his mouth, about to question the intruder, but-

"Have you cleaned your windows _once _in all the time I was gone? Sheesh. And what's with the cart outside?"

Bill blinked at the familiar voice, and his eyes adjusted to the light. There, standing in the doorway and skeptically glancing at his windows, was Tanya von Degurechaff. He could see her friend standing just behind her.

He shrugged noncommittally as he put down the new sword he was working and walked into the shop area of his building. "I mean… I did a bit, but I've been working really hard."

He scratched at his scraggly beard idly, while Tanya gave him a look that she hoped conveyed how unamused she was.

His expression didn't change, and Tanya just sighed. She had other things to do, and she was burning daylight. "Whatever. I was wondering if you knew where to get a forge and other Blacksmithing tools. I'm planning on setting up something private for my own usage."

He smirked at her. "Oh, I happen to have everything you might need. Follow me," he said, walking into the back.

Tanya stared suspiciously at his back, but she did follow him. She looked around in the once-familiar room.

Although Tanya's bulkier items she had once kept there were now being watched by the Succubi, the room was still as full as ever. The tarp that she had used to cover her own things was now covering something else.

He turned around and smirked at her. "Didn't you wonder why I left to go to the capital?" he asked with a look in his eye that told her he knew she hadn't.

Tanya was trying to remember exactly when he'd left. "That was like… two months ago, right?"

He nodded happily. "Indeed. I guessed that an adventurer as… _enterprising _as you would want your own forge."

With that, he removed the tarp, revealing exactly what he had promised, mostly. The pile of bricks, wood, and bags of mortar certainly looked like it might be able to make a forge, and the box helpfully marked 'tools' probably contained a wide variety of tools that Bill had in his own shop.

As Tanya looked over what he had, she translated what he'd told her. He knew she'd want to be a bit more private, and he wanted to make a bit of money helping her out.

Tanya smiled widely. "Alright. How much are you asking for?"

He smirked. "500,000 Eris, please." At her raised – and highly skeptical – eyebrow, he continued to explain.

"Hey, if you're going to set up a rival business to mine, I want some compensation for all of the customers you're taking from me." Tanya just rolled her eyes at the man.

"If that were what I wanted to do, I'd just raise the taxes on Blacksmiths who aren't nobles so that I can have a monopoly and drive you out of business, something that is well within my rights as Governor," she countered. The smug look on his face fell just as fast as he realized what he was dealing with.

Of course, she probably wouldn't do that – she was supposed to do better than Alderp, on the off chance that Iris visited – but he didn't have any idea how this ridiculousness had happened, as evidenced by his next question.

"How the _hell _did you get rid of Alderp?" he nearly shouted at her. She shrugged noncommittally.

"I'll tell you later. Do you have another price?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

He folded quickly. "Alright, I'll sell it to you for 200,000 with the stipulation that you don't make any normal weapons," he sighed.

"I have no clue what-" she began to protest, but he just sent her an annoyed glare.

"You know, anything other than the weird staff that you have on your back, and the smaller weird wand by your waist. You can make all that stuff and weird metal tubes you want, just don't make, like… swords or armor for other people." He asked.

Tanya thought, for a moment, and then she agreed. She wouldn't be selling her 'weird staff' or 'weird wand' to anyone – not until she decided which side to be on, at least.

She might make a bit of armor – asking Bill about procuring some Adamantite would come after she got the forge installed – but she didn't really have any desire to make weapons…

Tanya blinked and then turned to look at Viktoriya, who was _still_ deep in thought after Luna's announcement. What was so important about some Archpriest they didn't know?

Tanya stowed an idea about Viktoriya's birthday gift – and what day _was_ that event, according to the proper calendar? – and smiled at Bill. She brought out a small slip of paper and began to write on it, finally offering it to him when she'd finished writing out the amount.

He scowled at it, but he took it all the same. Tanya had suggested paper money to Revi, and she'd been asked by Iris if she meant checks. Apparently, a few different Reincarnates had suggested the idea to her during their story time with her.

Elroad hadn't adopted them at the time, but they had been warming up to the idea. Tanya was just thankful she wouldn't have to carry around a bunch of unwieldy coins.

Tanya turned to leave. "Deliver it to Alderp's old mansion and install it in the west wing, would you?"

She heard him click his tongue. "That'll be another 50,000 Eris, and-"

She sent a glare over her shoulder. "What's that cart doing outside the building, by the way? Could it be that you heard that I was out and about and rented one specifically for this purpose?"

He colored a bit, and Tanya shook her head. "Honestly, why you feel the need to make everything more complicated is beyond me. The guards shouldn't give you too much trouble today, so play nice."

Just as she opened the door, she scowled. "If they ask for bribes, threaten to make them do my paperwork. That'll shut them up."

Tanya, looking back at the man, saw that Viktoriya hadn't yet moved. "Viktoriya?"

The woman blinked and snapped to attention, saluting a suit of armor leaning against one of the walls. "Ma'am! I'm-"

She then blinked in confusion, and turned to Tanya, who was merely raising an eyebrow. Blushing, she hurried after her. As she left, she gave a happy nod to Bill and closed the door.

She spun around and began to walk. The Eris Church was their next destination. She was going to try and Heal Darkness, Mitsurugi, and Rex and his team. She'd probably be tired out by it, but no one would be able to say she hadn't done anything.

She scowled. Of course, if she fixed them up, they'd probably want to charge off and fight that Greater Demon again. If word got out that she had helped bring an end to the Demon, the Demon King might hear of it.

Ragcraft, after all, was a spy able to assume anyone's form. There was no telling of how many of his kind might exist, or which humans had also joined his side.

"Uh, Tanya?" asked Viktoriya. Tanya immediately turned to her former adjutant. If Viktoriya had been distracted enough to almost forget to follow her out of the Blacksmith's, then she was really concerned about something.

"Yes, Viktoriya?"

She took a deep breath, and Tanya leaned forward. "Um… do you think that the Archpriest that Luna mentioned might have been… someone we know? Like… Aqua?"

Tanya stood there, her face unmoving as she digested what Viktoriya had just said.

Just as Viktoriya began to apologize – it was a stupid idea, just like all of her other ones – Tanya's face seemed to have been dunked in a pail of white paint, with how much blood was draining from it.

Tanya began to really, really think.

Luna had mentioned a beautiful Archpriest with _water-blue _hair that had just come to Axel who had _all _of their skills and high stats. The giant wave of energy that had reached even Elroad and, in all probability, the Demon King's castle, was strong enough to contain the energy of many Divine Relics.

Had they finally upped the ante? Were they sending down their 'gods' and 'goddesses' to do their own dirty work instead of hoping that teenagers with no combat experience could do it for them?

Was Being X coming down next?

Tanya took a deep breath. No matter how much she'd claimed in her head that she'd shoot the fuck – among other things – if he ever showed his face, she was under no illusions that he might not even be harmed by guns, for all she knew.

Tanya looked into Viktoriya's eyes and grabbed her hands, hoping to convey the seriousness of her orders. "Full alert. Get your Observation spells active. If you sense her near us, I want an Active Barrier up in a moment and a Flight Spell on the tip of your tongue. If you see her, get your rifle out and take aim. She knows what they are."

Viktoriya's face was an odd mixture of white and red – likely due to her repeating the orders she had always given the 203rd when they knew the Bloody Valkyrie was in the area and bringing up bad memories – but she nodded stiffly all the same, twisting her rifle so that it was now hanging from her shoulders instead of on her back.

Tanya's rifle, always hanging from her front due to her bulky mantle-hood combo, found its way into one of her hands, and her other hand twitched towards the bag she'd stored the Type 95 in.

As they continued to walk towards the Eris Church – now visible in the distance – Tanya slipped a hand into the bag and undid the latch on the side of it keeping it closed. If she had to, she'd use _it_, but…

**Destroy the town. You'll kill the pretender.**

She shook her head. She needed a way to contain it, something that could-

A substance that could drain the magic from something sounded a lot like Mith-

She stumbled and nearly hit the ground, and the comforting feeling of Viktoriya's Observation spells ended as she caught her.

"Colonel!"

Tanya was soon enveloped in Viktoriya's arms. She let herself rest there – for a moment too long – and straightened herself. "V- Visha…"

She took a deep breath as she stared at her, concern etched in the much deeper blue of her eyes. "In… addition to getting some Adamantite, I… I think we need to get some Mithril. To… _contain_ the Type 95."

The moment she uttered the name of that vile, cursed metal, pity filled Viktoriya's eyes. Unlike the pitying gaze of so many of the General Staff, she felt she could actually let her feel bad for her.

She'd bled and fought with Vikt… with Visha. She could be… vulnerable with her.

Tanya took another deep breath and turned towards the Church. They needed to finish this and then go back to their mansion. She wasn't getting anywhere _near_ Hoost with someone that might be as strong as the Bloody Valkyrie around, especially since they might hate her as much as that crazy bitch had.

And the Bloody Valkyrie herself, if Luna's words about Darkness adventuring with a 'silver-haired' adventurer were anything to go by.

She threw up her hood, even if it was uncomfortable to have both the hood and her officer's cap on, she needed to hide her identity and have as much energy available as possible, and turned towards the Church.

She paused, and then she grinned widely. _This _was what the Demon King was looking for, and soon, he'd know exactly what had come.

Of course, she'd have to figure out some way to save Axel from certain destruction, because she didn't doubt that he'd launch some kind of attack on Axel in order to kill her if he found out about her that she was literally a 'goddess.'

That shouldn't be too hard, though. His letter, as well as Verdia's sparse comments about him, painted him as a rational person that could be reasoned with. Someone in her position might have to meet him in person, but she thought that things would turn out just fine.

-OxOxO-

When they did get into the Church, Tanya was thankful that no one realized who they were.

There weren't a huge number of people there – whatever services the Eris Cult performed on Sunday must have already ended – but plenty of adventurers were inside. Some were laying on small mattresses, while others were left with nothing but a thin sheet between them and the floor.

They seemed to be mostly fine. Cuts, scrapes and bruises were all that they had as wounds.

Around them, worried team members were standing vigil or talking quietly with the Priests nearby. Many seemed upset, and Tanya could easily guess why.

She grinned. she knew what she would do last before leaving.

Farther in, she could make out a number of individuals standing around one of three different areas. Tanya could easily guess who was where.

She wandered to the closest one, where only a few people were standing. Priests were hovering over the adventurers, debating about something. Tanya quietly walked towards them.

"We can't just take their money. We'll have to wait for one of them to wake up before we can haggle about how much this amount of damage will cost."

Tanya scowled and then turned to Viktoriya. "Could you lend me your Type 97? I want to use Heal on them."

Viktoriya turned to her, seemingly conflicted. "Shouldn't we be on the lookout for… Aqua?"

Tanya sighed. "Probably. However, she might not want to come in here. Being X apparently has to use believers in his faith to talk to me, or he has to ask for permission from other so-called deities. I don't think that shows a high level of cooperation or respect for each other."

Viktoriya seemed conflicted, for a moment, and then she nodded. "We really should have a backup staff from here, if they work like a mix of a scepter and a Computation Jewel."

Tanya nodded absently as Viktoriya worked to undo the Type 97 from her neck. "I don't think we could use our spells very well, but any defense would be better than nothing, although… maybe we could just use our rifles for this world's magic?"

She didn't take the Type 97 from Viktoriya, and instead aimed her rifle at the resting, bruised and heavily wounded adventurers. They had obviously had some work done to staunch whatever bleeding had been inflicted on them, but nothing else.

"Heal," she almost asked as she directed her mana to work with the mana in the first adventurer. It wasn't nearly as easy as when she had the Type 97, but...

Rex's wounds began to fade steadily, until he suddenly shot up. "HOOST! Yunyun, look-"

He was turned around, glancing all over and searching for a threat that wasn't there. Tanya stepped passed the Priests – who seemed irate for a reason that Tanya wouldn't _possibly_ know the cause of – and leaned down, resting a hand on his shoulder.

She could sympathize with him. How many times had she woken up on the Eastern Front with images of Being X, the Type 95, and the entire battalion lying at the feet of the Bloody Valkyrie?

He looked to her, and his breathing calmed down. "D- Degurechaff? I thought you were the Governor now…"

She shrugged. "I finished up a lot of work," she claimed.

She _had _done that, yes, it was just that she'd roped nearly fifty people into doing it with her in an attempt to run all of Alderp's lands through sheer force of will alone.

He nodded slowly, and then turned to the Priests. "How much-"

Tanya cut him off. "Not an Eris. I cast Heal on you, and…"

She pointed her rifle at his two teammates. "Heal."

The Priests behind her made noises of protest, as did the four that were hovering over the other two, but she didn't care. She was focusing on the spell.

Rex shot to his feet and leaned down over his friends. "Terry? Sophie?"

Tanya smiled as they both woke up. That had been tiring, but she probably had a little bit left before she'd have to stop. She wanted to get to work in their forge, after all.

The Priests were glaring at her irately, and Tanya realized that she did care that they were protesting her actions. She was actually quite happy to be spiting an underling of Being X by interfering with their greedy followers.

Oh, she would usually approve of people using their skills to make their way in a free market economy, but Belzerg was Medieval when it came to its economy and trying to take too much money from regular people resulted in a frivolous waste, if the golden chandeliers and shiny, new-looking stained glass windows that were being put in were anything to go by.

They reunited happily, and Rex turned to her. "How can I ever repay you? I-"

Tanya shook her head. "I'm just doing what I can to help. I'm the Governor, after all."

He shook his head rapidly, and his friends seemed to be giving each other knowing looks behind his back. "No! Alderp was a ruthless tyrant! I was… well, I would have become an adventurer anyway, but I had to spend a lot of time defending my village from monsters because he was too cheap to send guards and knights!"

Tanya scoffed. "He's not exactly the best example of a person, is he?"

She bid the man farewell and turned to find that Viktoriya was hurriedly putting her Type 97 back on and shooting Rex some odd looks. Tanya raised an eyebrow as she began to walk towards the other group.

"Are you okay? We figured something else out; we can easily use this world's spells without our Computation Jewels."

Viktoriya sent one last glance towards the other three – Terry and Sophie seemed to be teasing Rex about something, if the way he was covering his face was anything to go by – before turning towards the next group.

"It was nothing."

Tanya felt her face twist slightly at the stiff answer, but she was soon distracted by the motion in front of her. Five of the six Priests that had been watching the other three rushed passed them to talk to those there, and Tanya rolled her eyes as a familiar face appeared.

"Degurechaff, I must say-"

"That's Governor Degurechaff, Ashley." She corrected the woman while giving her a once over.

Her robes seemed to have changed a bit, and Tanya wondered if she'd become an Archpriest or something. She mentally shrugged as she looked at the other people surrounding the person she couldn't see.

Soon, she spotted who she was looking for. Hegal, Darkness's butler, was watching whoever it was. It must have been Darkness, then, because Tanya knew Darkness wouldn't fall for a guy like Mitsurugi.

She ignored the Priests. "I object to this! Your aren't allowed to use spells in here if you aren't a Priest-"

Tanya spun around and glared at the girl coldly. "I am Governor of Axel. If that is not enough clout to get me to do what I want, then I will simply remove her from here and Heal her somewhere else."

She sneered. "She is an adherent of our faith and a Crusader. We have the right to hold her here and Heal her."

Tanya glared. "Then why haven't you? Are you really depraved enough that you wish to extract exorbitant prices from even those that believe in your drivel?"

The other Priests – and a number of other adventurers that were probably there to watch over her or pay respects – gasped, and Ashley glared at Tanya.

She licked her lips. "I would like nothing more than to help her, but we are not powerful enough. The damage is too widespread. Unless you're a deviant and worship Aqua, your faith won't be any more than ours, for what you just said."

Tanya felt a twinge of guilt and shame, mostly because she'd charged into this situation without knowing the details of the Eris faith. Maybe…

She shook her head. Ludicrous. She wouldn't grace them with the effort to do that. She'd read a report or two, and maybe ask Darkness some questions, but that would be the extent of her effort to learn about the religions of this world.

She brushed past Ashley and through the ring of adventurers. "Yeah, yeah. Just let me-"

The twinge of guilt became a pang as she looked down at Darkness. A huge, arcing slash broke the armor, underclothing, and skin of Darkness. Her expression was pained, even if it looked like she might be asleep. Four Priests seemed to be casting Heal on her, but it didn't look like she was faring any better.

She gasped and was suddenly awake. Immediately, she began to groan.

And not in pain.

Tanya's guilt evaporated.

The people here might have thought that it was in pain – because they were idiots that couldn't see the obvious dancing in front of their faces, unlike Tanya – but she knew the look and blush on her face very well.

"Sleep," muttered a nearby Mage. Darkness's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and the Priests began to cast Heal again.

They were keeping the blood in at best, but Tanya didn't doubt that she probably would get very sick if the wound was kept open for much longer.

She sighed and turned to a vaguely recognizable Priest. "Do you know where Wiz's shop is?"

He nodded slowly, and Tanya sighed. "Go to her and buy some bandages and… morphine from her. I'll… compensate the Eris Cult for the money."

Instead of even a hint of greed, he nodded thankfully, turned, and left. Tanya wandered out of the rough circle of people around Darkness and walked towards the third group.

Ashley was right behind her. "He was a bit luckier. His armor was able to stop the blood flow by forming inside the wound caused by one of the demon's blows, but…"

There were two large holes in Mitsurugi. One was positioned on his breastplate, piercing it at an angle and driving a shallow hole into him. She could even make out a cracked bone.

The other hole was farther up, in between his neck and his collarbone. It looked like the blow that had caused it had been stopped for approximately no seconds by the chainmail he was wearing underneath and the bodysuit underneath that.

Tanya grimaced at the damage, and she heard Viktroiya cry out.

Tanya spun towards her, an eyebrow raised. It was bad, yes, but they'd seen worse due to shrapnel and the diseases that perforated every front they fought on.

She blushed lightly and cleared her throat at the searching look. "I was… um… thinking of asking him on a date…"

Tanya blinked. "That's… good," she said, unsure of why she felt like she didn't really mean it. She shook her head and cracked a smile. "Honestly, I thought you'd end up a spinster or something if you didn't go for any of the men back in the 203rd."

She smiled softly at that, and Tanya realized she was feeling… yet more jealousy…

She shook her head with a sigh. Not only was that completely inappropriate – someone was only barely being kept alive right now – it wasn't happening. Viktoriya had grown up in a pre-modern society, where homosexuality was probably outlawed in a great many places, including the Empire.

Besides, if she was interested in Mitsurugi, that was that. Viktoriya was obviously attracted to men, and while Tanya _was _a man, she didn't currently have the… parts to match.

_Would that change if Tanya did?_

She blinked at the errant thought, and then she shook it away. Not the time.

She sighed and turned back towards Darkness as a crash in the front of the Church signaled the return of that Priest. Besides, Tanya was an unstable soldier who'd killed thousands and had a vengeful deity or two after her.

Those were some pretty huge obstacles to any kind of relationship. It seemed, once she got her dick back, it would probably be the bachelor life for her.

Not that that bothered her at all. She'd been one in her past life, enjoying a fling occasionally and nothing more.

She shook her head. Now _really_ wasn't the time. She looked to the Priest again and gathered up the bandages and morphine.

The morphine… well, it wasn't _actually _morphine. She hadn't taken any really advanced chemistry back in college – and if she had, she would have probably remade penicillin in her second life and this one and become _hilariously _rich – but it helped with slowing down a person's heartbeat, which might in turn slow the blood loss enough for the Priest's Heals to actually fix her instead of keeping her on the brink of death.

The advent of this not-nearly-morphine began at the beginning of their week of work. Viktoriya had checked out a gambling den before they had _really_ thrown themselves into it. Tanya, well aware that Viktoriya would win, had instead asked the people smoking pipes what was in them.

The man, after asking her a question he would regret every time he tried to piss for the next week thanks to a few choice blows to the kidneys, had managed to eek out that it was a mix of opium and herbs.

She had purchased some, used Smith, and managed to make a very crude form of a pain-relief/blood loss prevention pill.

That was enough for Tanya to decide to sell it. It would be helpful when people didn't have access to Priests, and if it did any long term damage, well…

That was what Heal was for, right?

Tanya forced a few of the crude tablets she'd been able to fashion out of some of the best paper in town down Darkness's throat, glaring at the unconscious body of her friend as she made a sound of sadness.

Why, _even asleep_, did she want to feel pain? Was her bed made of red-hot iron nails? Was her shower water actually sulfuric acid?

Tanya took her time to bandage up her wounds. She wasn't a medic or anything, but she'd thought learning a few basic, non-magic skills from the Medical Mages they had been in contact on the Eastern Front for all of a week before they were called away would be prudent.

The bleeding hadn't started again thanks to the Priests, and Tanya handed the rest of the bag to the Priest that had bought it all. "If you all need to take a break, those will help keep everything in place, at least for a little bit. I'd suggest taking them off and wrapping her back up every day, at most."

She turned to the Priest that had bought the supplies. "What's your name?"

He blinked in confusion, and then stammered out a reply. "Uh… it's Zachary. You gave me that bag of money? I've… um, thought a lot about it. A bunch of my… _friends _and I have been thinking about what you told us. We-"

Tanya nodded as she remembered giving a bag of money to the Priests to stave off their ire. His words made everyone else remember too, apparently, and Ashley grudgingly sighed.

"Zachary, that's enough. Don't bother the Governor with your ideas about the Eris Cult."

The man gave Tanya one last look before sighing. "Fine… if you won't listen to me Ashley…"

He turned away, hurrying out of the Church while muttering. Tanya watched him go, but Ashley cleared her throat.

"Now. You've said your piece and done what you can, now leave us be. I'm almost ready to cast another Heal spell."

Tanya nodded and turned to the exit. Now, they had to go back to the mansion. She wanted that forge installed soon so that she could get to work fixing her Computation Jewel and making more cartridges.

As she came up to the door, it was practically blown inwards. Tanya was able to stop in time, but they weren't, and-

_UMPH!_

Tanya was now standing still with her face pressed into the chest of someone. She hadn't caught sight of who they were, or what they were wearing, but she _did _know that their chest was only slightly smaller than Viktroiya's.

Tanya violently shook her head at that thought and backed away, an apology on her lips and her head cast downward. "Excuse me."

She didn't say anything else since they were the ones to bump into her and to try and get through the door so fast.

Tanya felt two hands grasp her shoulders, and her gaze snapped upwards to look at the person. What-

Oh. They had blonde hair and blue eyes. They must have been some noble, then, who-

"It's completely fine. In fact, if you'd like to spend more time with your big sister Cecily, I wouldn't mind coming to your house and laying in your bed for a few hours, smelling you and your sheets."

Tanya aborted her attempt to reassure the noble.

Huh?

"Wh-"

She interrupted her again and hugged Tanya to her body. "Oh, you look so cute! Little loli, would you please let me see you and Megumin together? I think that there would be nothing better than that."

Tanya felt her mind going blank. She couldn't activate her Type 97. She had to-

She had to leave to flee to get away from _him _before she was unclothed and attacked and she couldn't move she _couldn't-_

And then she could.

"Tanya! Talk to me Tanya!" It was familiar and warm and lovely and nice and better than her and it was Viktoriya.

Tanya collapsed to her knees and tried to take in her surroundings. Viktoriya had placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and nothing else, for which Tanya was very thankful. Anything more might have ended horribly. The other people in the Church were staring at them with a mix of worry and thankfulness.

The person – Cecily – had been blown back out the door, presumably by Viktoriya. She wasn't wearing the stuffed up clothing of a noblewoman, but the habit of a nun. It was more blue than the predominantly white and purple-black clothing that the Eris Cultists wore.

Tanya took a deep breath and rose to her feet. Darkness was doing better now. Mitsurugi would survive.

This disgusting _hag_ wouldn't.

Tanya efficiently strode through the doors, readying her rifle. Viktoriya was right behind her, and Tanya could see that the Type 97 around her neck was flickering on and off dangerously.

It wouldn't last much longer without maintenance… but it would last long enough.

She pointed her blade down at the woman that had _dared_ touch her. "For attempted sexual assault, I, as the Governor of Axel, sentence you to-"

"Wait! Please, I just wanted to help the adventurers!"

Tanya was about to ignore her words and let her die and declare that she was stalking after her, but Darkness's wounded form passed behind her eyes.

She took a deep breath. No, she wasn't ruled by her anger. She was the master of her emotions, not the other way around.

Viktoriya, who had been surveying their surroundings, seemed to think that Tanya was insane for not killing her, but Tanya wouldn't let one of her few friends suffer any more than she had to. Even if the masochist did enjoy every second of it.

Tanya leaned down and grabbed one of the thing's wrists. She was forced into a sitting position, and Tanya began to speak slowly.

"You have exactly thirty seconds to convince me I shouldn't execute you like the criminal you are. If you so much as _suggest_ that you want to comment about me or any other… lolis, I will take _immense_ satisfaction in breaking this wrist."

Tanya grabbed the woman's face and pointed it away from the ground and towards her eyes. "Understood?"

She nodded slowly. "I- I wanted to help the adventurers. I was inspired by… a friend to help their wounded party."

Tanya nodded slowly. "Why would you be any better than the Eris Cultists? Or, shouldn't you already be there?"

She shook her head vigorously as a smile formed. Tanya twisted her wrist a bit to make sure she remembered exactly what was going on, and she cried out.

"I- I'm not some weak Eris Cultist who uses their faith to welch off of others! I'm an Axis Cultist, who follows the Goddess that allows anyone to join her cult, as long as their wishes don't involve loving the undead or Demons. I have way more faith than they do."

Tanya blinked slowly, trying to remember what Ashley's description of the Heal spell was. It worked based on the faith of the caster and their mana…

Tanya glared at her, and the woman blinked. "You know, you really are just the cutest little lo-"

_SNAP!_

Though she cried out and began to cry, Tanya merely noted that breaking her wrist wasn't even that hard, with her Reinforcement spells.

The girl quickly proved the worth of her own Heal by whispering it and watching as her wrist popped back into place. She… _scowled _at Tanya.

"Hey! I like any kind of play if it involves lolis, but that really hurt! Pay me back by-"

She saw red. She didn't even need to know what depravity she wanted to suggest. Tanya felt a snarl building up in her throat, and she jumped up, once more pointing it at the Priest with her rifle. She should just kill her **kill the follower of a false god and-**

_CRACK!_

She heard shocked gasps echo through the crowd and sighed. She had only just missed her by jerking her rifle to the left at the last moment. Cecily was grasping her ears tightly, and Tanya sighed.

She wasn't ruled by her emotions. She wasn't ruled by the _thing_ inside of a box in her satchel.

She turned around. "Fine. You will be allowed to help them, but make no mistake, if you come within visible view of my mansion, the orphanage, or any other _child_, I will not hesitate to have you executed."

Shakily, the woman rose to her feet. Tanya again pointed her rifle at the woman. She flinched away. "Heal."

The bruise on her cheek that Tanya had only just noticed also faded, if only a small amount.

Tanya turned away. "Viktoriya."

Viktoriya felt conflicted. Suffering the existence of a pedophile was horrible, but if Tanya wanted her alive…

She also turned away. "Your Heal is very cold."

Tanya blinked and turned back towards Cecily. She was pouting and actually glaring at her. Tanya shrugged.

"And? You're fixed, right?"

She turned away again. That 'cold' was probably because she didn't give a flying fuck about any deity, Being X or otherwise.

She shrugged her shoulders as they left the scene and headed back towards the mansion. A conversation with Viktoriya would be coming, either tonight or tomorrow or… eventually, and Tanya would promise to talk later. For now, however, they were leaving.

It was well past midday, after all. Bill should have at least moved everything over there and started installing it. Tanya would help him finish the installation and then immediately move on to fixing their Computation Jewels.

Aqua might be in the town, Hoost was prowling about, and Evan was supposed to be arriving, if the Greater Demon wasn't here in his stead. There were more people than ever showing up and making trouble, and Tanya would be an idiot if she didn't prepare for the worst, even if she did hope that everything could be solved semi-peacefully.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei took a deep breath. It hadn't exactly been easy work, to get this far, but she had made it.

Like she had told Tanya, she went out and did a quick quest. She'd run into that weird silver-haired Thief that had been partied up with Tanya and the Crusader named Darkness. She had been running around with a Crimson Demon asking for aid in fighting that Greater Demon.

Lorelei had been ignored by both – a better reaction than many, honestly – and she'd gone on to quickly dispatch a number of Giant Toads.

They didn't want to eat metal, which meant that her sword and her armor, as sparse as it was compared to what Darkness had, acted as deterrents. Without being able to eat her – which was their main attack – her 'natural' speed and strength had been enough to avoid their attempts to squash her.

She could have probably taken something a bit more rewarding or difficult than just that, but she only wanted to take the quest so Tanya wouldn't think anything was suspicious.

Oh, Tanya had said she wasn't her mother, but she was more suspicious than a noble in a room filled with Thieves. She would check up with her on how the quest had gone or ask that receptionist about it.

Now, however, with them going to the central Eris Church, she could complete her actual task.

She strode towards the entrance, gulping uneasily. This…

Well, this was likely to be embarrassing, and…

She scowled. Did she really even want to do this? Couldn't she just ignore the signs and wait for them to say something to each other?

She thought about it for another moment, and then she shook her head. They were her friends, and friends were supposed to help each other out.

Viktoriya had helped Lorelei work through some of her feelings regarding her transformation, so it was only right that Lorelei would try and help her and Tanya work through their feelings.

Besides, the way that Viktoriya had moaned… _something _lurid in that language of theirs was more than enough to make her think that there might be – or should be – something going on between them.

She looked towards the building. Still…

She shook her head. No, she'd try and do this… _subtly_.

She nodded to herself. Yeah, if they were interested in each other, this _was _a surefire way to figure that out. If they weren't, then she didn't have to think about it any more.

After this she would begin to plan, but until then…

She walked forward and, when she came to the door, knocked on it. It took a minute, and she heard the people inside shouting "Please wait!" a whole lot, but the door did eventually open.

Lorelei looking down at the… Succubus that was only slightly taller than Tanya. She looked at where Tanya's head would have been, and then up, and up, and up.

Lorelei smiled down at her. If there was one thing that she did like about being transformed, it was watching people fail to find her head where they thought it would be.

Before the Succubus could open her mouth, Lorelei pushed past her. "I have something I want to talk about."

She blinked at her, but she did nod eventually. "Alright. I guess Tanya's busy?"

Lorelei made a very noncommittal hum in the back of her throat as she walked towards the room they had gone into last time. She soon reached it and found…

Well, it wasn't what it was last time. Instead of being clad in almost nothing, they had on much more sensible clothing, even if it all seemed a bit out of date.

Lorelei shook her head. She needed to focus. They were staring at her expectantly, and Lorelei gazed around the room.

She nodded as she found what she was looking for. She sat down in front of the table, only scowling for a brief second at how uncomfortable chairs that weren't her size were, and looked around at the Succubi.

"Alright. I'm here on my own account, not on Tanya's. I wanted to ask-"

A purple-haired Succubus jumped forward. "If we could give you lurid dreams?"

Lorelei colored immediately. "Wh- what? Wait, no, not that."

Unlike the typical stereotype of bunnies being good at multiplying, she didn't really feel all that much of a sexual drive. She had no idea if it was because something in her brain had been changed or if she was missing an organ or two, but she was thankful for it.

She shivered. Her life would have been ten times worse if she'd had an increased libido that just played into the stereotype.

She reached into her shirt and pulled out a few pictures, grinning at the gathered Succubi. It had been easier than she thought it would be to convince Tanya that she had given up all of her pictures.

Why would she need several hundred, anyway? No, she had quickly realized that Tanya had woken up when they didn't come out on time, and she had hurriedly stuffed a number of pictures into her bra.

It had been uncomfortable to have them there, but Tanya seemed to be very intent on respecting her barriers. Tanya had gathered up several hundred of them and asked Lorelei if she had any more.

She'd answered negatively and let her eyes flick towards the couch on purpose. Tanya had found the ones she'd stashed away in cushions and then burnt the couch while staring Lorelei in the eyes.

But Lorelei had won. She brandished the photos and laid them out, looking around her. "Do you think those two might be Axis Cultists?"

It took a moment for them to think about the question, but all of them did answer.

"No, there's no possible way."

"She would never submit herself to that kind of authority."

"Tanya the Evil bows to no one without plans to stab them in the back and use their corpse to advance her own position."

All of them answered negatively while shaking their heads vigorously. Lorelei felt her head tilt. "What…? But…"

Then she realized the miscommunication and facepalmed. "Wait, I mean… not _religiously_. Do you think they're… _Axis Cultists?"_

She waggled her eyebrows and again pointed towards the pictures. They actually studied them this time, and Lorelei glanced at them again.

Viktoriya had remained mostly stationary across the photos, leaning slightly to the right of the chair she was situated on. Her facial expression was the thing that shifted the most, changing from a cute pout to a contented smile to a…

Lorelei cleared her throat.

Well.

She was sure Viktoriya was having a _very_ good dream.

Tanya, meanwhile, shifted her body quite often in the pictures. Her legs were thrown across the arm of the chair in one picture. In another, she was leaning against Viktoriya and the chair as if she was mimicking the taller woman.

She was desperately clutching her arm in one, and she looked… comfortable being held against the older woman's body in another.

Had Lorelei set them up in the chair? Yes, but they slept easily next to each other instead of shying away or trying to get more room and waking the other up.

The Succubi were also looking at the pictures, passing them around, and generally ogling and giggling.

Lorelei did not like the sound of Demons giggling, and she got a very foreboding feeling – maybe this wasn't a good idea and she should have just asked? – but the smallest Succubus jumped forward.

"This is definitely a thing!"

Another of them scoffed. "Oh, please. She'd be much better off with that Rex fellow who seems so obsessed with her."

Then they were shouting.

"No! She's unassailable! There's no way she'd ever love anyone!"

"Oh yes she would, and it should be Dust. She is an almost perfect match for the types of girls he has specifically requested _against _having. She must remind him of someone important!"

"You're all fools! She should love someone who is as cute as she is!"

"Uh… everyone?"

"WHAT!?" They all shouted at her, and Lorelei didn't feel like she was even half of her actual height with how menacing they seemed.

"Uh… is this some kind of… debate? I just wanted to know if you all could help me figure out if they like each other." She was honestly very confused about what the Hell was going on. She just wanted to figure out if they liked each other and were denying it or something.

Of course, their reluctance to admit any feelings for each other could also be due to Tanya's bad Luck. While there were some spells that functioned using the stat, merchants of all kinds and generally anyone trying to make a deal were affected by their Luck stat.

It also extended its influence into daily interactions and conversations. Things may not have developed that way simply because Tanya's Luck stat was too low.

She shook her head and looked at the Succubi surrounding her. They were all glaring at each other, and the smallest Succubus leaped up to whisper into her ears.

"Since Demons don't have any emotions or genitals, we often pair up interesting customers we think might produce the best emotions together and then feed on their emotions." The joy in her voice seemed a bit odd, and Lorelei turned to the floating girl.

"…Where do you stand?" she asked nervously. She thought that this would be easier than it had turned out to be.

The small Succubus shrugged. "Eh. I think that there are more… interesting couples to look after."

Lorelei decided, as she looked at the smirking face of the Succubus, that she wouldn't ever try and interfere with them.

She would also never get a boyfriend while she was in the same town as they were.

Lorelei shook her head and rose from her seat. She cleared her throat. "Ahem. Everyone, I don't really want to get involved in this scuffle, but I just wanted to know if you all would like to help me figure it out."

All of them, simultaneously, turned to her. Lorelei fought the urge to leap back and continued to speak. "Uhm… I just came here to ask you all if you could look at their dreams to figure it out?"

She was sent appraising looks, but they all eventually shook their heads. "Not… entirely. Our powers can technically be used to do such things, but if we give them those dreams, then it doesn't exactly prove much."

Lorelei conceded that they had a point there and thought for a second. What if…

She looked up and cast her eyes about the assembly of Succubi. "What if we wait? I'll tell you all when I think such a dream might occur naturally, perhaps after some kind of altercation with each other or… one of your _other _candidates, and then we'll know for sure."

They looked around and began to talk with each other. It didn't take them long to apparently be pleased with the idea. One of the taller Succubi walked towards her.

"Alright. We'll need access to her house, and we'll need you to tell us what item she has that blocks mental manipulation."

Lorelei blinked in confusion, and the Succubus sighed. "Last time she was here, we noticed that she's got some sort of item that blocks mental spells and attacks. We won't be able to look at her dreams if she's got that on."

Lorelei nodded and then bid them farewell. This room didn't have any windows, but the sun was just starting to dip down behind the walls of Axel.

Her run back would probably be enough to convince both of them that she had been doing her quest for a much longer time than she had. She was waved past the front and inner gates by the guards.

She would have expected that they would dislike her being held in such high regard by Tanya – they were the sons and daughters of nobles, no matter how far away they were from inheriting their parents' wealth – but that week of work had probably convinced them that getting close to Tanya would be far more trouble than it was worth.

She burst through the doors to find… no one. The servants that Tanya had pushed to do some of her work for her were nowhere to be seen, and Lorelei could only guess they were still recuperating. She sighed and began to focus on using her ears.

She could hear… sounds of banging and movement coming from the west wing, along with a small amount of muttering. She could also detect something that sounded like small pieces of metal being clicked together.

She nodded and headed towards the west wing. She just had to act casual and not think about her meeting with the Succubi. Both of them were scarily perceptive.

She burst into the room she couldn't hear the banging coming from anymore and slowly opened the door. She gasped as she looked at the room.

Before, when they'd been taken on a quick tour of the mansion by Alderp's former housekeeper Shelly, this room had been something of a ballroom. Alderp didn't like to host his own parties – he chose to force other nobles to use their own wealth to do that – but he did have this room for if any of the nobles showed up.

He also had another, technically bigger ballroom in the eastern wing of his mansion, but Tanya had muttered something about remodeling it to make room for a 'shooting range,' though why either would want something meant for Rangers was beyond her, unless it had to do with aiming their spells.

Instead of being decked out in gold and silver with ornate chandeliers made of crystal hanging from ceilings that had paintings depicting forgotten heroes on them, it had been changed.

The huge windows were all wide open to let out the smoke that was being emitted by what Lorelei assumed was a forge of some kind. There were a number of things surrounding it – buckets of water, tables with rocks on them, piles of leather, and a large number of tools – but the most eye catching was Tanya and Viktoriya.

The taller woman was watching the windows, her eyes and staff trained on them. She didn't look away for a second, and Lorelei wondered what she could be looking for. She hadn't seen anything.

Tanya, meanwhile, was bent over a table tinkering with something. As Lorelei began to walk over, trying not to gape at how much of the beautiful room had been torn down and roughly shoved into a corner, she took a closer look at Tanya.

She was still wearing her adventuring clothing, but…

"What are you _doing_?!" she shouted. Both of them looked up. Viktoriya was aiming her staff at her, but Lorelei paid the girl no mind as she stormed towards Tanya.

She gestured to her irately. "Your clothing is absolutely disgusting! Why didn't you change into something more appropriate, like a smock of some kind? Your mantle is covered in soot, your shirt is stained, and…"

She nearly felt a vein pop. "Your hair is a tangled _mess_! Tell me you didn't go out looking like this? I knew I should have tagged along. Do either of you have any idea what it means to look proper!?"

She was glaring at both of them, but neither of them seemed all that chastised. Mostly they just seemed mystified by something.

Lorelei crossed her arms angrily and began to tap a foot on the ground. "What, nothing to say? I swear, I'll spend the next hour combing your hair myself if that's what it takes!"

They both stared at her for a moment longer, and then they turned to each other, grinning. They turned to her with that grin, and before she could snap at them again, they-

"Why are you laughing? You're supposed to be the Governor! You can't just-"

But Tanya didn't mind the lecture on propriety. It had been a long, long time since anyone had… _lectured_ her about anything. Everyone assumed that she had a reason for doing whatever she did, or that she knew better or more than them.

It was honestly kind of… nice to listen to her express her concern for her so openly. Even if it wasn't really necessary.

Tanya shook her head in amusement. "Lorelei!" she said, raising her voice only a little bit. The beastman stopped her rant, staring down at her.

Tanya was smiling. "You can do whatever. We'll even go shopping in the next few days. I just needed to get this done."

With that, she proudly held up the Type 97. She had finally managed to fix it. She passed it to Viktoriya and took up Viktoriya's Type 97, unscrewing it and working on changing out the worn pieces and cleaning those that could still be used.

Lorelei muttered about the decor being destroyed, and Tanya just rolled her eyes again. It wasn't like she completely destroyed all of it.

Yes, she'd had to tear off pieces of the ceiling in order to ensure that the artwork wasn't tarnished by the smoke billowing out of the forge, and she had melted down most of the unnecessary displays of wealth to help pay for the loans she had taken out to pay for everything else she'd done in the past few days.

She grimaced at that thought. This world didn't have very… _organized _banks, and most of the time, the 'banks' were merely the official ways that nobles could store the taxes they didn't steal. She'd probably fix that, as well, but for now…

She focused on her work. She needed to find out if that Archpriest was that self-proclaimed goddess Aqua, try and strike a deal with Hoost, deliver a letter to that Undead Mage that was supposed to arrive at Verdia's castle, and continue to run Axel.

She'd probably faced worse, right?

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: And there we are! It seems that the Type 95 is not working that well…

But who cares about that! Tanya is oblivious! They met Megumin! Lorelei's trying to get involved in their love life! Cecily…

Yeah, in case it wasn't glaringly obvious, I don't like that girl, because… well, she comes on a little strong, to say the least. Her obsession with Megumin and lolis is, you know, probably punishable by lots of jail time for petty and not-so-petty crimes. Compared to her, Kazuma might as well be Saint Peter.

Okay, I wouldn't go that far, but she's a true Axis Cultist, through and through. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it!

Expect an Omake or two soon, too. We've finally gotten to the good ones.

A/N 2: So. Plot Holes I'm fixing and things I wonder about.

I figured out the plothole about just calling Aqua using the announcement system, yes I did…

After I had already decided how things would go, so… she's having so much fun at her job that she doesn't hear it. Idk lol

You'd think I'd think these things through before revealing them and not changing a thing, but oh well!

Also,why do people outside of the Crimson Demon Village use NEET as an insult? If there isn't any education for poor people until Darkness institutes it in one of the later volumes, then why would that be a part of NEET? They probably got it from the Reincarnates, sure, but still.

A/N 3: On another note…

I've recently gotten back into Pokemon by looking at some old games I have and trying to get them to work on an old Gameboy Advance. Which got me thinking…

Are you all interested in that? Cause I can try~

Honestly, the interactions between Being X and Mr. Fence-goat Pokemon would be worth it alone, and the setup would be Being X smoking some dank Kush before deciding he didn't want to deal with her, only to immediately regret giving her the capability to enslave super-powered animals using Pokeballs.

Would you all want her to be a trainer, or a Pokemon? I know which would be more funny, but I'm also not sure I want to try for yet another story, and it will be undoubtedly humor-centered instead of the mix I'm trying for here.

Eh, who am I kidding. If one other person wants it, I'll give it a try, eventually.

A/N 4: Responses to reviews will be posted soon, I mean it this time, I swear.


	33. Dealing with a (Greater) Devil

Tanya was trying hard not to glare at the walls. Technically, she only had herself to blame.

She had neglected her hygiene routine for days, and she hadn't taken proper care of her self image in her rush to fix their Type 97s.

That said nothing of what her face and hands looked like after she rushed to construct a few dozen rounds of ammunition and, after pouring a few more skill points into Smith, a pair of _actual _grenades – the potato mashers, not the pineapple ones so ubiquitously understood to be grenades; she was still working on those. Honestly, she was somewhat thankful that Lorelei was doing this for her, but…

She felt her cheeks light up again as Lorelei readjusted her grip on her hair. "Hold still! I can't untangle all of this if you won't stop squirming!"

Lorelei, after seeing and comprehending just how filthy they had let themselves become in their week of work and during Tanya's usage of Smith, had insisted on taking a bath together.

Seeing Lorelei's… _changes _in person, as opposed to just hearing them described by Viktoriya and Lorelei, had been odd, and Lorelei's earlier description of her oddly shaped legs and _fur_ hadn't done the real deal justice.

However, Tanya had managed not to stare enough – at either her additions or at either Viktoriya's or Lorelei's breasts – that anyone said anything, and Viktoriya's poker face was better than even Tanya's was. Lorelei didn't realize that Tanya found the situation just slightly embarrassing, and that Viktoriya found it even more so, Tanya assumed.

Lorelei had forced Viktoriya to leave so she could deal with Tanya's hair herself, and Tanya was now seated in the lap of the older woman.

"Hey," she began to ask as a question came into her mind, "how old are you? I should be… 17, I think, and Viktoriya is turning 25."

Lorelei hummed as she continued to untangle Tanya's hair. "I think that I'll be turning 21 pretty soon."

Tanya spun around, only to get a face full of tits. Her gaze flicked up to her eyes, and she fought to keep the blush off of her face by doing a bit of math as she continued the conversation. "What!? But you're taller than Viktoriya! Just how tall _were_ you?"

Lorelei's thoughtful face quickly shifted into a sorrowful one, and Tanya winced. "That is, only if you're up for it. I shouldn't pry-"

Tanya turned back around with a sigh, and Lorelei continued to straighten her hair. "No, it's fine. I was… shorter than Viktoriya, and around a head taller than you are."

Tanya nodded, only to growl as Lorelei yanked her hair again. That was-

Then, Tanya stopped. No, this was supposed to be a favor. Lorelei was helping Tanya with something she didn't like doing.

Even if the beastman did have some ulterior motive in mind, she was still helping her.

Tanya sighed. She should probably apologize, but Lorelei had already said it was fine. Then…

"Lorelei?"

"Yeah?" she responded. The words almost got caught in Tanya's throat – what if Being X tried to target her? – but she ignored the impulse and said them anyway.

"You're a really good friend." Lorelei would be targeted by Being X whether Tanya said the words out loud or not, so this really didn't change anything on this front. Lorelei obviously already knew that she was a good friend, but-

Lorelei winced, and she was happy Tanya couldn't see her face. "I don't know about that."

She'd wanted to straighten Tanya's hair to figure out what piece of equipment Tanya was using to shield her mind – not that her hair didn't need to be thoroughly combed anyway. Lorelei thought it would be harder, but she was wearing a ring she had picked up in the capital.

The same one that had been on 'Iris' when they had swapped bodies, and Lorelei was fairly sure that that had to be the thing the Succubi had talked about.

She didn't have many other pieces of equipment that would count in that category, besides maybe one of those… magical pendant-thingies they both wore, but the Succubi hadn't mentioned Viktoriya having anything. Since they both had the pendants, the ring was the item.

Tanya, unaware of Lorelei's thoughts, felt her eyebrows crease. Maybe she _didn't_ know she'd been a good friend, then.

She fought the urge to shake her head. "Nonsense. You know where our boundaries are, you're willing to take our advice when we think you need it, you're not a _complete _drag, and we've all helped each other do better in this chaotic world."

Lorelei was still quiet, and Tanya sighed tiredly. She really wasn't cut out for emotional affirmation – that was something closer to but not really Viktoriya's territory – but she would, as always, strive to do her best.

"Listen, I don't exactly give out the label of 'friend' lightly. I have met plenty of people that were good assets and acquaintances, but there are very few I would trust to defend me. Only two… of my superiors have ever made me _regret _trusting them," she said, knowing full well she was giving her a lot of information and hinting at her past.

She was going to tell her about their past, though. If they ever met an enemy that knew of her history – perhaps by being told by Eris or Aqua or Being X – they could try and trick Lorelei if she didn't already know.

Meanwhile, Lorelei was trying not to feel too giddy. Her old adventuring team hadn't dared to call her their _friend_, and their abandonment of her proved they weren't even good people.

Then she sighed and hoped that neither Tanya nor Viktoriya would think that Lorelei's attempts to see if they liked each other counted as betrayal.

Lorelei had gotten quiet for a bit, but before Tanya could spare another glance at the woman, she heard her… _giggling_, like she had that morning when she was looking at their pictures.

Tanya scowled at the memory. She _would_ be putting Lorelei through training for that. "Hey, don't get all arrogant. Only Viktoriya's gotten enough friendship points for me to trust her with my life."

Lorelei's ministrations in her hair stopped, and Tanya fought the urge to facepalm herself. She just _had_ to slip up about her first life when alone with Lorelei.

"What are 'friendship points'? I can guess, but who would actually categorize… _anything _in such a… simplified way?" she asked. She had a feeling this had to do with her life before she came to Axel, as did every other odd comment from Tanya and Viktoriya that seemed completely bizarre.

Tanya shrugged unconcernedly as she tried to figure out a way to convey her thoughts. "Ah… it was… you know board games, like chess?"

Lorelei rolled her eyes and began to work through the last of Tanya's hair. "No Tanya, I've never heard of such a thing. I am but an idiotic peasant, after all. Please, I beg of thee to lower yourself to bestow upon me-"

Tanya groaned even as Lorelei began to snicker. "Alright, alright, see if I ever try to clarify things for you again. Anyway, there were games, like chess, where your goal was to build up your interpersonal relationships with fictitious characters."

Lorelei was still confused. "But… wouldn't you have to play against someone else?"

Tanya tried to continue, sure that this analogy to video games would fall apart if pushed by the faintest breeze. "It was like… a choose your own adventure story, except with pictures."

Lorelei blinked, and then she shook her head while sighing. "Why didn't you just say that?"

Tanya shrugged. She hadn't exactly tried to equate her past memories to things in either of her last lives often, mostly because she didn't have to talk about such things. It was an… oddly new experience.

Hopefully, she wouldn't have to get used to it.

Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever. You both can tell me about your lives before Belzerg whenever, but for now, we're done here."

Tanya blinked, and then she rose from being seated in Lorelei's lap. She felt the top of her head – that damn _ahoge _was still there. She moved her hands down to the rest of her hair to-

She spun around, only to realize that, based on what she was staring closely at, Lorelei had also decided to stand up. Tanya spun around to stare at the walls, which really weren't much better.

Tanya was fairly sure that Alderp, if he wasn't already confined to a dungeon and helping her, would have been imprisoned for the… _images_ in the stained glass windows and positions of some of the statues.

They weren't, in any way, modest.

She cleared her throat as she made a mental note to have this room redecorated as soon as she had the money for it. "Where did all this extra hair come from?"

Her hair was now down past her shoulders. That was inexcusable, and she be cutting it as-

Wait. Her hair…

Tanya began to grin to herself. She could cut her hair as short as she wanted to, now! She didn't have any stupid Imperial regulations to control how short she could cut it!

She turned away and marched to the changing room. She definitely would!

Lorelei was staring between the statues and Tanya's retreating back. They were _statues_. How could she be embarrassed by statues?

A lot of statues, not just the ones in here, were naked, and even if these ones were a bit more… open about it more than most others, the fact that they were statues still stood.

As she dried off and changed, she wondered if Tanya's desires had always been this obvious, or if Tanya's Luck was just catching up with her. She shook her head and dismissed the idea.

Soon enough, they left. Tanya was going to go through her designs and do a bit of translating. Those books she'd gotten from the Royal Treasury were still waiting, and she wanted the money she would earn from selling them.

She ran into Viktoriya, who gasped upon seeing her. "Tanya! Where did you hide so much hair?"

Tanya shrugged. "I don't know, honestly. I haven't gotten a haircut or anything in a while, so I guess a lot of it was just… me forgetting to cut it and its natural tendency to knot up."

Viktoriya blinked and then shot her a radiant smile. "I think it looks good this long." She then turned back to one of the books Tanya was thinking about translating.

Tanya's open mouth – about to declare her intention to cut her hair – was stopped from speaking. Well…

How much did Tanya care about her hair, really? She'd had it longer for a long while, thanks to the military's restrictions, and while keeping it down to her shoulders was a bit much, she could let it be a bit longer than it had been, especially if it would keep Viktoriya's morale up.

"You know, you'll catch flies if you keep your mouth open like that," Lorelei said as she walked past her. She was going to try and buff out a few of the stains on Tanya's clothing before she retired.

Tanya shut her mouth with a snap and stiffly walked towards Viktoriya.

As Tanya sat down next to the woman, she remembered her promise to talk about her past. She scowled.

She really, _really _didn't want to, but if she didn't, she could get blindsided by someone reminding her of her past… like with that Axis Cultist, Cecily. She might actually fall into her memories and _die_ if she wasn't careful. Or Viktoriya could, if she was around and she thought that jumping in front of Tanya might save her.

She spared a glance for her faithful adjutant and then sighed mentally. She would do it. Within the week, she would… _talk_, no matter how pathetic it made her feel.

She grimaced at the thought and then buried her discomfort under the translation work in front of her. She _was_ doing this.

Eventually.

-OxOxO-

Tanya was currently in the room she had designated as her study. Alderp had used it for much the same purpose, because even he couldn't avoid _all _of his paperwork, although he seemed to have tried, with all the bribing, threatening, and forceful memory removal he did.

It had plenty of books on the walls that covered a surprising array of subjects for a noble.

For a Reincarnate, however, it seemed like just the right amount of information to help you blend in.

Tanya wanted a bit more room, mostly for filing cabinets for all the paperwork _she _would have to do. She'd give away some books – Darkness and the orphanage that doubled as a school would surely accept them – and sell off some others.

Of course, she also needed more room so Viktoriya could work next to her, instead of having to work on the same table as Tanya.

Still, Tanya got to sit nice and close to Viktoriya for now, so it wasn't all bad.

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts. "Come in!"

Lorelei walked in, and Tanya scoffed. "Lorelei, you don't need to knock. Just come in, unless I've asked you not to specifically."

Lorelei scowled, but she did say what she had come here to say. "The guards say that a girl is at the front gate, asking for your help in 'vanquishing the horrible Demon.' She's accompanied by someone named Rex."

Tanya paused, and then sighed. Really? Now?

She had spent most of her early, predawn hours working to make more ammunition and other weapons. She was now attending to the paperwork she had hoped to get through today.

Or she had been. She sighed unhappily and then stood. "Fine. I guess we have no choice. Go out and talk to them for a bit, get a basic rundown on the situation. We'll change."

Lorelei nodded and sped off through the mansion while Tanya and Viktoriya hurriedly made their way to the changing room.

When Tanya had first come to inhabit the place, she had made sure, after getting the official tour, to ask Alderp if he had any secret passages or rooms.

Besides the one he was being kept in – now furnished with a bed, a dresser, and even a tiny magic refrigerator filled with beer and 'neroid' – he only had a few. His treasury had an escape route built in, there was a bunker underneath the dining room table if he thought the secret passageway had been compromised, and he had no less than _three_ ways to peep on his servants.

She had not been amused, but she had diligently removed the magic mirror made to monitor the various rooms in the mansion, as well as the secret rooms behind a false wall of two innocuous closets that could let him watch a few guest rooms and the changing rooms.

Tanya shook her head as she slipped on her mantle. Honestly, why anyone would spend so much time and money on such things was beyond her, but-

"_Colonel?_" Viktoriya asked. Tanya blinked, but she slipped into Germanian easily enough. "_Yes?_"

"_I thought we weren't going to fight Hoost? We still need to find the Aqua lookalike, after all…_"

Viktoriya sounded unsure, and Tanya couldn't blame her. She thought the same thing. Unfortunately…

"_I would very much prefer to wait, but I fixed up Rex. He obviously wants to try and take Hoost on again. They probably don't have much of a chance alone, and he's both useful and willing to work with us._" She pulled on her boots and discarded the comfortable loafers that had been salvaged from Alderp's 'atrocious' taste in clothing.

Three guesses were allowed to guess who had wanted to burn half the things in his closest and sell the rest, and they didn't count if they weren't Lorelei.

"_But…_" Viktoriya trailed off. Tanya shrugged again.

"_We haven't seen Hoost's capabilities yet. I want to get a gauge on his power, to see if we could take him if needed, and I want to figure out why the Demon King sent him without informing me._"

Viktoriya nodded at the information, and both were dressed. Tanya gave her an appraising look and then smirked. "Well, are you ready?"

She nodded back. "Yes Colonel!" She snapped off a perfect salute, and they both stood there for a moment.

Then they broke down giggling. It was fun to remember some of the less horrible parts of their service.

After making their way to the room that had once been a ballroom and getting their main equipment ready – both carried around a pistol and a few knives, just in case – they were speeding through the halls of his mansion. They reached the large wooden doors that served as the entrance to the mansion proper and pushed past them.

Tanya was smiling for all of five seconds as she came to see the guards standing around. She glared.

Unlike Viktoriya, she was _currently _their superior. Unlike everyone she had ever been the commander of in the Empire or anyone she had fired in her first life, she also _paid_ these people out of her own pockets.

Was it really so much to ask for a little bit of professionalism, especially in front of guests?

She sighed. It seemed she'd been putting off training the guards of Axel for too long. It also seemed that she'd be training her own guards next to the ones employed by the city and Lorelei.

She quickly brushed past them, and though they fell in line, they were trailing along as if they were out for a walk and not there to, nominally, protect her.

She came to the front gate and saw four familiar faces. Three were a bit more familiar – Rex and his teammates, Terry and Sophie – and the fourth she didn't know the name of.

"Can I help you?" she asked. She was going to have to help – she had a plan if she thought that the Demon King would prefer his subordinate alive – but she wanted to hear their explanation first.

It would be entertaining, if nothing else.

Rex and his friends seemed to be nervous, but they had nothing on the timid girl in front of her.

She had on an… _array _of clothing. The black cloak did little to hide the rest of her body, like her pink miniskirt, her leggings, her pink tie, and… well, her shirt might technically be classed as a 'low-cut' blouse, but Tanya thought that no sane business would let that fly in the workplace, unless they wanted to be embroiled in sexual harassment accusations.

Tanya shook her head and studied the rest of her. Black hair, red eyes, and the nervous look on her face and the way she cast her gaze towards the ground told her that she was probably the friend of the Crimson Demon she'd fined.

None of them responded, and Tanya merely raised an eyebrow. It seemed as if that was too much for the girl leading the other three, as she stepped forward. "I am Yunyun, a member of the Crimson Demon Village. We… were wondering if you would accompany us on a mission of grave importance."

Tanya nodded, waiting for more. The Crimson Demon seemed to freeze, for a moment, until the people behind her ushered her on. "The… the Greater Demon Hoost is threatening the city of Axel, and we want to be sure that we can destroy him before he causes any more problems, like his presence cancelling the Monster Rush. With that said, when I went to the Adventurers Guild to recruit Rex and his team, the receptionist there said that you would be helpful in taking him down."

Tanya sighed. While she had once told Rudersdorf and Zettour that wars couldn't be pinned on the shoulders of a handful of powerful individuals, this world seemed intent on doing just that.

And it wasn't like this world _couldn't_ do that, with the frankly ridiculous magic and anime-obsessed teenagers that got regularly thrown into the world. She shook her head and stared into the eyes of the girl.

"And what makes you think you can win? I heard he beat back over a hundred adventurers at once. What could three more adventurers do to help fight something like that, especially when it's just four people that have been beaten by him previously?" she asked. She hoped that she wasn't just praying to a god or goddess that didn't exist, or-

Three of the people opposite of her winced and turned to Rex. They were clearly expecting something other than what they saw, though Tanya wondered what that was. She was just as confused as they looked as they all stared at Rex's defeated expression.

Yunyun shook her head and stared into Tanya's eyes, but Tanya's intense gaze forced her eyes downwards. "Uhm… well, we were going to have the aid of a silver-haired Thief as well… but we have a bunch of plans we can use in order to take him down!" She finished her statement by staring into Tanya's eyes.

She tried not to let too much anger flash through her eyes at the thought of Sioux's continued existence in this life, even if she _was _emasculated by not being anywhere nearly as powerful magically. She began to think.

Tanya sighed and stepped past the gates. Both Lorelei and Viktoriya followed, and she shot a glare at the guards. "If anyone, intruder or not, touches my stuff, it'll be your heads. Understood?"

Both snapped off the first proper salute she'd seen in three days and then turned back to her audience. She wasn't entirely focused on them, however, and she interrupted whatever they were about to say. "Did you say that the Thief had silver hair?"

At their collective nod, Tanya made a mental reminder to put a warrant out for her arrest. What Mary was still doing in the city when she had nearly _killed_ Tanya, she didn't know, but she wouldn't hesitate to take care of yet another enemy.

Tanya walked towards the Crimson Demon. "Alright. Explain your plans. If you convince me before we get to the front gates, I'll help." She set off, and Yunyun blinked and strode forward to catch up with her.

"Ah… to be treated as an equal, as a comrade in arms, as a… friend… this is quite nice," Yunyun muttered under her breath. It was familiar to hang around Megumin, but this proved that she wasn't a loner who needed nobody!

Tanya turned to her. "Did you say something?" Yunyun, blushing madly, shook her head and began to explain. She quickly reached into a bag that Tanya assumed had been hidden by her cloak.

She pulled out a stuffed animal, and Tanya wondered if they really _did_ have a plan, or if she would have to come up with something on the fly.

It wasn't like she hadn't had to do that far too much already, but she really wished she could have a bit more time for these things.

Apparently, her dissatisfaction was displayed clearly enough on her face, as Yunyun shook her head and tried not to blush by rubbing at her cheeks with her free hand. "No, this is important! Please-"

"I said until the gate. You might want to start talking," she advised the girl. She looked down at the ground again, tried to clear her throat, and then began to speak.

"Uh… Hoost has shown a lot of interest in my friend's… cat," she began. Tanya raised an eyebrow at her, and while she colored, she didn't back down. In fact, she continued.

"He… asked us to meet him and give him the cat in return for not harming the city. However, my friend-"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Just say Megumin. I _know _who she is." Yunyun made a small sound of confusion, and Tanya snorted.

"I met her yesterday. Why are you acting like I've got some sort of grudge against her?" she asked. True, she didn't exactly _like_ the girl for how much damage she had caused, but as long as she paid up, Tanya wouldn't have a problem, considering she had looked legitimately sorry for causing her trouble.

Yunyun seemed paralyzed by something, and Tanya sighed. "Please, continue. I assume you believe that that doll can trick him?"

She nodded and continued to explain the rest of the plan. They'd stand in the middle of a field near the area they had recently encountered Hoost and wait for him to come. If any monsters approached them, they'd call out to him that he had to leave them.

They'd then reveal the fake and proceed to use a variety of tricks and strategies to defeat him. He had a wing cut off by Mitsurugi, and Yunyun had spent over ten million Eris gathering materials and items to fight him.

"Why won't he just take it the moment he sees you? He had enough speed to blindside you all yesterday, and yet you think you'll be able to keep up with him today? Also, you're 'Plan F' sounds nice, but Demons as strong as he is usually have their real bodies in hell, right?"

With her every question, the nervous but courageous…

…Was she a woman or a girl or even of age, with breasts that large?

Tanya shook her head as she continued to break down. The Crimson Demon had lost all of that courage, and the other three were attempting to console her with platitudes about how she had taken down a bunch of slimes or something.

Tanya sighed, and reached out a hand to pat her on the back. "There, there. You have a good foundation, but there are a few things we should change, now that we're here."

The girl looked up, and Tanya winced. The girl was ugly-crying, with tears streaming down her face and snot leaking out of her nose. Still, Tanya kept trying to reassure her.

"Y- You mean it?" she asked. Tanya smiled at her, trying to hide her pronounced dislike of her current situation. "Yes. Just tell me about all the magic items that you got and where you got them, and I'll help you come up with ideas."

Rex, Yunyun, and the others all made sounds of triumph and declared that they'd beat this minion of the Demon King into the ground. Tanya was not unfamiliar with false bravado – her own troops had needed to use it many times to face the unending hordes of the Federation – and she joined in.

Meanwhile, Lorelei was staring at Viktoriya, who was staring at Tanya with a smile on her face. "Is something…"

She wasn't sure how to phrase the question, because she looked quite happy with Tanya's actions. There wasn't exactly a reason to be _worried_, but…

She seemed to come back to herself and looked to Lorelei before rubbing the back of her head. "Ah… it's just… she doesn't often show… _obvious _concern for the people she's commanding." She looked back at the others.

Lorelei blinked and then looked at them. Tanya hadn't exactly said she would be leading the other four, and considering they had come to her to ask for support, not leadership, she wondered how Viktoriya had come to that conclusion.

She was about to open her mouth and ask her why she thought that, but then she saw the puppy dog look on Rex's and Yunyun's faces. She looked back at Viktoriya, who was giving her a smug grin before looking back at them.

She scoffed. "Honestly… how did you know that would happen?"

Viktoriya shrugged. "Tanya's got a knack for it, she's… wise beyond her years, and everyone in Belzerg seems drawn to follow whichever adventurer happens to have the most power at any given moment."

Lorelei shrugged at her. "Hey, that's my country you're talking about. You-"

"The same country whose people despise you because of something you had little control over?" she asked her, still not looking away from the group in front of them.

Lorelei blinked. "Hey, are you okay? You're not usually so…"

She spun and stared at Lorelei. Her gaze didn't seem to contain any malice, but there was still something in the way she was leaning forward slightly as her hand drifted towards her oddly shaped staff. "Truthful? Overt?"

She was staring towards her expectantly, but Lorelei said nothing. She was thinking, and she wanted to see who Viktoriya was staring at. Eventually, she rolled her eyes and went back to staring.

While she was staring, Lorelei studied the trajectory of her vision, and eventually found her to be staring at…

Lorelei smirked, and she could only just bear not to laugh out loud. She was staring at both Rex and Yunyun, who were practically hanging off of Tanya in a manner Lorelei thought would be uncomfortable for the small girl.

She had a poker face that Lorelei doubted Eris herself could see through, but even her ability to hide her feelings on her face couldn't hide her intent gaze. Then Lorelei felt her eyebrows crease.

_How_ had she missed this, and how couldn't _they_ see that they loved each other? Did they think that friends or even family members were this protective of each other?

She shook her head. Well, people were surprisingly able to focus on or ignore anything they didn't want to think about. Neither Claire nor Rain had looked at her during Tanya's 'promotion' to Governor, and while that didn't feel _good_, it proved her right, in this instance.

She realized she was falling behind and made sure to quicken her pace. Now that she was almost entirely sure of their mutual attraction, she just needed the Succubi to confirm it for her. Getting Tanya to take off that ring would be hard, but maybe she could just ask the Succubi to do that?

She sighed. They had a battle coming up, she really should focus on that, though she did wonder what those two would start doing once they realized they liked each other. Or if the town would survive.

-OxOxO-

Well, this was it. She was going to get convicted of murder.

It wouldn't even be her fault, and she doubted she'd have to use her power as the Governor to get herself out of any trouble. It was just _that _understandable.

Yunyun had _not _stopped talking, and the verbal flood had picked up speed the moment Tanya had finished suggesting alterations to her plans and uttered the word 'friend.' She hadn't even called Yunyun her friend, but…

They got to the middle of the field Yunyun claimed they'd been fighting him in. She cast yet another glance back at Lorelei and Viktoriya. The beastman had been holding Viktoriya back from… doing something. She was about to order her adjutant to save her, but Yunyun finally stopped.

Tanya cleared her throat. "Alright, you guys know about the changes, right?"

As one, Rex's team nodded assuredly. She looked to Lorelei and Viktoriya, and while the former nodded with an amused smile that Tanya would wipe off sooner or later, Viktroiya seemed more hesitant.

Before Tanya could ask her anything, however, she got a hit on her Observation spell. She looked towards the distant tree line and saw the bushes begin to rustle.

"Shit! Yunyun, give me that cat. I've got one last addition." Yunyun, hesitantly, handed it over, while Tanya nodded and held it at chest height, slowly working to accomplish her task.

From the treeline came a hulking beast.

It was taller than Viktoriya would be if she stood on Lorelei's shoulders, and was wider than Lorelei was tall. It's arms were built like trains, and the horns on the side of its head, while pointed in odd directions, seemed stained a dark red that contrasted with the rest of its deeply black body.

Tanya blinked as it quickly came to rest twenty meters away from them. As Yunyun had predicted – mostly hoped, if Tanya was honest, because the Crimson Demon had approximately ten minutes of knowing the Greater Demon to base her assumption off of – he had no other helpers with him. He was staring intently at the cat in Tanya's hands.

Yunyun stepped forward. "Greater Demon Hoost! As you can see, we have brought your 'Lady Wolbach' before you. Please, leave this town in-"

Tanya sidestepped around Yunyun, ruining her admittedly fine speech. She had told her that she would hand the doll to the Demon and use his elation at getting Chomusuke – the cat's name – back to attack him with their opening attack.

Tanya, however, had different plans. Oh, she was working with the worst case scenario in mind – that was why she was slowly cutting the back of the plush open – but she would really rather end this peacefully, especially if this might get back to the Demon King.

Besides, Yunyun had been completely unreasonable when declaring that they wouldn't sacrifice a cat for the city.

Tanya would do that with a clear conscience, although…

She bowed at the waist. After that name Yunyun had called 'Chomusuke,' she wasn't sure if it was _just _a cat. "Greater Demon Hoost, my name is Tanya von Degurechaff. In case you are unaware, I am currently the Governor of Axel. I must ask you what your purpose here is. My friend over there explained it, but I would like to hear it from the… Demon himself."

Being so obsequious was a bit grating, but she was well aware of how long-lived beings with a holy alignment operated. She was guessing that a certain observance of politeness would work wonders on a similar being.

Besides, she wasn't getting thrown into another fucking isekai if she couldn't help it.

She looked up to see that the Demon looked troubled, though it was hard to tell with the horns and the lack of facial muscles.

She wasn't far off.

Hoost was currently staring at the girl that had claimed to be the Governor. She might have looked even younger than that other Crimson Demon, which would lead many unwise Demons to simply dismiss her as a child playing at her father's position, but…

She was powerful. In fact, she might even be a match for him one-on-one, depending on the powerful energies he could sense emanating from her funny hat and her bag.

That hinted that she was either related to the royal family or in possession of a Divine Relic. He really didn't want to have to fight someone like that, especially since his freedom was so close at hand. He quickly glanced at all the others.

The other Crimson Demon – the busty sprout with a tie – was standing in front of the people he'd attacked when he had mistaken that Rookie Killer for Lady Wolbach. All of them might be able to take him on if he had had a bad week beforehand, but he wasn't all that worried about them.

Their limited power reflected in the nervousness he could sense coming from them, although they all felt a level of protectiveness for the girl standing in the front. Interesting.

He turned his attention to the other two women. One was very easy on the eyes, possessing the nicest rack of those assembled. The other was… a beastman.

He fought the urge to chuckle. How amusing to see one on the other side of the war.

He drew himself up to his full height. _This _human, at least, understood politeness. Maybe he'd actually be able to make a deal and walk out of this without a battle?

"Greetings, Degurechaff. I am, as you know, Hoost. My desire is simple: I want possession of Lady Wolbach, the cat held in your arms." He leveled a finger at the cat that was _definitely_ Lady Wolbach.

He could smell her and it had the symbols of her religion – a cross, oddly colored eyes, Demon wings – on its body. It must have been Lady Wolbach.

Tanya looked up at the Demon, disregarding the need to bow any longer. "Ah… are you speaking of the 'goddess' of Sloth and Violence, one of the fallen gods working for the Demon King and one of his best assets, when she isn't being plagued by lethargy?"

She had to ask, because the information Verdia gave her did not, in fact, contain any information about Wolbach being a _cat_. It said something quite contrary to that.

At Hoost's cautioned and curious nod, Tanya continued. "Mr. Hoost, I believe you are mistaken. My sources of information believe that Wolbach is working directly for the Demon King to find her 'other half.' She's participated in a number of offenses, but her first priority is, apparently, to 'reclaim her lost power.'"

Although Hoost's lack of facial features and generally intimidating appearance made it hard to identify what he had been feeling earlier, Tanya could say, with certainty, that she knew _exactly_ what he was feeling over the next five seconds.

"Huh?" was the first thing he said. The tilt of his head and the way his entire body seemed to collapse, just a little bit, told her enough, but his tone hinted at just how confused he was. Utterly blindsided would be the best way to describe it succinctly.

"_HUH?!_" was the next thing he said, and she knew that emotion well as well. He was, in a word, apoplectic, and Tanya greatly sympathized with him, for no other reason than she too knew what it was like to not know the workings of something that claimed to be a higher power.

He closed the 20 meter gap between them in an instant. She could hear Yunyun and her friends cry out in shock, but Viktoriya didn't flinch. She'd have to-

His next word interrupted her thoughts. "_Explain_."

Tanya shrugged. "I don't know everything, but my source was highly placed. He claimed that Wolbach showed up at the Demon King's castle several years ago, willing to work for a being that technically ranked lower than her. She's been fighting against Belzerg for years, now, trying to figure out a way to reclaim her other half."

Hoost was frozen, and his mind was working overtime. He didn't even care that they were all retreating away from him a bit. He needed to think.

His orders from the Demon King were sparse.

The Demon King provided him a list of people to watch for and attack or kill if possible. The Demon King gave him promises that Wolbach was 'somewhere' out there, and the Demon King sent him money and magic items from time to time.

That was all.

He had been following the Demon King's orders so far because his first contact with the Demon had been in the wake of a failed incursion into Belzerg, and Hoost's presence had turned the rout into a manageable loss.

He had provided Hoost with a scant whiff of his master's scent, and he had been sent off to the Crimson Demon Village to release Wolbach. What-

He did not dare breathe as he realized the truth. He didn't need to do that anyway, but it was a reminder of his long forgotten past.

"He… he tricked me!" he cried out. He couldn't hold it in any longer, and he was already conjuring images of his revenge on that aging sack of bones.

"He wanted fucking free work from me! He wanted me to do what Wolbach obviously hasn't been able to do, and he wanted me to take down a couple of fucking Hero Candidates along the way, all without costing him a bloody Eris!"

He sank to his knees, muttering angrily. "Wolbach might even be in on it! She _knows _the rules of my contract, and it's possible she's trying to extend it by making me do this without her explicit order…!"

Oh, when he got back to that fucking castle, he was going to tear that decrepit fleabag a new asshole-

"Uhh… Mr. Hoost? I assume you aren't alright, so… is there anything else you'll want before you 'tear him a new asshole?'" Tanya asked, making sure to quote him.

The stricken look on his face confirmed that he had _not_ meant to say that aloud, but he did eventually rise and sigh tiredly. "Whatever… I still want that cat. Even if she _was_ trying to manipulate me, I am still her loyal servant."

Tanya scowled, acting as if she were thinking. She would like to get a bit more time, and an argument with Yunyun about actually giving the cat up might serve nicely.

However, if she publicly tried to argue that giving a fallen 'goddess' her other half back was a good idea, she doubted even her friendship with Iris would save her from the police.

Gerrard was nothing if not good at his job, and treason was probably very high on the list of things a noble's privileges couldn't save them from.

If she gave up the real deal, he would give it back to Wolbach. She was another self-proclaimed goddess as well as a potential ally, for someone in her situation. The Demon King would look on it favorably, but the death toll would surely mount with whatever power she would gain.

Yunyun stepped forward, and Tanya fought the urge to goran. "Never! We'll never give up Megumin's pet!"

The Demon's face grew severe. "Alright, then. If I must, then… I will take it by force!" He rushed forward, attempting to grab at the doll.

Tanya pushed Yunyun out of the way and allowed him to grab the doll, keeping a firm grip on a loop coming out of its back. He held it up to his face. "Oh, Lady Wolbach's other half! Don't tell her I said this, but you're kind of…"

He trailed off as he quickly realized it was fake. "How dare you attemp-"

His next word was, however, cut off by Tanya's grenade going off. It had been hard to stuff it in the back of the doll so quickly, but she smirked victoriously as she leveled her rifle at her next target.

"Reinforcement spell: Strength. Reinforcement spell: Speed. Reinforcement spell: Pain-Reduction."

Rex and Lorelei both gasped, and as Viktoriya applied the same spells to Terry and Sophie, Tanya smirked widely.

For once, Tanya wouldn't be shot at on the battlefield. She'd be able to stay safely away from the danger and let her allies take the beating, like what she'd done with the 203rd as much as she could.

Then she leveled her rifle at Hoost, who was shaking off his shock at the small cat in his hands exploding. She wouldn't be fighting him directly, of course, but she would enjoy three meat shields and a friend between her and the demon, which was quite a nice bit of insurance from behind which she could snipe him.

"Wh- Where is Lady Wolbach!?" he cried out, glaring at them. Tanya shrugged.

"I assume the cat's still in the town somewhere being guarded by the Crimson Demon that didn't come with us." He glared at her, and Tanya turned to Yunyun.

"Have you got your items ready?" she asked as she readied up an Explosive Detonation spell. The girl gave her a nod, and then Tanya turned back to Hoost. "Remember your roles, everyone. He's extremely dangerous, but most wounds can be fixed eventually, so preserving your lives is most important."

With that, the battle began. Lorelei, Rex, Terry, and Sophie all charged towards Hoost, shouting. He simply shook his head and raised up his arms, preparing to catch their blades on his tough skin.

Tanya and Viktoriya began to fire their rifles, muttering "Enchant bullet: Explosive Detonation" under their breaths. The rifles weren't automatic, but both of them had got a hell of a lot better at firing quickly, especially against the unending hordes of the Russy Federation.

_BOOM!_

The explosions tore into him and sent him backwards, and the four front line fighters continued forward, taking stabs at the demon's unguarded body. He quickly shook away his shock and sent them all flying with a swipe of each of his arms. "Why you-"

Yunyun raised up one of her scrolls. "Control Weather: Downpour!"

The once sunny sky was concealed by storming rain clouds, and Hoost rushed towards the three of them. Tanya and Viktoriya's guns kept him at bay, however. Yunyun began to mutter a string of words under her breath, until…

"Lightning!"

Her spell rushed from her silver staff and into the body of Hoost. The weather, according to the girl, amplified its effects. He cried out, and the other four ran up behind him and targeted his wounded wing.

"GRAAHH!" He threw them off of his back, and they retreated back to their original position. The squall of rain was dissipating, and Hoost raised an arm towards them.

"Take this! Light of Saber!" A great slash of blinding light flew towards them. The other four hit the ground, and while Yunyun seemed to be panicking, Tanya and Viktoriya stepped forward.

"Active Barrier!" Tanya had decided that voicing their spells would be necessary. It conserved mana, and Tanya wasn't arrogant enough to think that they could win a battle against an opponent like this without using a few tricks.

The light came into contact with her shield, and Tanya winced. That was as strong as any single spell Sioux had ever been able to dish out. Both dropped their barriers in an instant.

Hoost looked shocked, while Yunyun seemed to be making various noises of protest from behind them. Tanya sent a glare over her shoulder. "What are you all doing? We're not done yet!"

They jumped into action again. The front line fighters were slowed by the now wet terrain, but Tanya and Viktoriya's Reinforcement spells ensured they could continue to fight effectively.

And fight they did. The four of them danced around Hoost, picking at his joints – which were always weaker than other areas to allow for more movement, as far as armor went – as well as his weakened wing. Unfortunately, they were getting in the way of Tanya's firing.

He threw them off again, and Tanya took another shot at him, shouting "Explosive Detonation!" as she did. Unfortunately, he dodged her in time, rounding on Sophie and delivering a devastating blow to her shield that sent her and her defensive item's splintered remains flying.

Terry cried out. "Sophie!" He tried to go after her, but Hoost moved to intercept him.

Yunyun held up another scroll. "Arboreal Bind!"

Hoost's speed worked against him as he was sent flying as he was tripped up by the grass that covered the plains they were fighting in. He missed both Terry and Rex, who was currently berating his teammate.

"You'll have time for that afterwards! Focus, you idiots!" She shouted at them. Both nodded to each other and faced Hoost once more. He raised his hands as if to cast another spell.

Tanya and Viktoriya took another two shots at him, but he weaved between them both. "Fine, how about this, then? Inferno!"

Yunyun paused her chanting to hold up another scroll. "Magic Canceler!"

The scroll began to curl and smoke, but Hoost's spell didn't appear in the air. He shouted angrily, but he did end up charging both Rex and Terry. Lorelei dodged out of the way, but they were forced to take his attacks head on.

Tanya pointed her rifle towards Sophie. "Heal. Viktoriya, try some of this world's more… conventional magic. We need something that has a wider area of effect."

The woman nodded, and, when both Rex and Terry were blown back, she aimed her rifle. "Create Water! Freeze Gust!"

Both spells formed and flew towards him. He was doused with water, and while he seemed more annoyed than hurt, he was quickly covered in a layer of ice as the water from the squall and Viktoriya's Create Water allowed the spell to take hold even faster.

Tanya quickly sped over to Sophie as Yunyun charged up another Lightning spell. She was breathing steadily, and her wounds seemed shallower now. Tanya reached into one of her many pockets and wrapped a bandage around the wound on her abdomen.

She turned back to the fight and grimaced. Terry had been sent flying, and Lorelei was now favoring one of her legs. She sped back over, quickly running through the chant Lynn had told her to say. "Lightning!"

He was shocked again, and Lorelei and Rex both charged in. But-

"Ha!" he recovered from the pain – he had been faking it, then – and sent a double handed blow into Lorelei.

She was also sent flying, and Tanya quickly shouted "HEAL!"

She focused on Hoost. Lorelei had good armor, and she would survive, especially after Tanya's spell. Still…

She glared at him as he began studying the last four of them. Rex stood between them and Hoost. Yunyun was chanting under her breath. He stood up to his full height, glaring at them.

"If that wasn't Lady Wolbach, then I have no reason to continue. Teleport!"

Yunyun raised another scroll. "Magic Canceler!"

He glared at her, and his gaze seemed to be looking at something far, far in the distance. Tanya took the moment to cast another Heal. He sighed and shouted, "Fine then."

Yunyun finished her chant as Hoost charged again. "Lightning!"

It hit him, but he shrugged it off. "No! Let's see how you deal with a less direct attack! Earthshaker!"

Tanya fought to keep her balance, for a moment, before she rose off the ground by a centimeter. She looked around and saw that both Yunyun and Rex were rolling on the ground, trying to protect their heads, while Viktoriya had managed to stay standing.

"_How?_ You can't _dodge_ that, it's an _earthquake_!" He complained. Tanya shrugged and fired another round at him, hitting him in the neck.

He cried out and covered it with a hand and backed away while Yunyun and Rex recovered. Yunyun thrust a hand into her bag again, offering both Tanya and Viktoriya opaque rocks. Tanya recognized them.

She shook her head. "We'll be fine." She gawked at them both, but Tanya just shrugged. "We've fought battles that have lasted days. This is nothing."

True, this world's spells were horribly inefficient compared to the formula from her second world, but that was what happened when you forced magic to work instead of doing the proper math.

She did make a mental note to start carrying around those 'Magic Canceler' scrolls as well as some Manatite. There was no telling when those could be useful.

Hoost seemed ready to keep fighting. "I'm not done yet! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"

He tossed a few Intermediate spells at them, forcing them all to dodge.

Tanya frowned. He could tire them out a lot faster if he limited himself to weaker but easier to cast spells, especially with how he didn't seem to need to chant to activate them.

"Active Barrier!" Her shield went up without a second to spare as more Fireball's impacted the barrier. Viktroiya's went up a moment later, and they waited.

She turned to Yunyun. "We'll take some of that Manatite, actually." Relieved, she passed both Tanya and Viktoriya a chunk of the crystal. Tanya drained the mana from it and then looked off towards the side. Sophie and Terry were both getting back up.

He kept up the onslaught for a moment, but then the other two jumped on his back again, slashing at his already wounded wing. He cried out and tried to shake them off. Even as they were sent away, Tanya began to fire again. Yunyun finished another chant, and a bolt of electricity arced towards him again.

He was panting now. "You… those buffing spells were very effective. They hardly did any damage that time… perhaps I should move to take you out…? No, they'd get too many good hits in, and victory wouldn't be assured…"

He stopped speaking out loud as Tanya continued to fire at him. "Would you stop that? Those hardly do any-"

Tanya ignored him. "Enchant bullet: Piercing spell. Enchant bullet…" she was about to say 'Artillery spell,' but she had another idea. Perhaps…

"...Lightning!"

She felt a _big _drain on her mana, but the bullet streaked towards him. The electricity was delayed, for a moment, but she could tell the moment it went off.

He was sent to one knee, and his wing seemed to be twitching violently. Tanya winced – that couldn't have felt good – but she continued to fire bullets, enchanted with Piercing spells or Explosive Detonation, into the wounded Greater Demon.

Viktoriya was right by her side, while Yunyun threw the occasional spell at him. Just as he seemed ready to collapse…

"NO!" He shot up, propelling himself upwards with his wing. Tanya could barely track him, but she saw Terry and Sophie go flying, their arms bent at odd angles. He then sprinted towards Rex, grappling with him.

Tanya used the moment to reload her rifle and look around. Lorelei was still down, Rex was getting beaten, and Sophie and Terry were also down. Yunyun was running out of items, but…

Rex was thrown towards them, and Viktoriya caught him using a Reinforcement spell on herself to catch him and set him on the ground. He was panting.

"Damn it. I would usually have finished off such trash by now, but your stupid buffing spells are too damn effective. I'm only a quarter of the way through my health, but…"

He raised up his hands. "Go to hell! Inferno!"

Yunyun hurriedly grabbed another scroll from her bag. "Magic Canceler!"

Again, the paper shriveled up, and again, Hoost's spell failed to materialize. He cried out angrily, complaining about Crimson Demons. Tanya however, was focusing on the double tap on her right shoulder Viktoriya had given her.

That meant one thing. She had detected something on her Observation spells, still held up on the off chance Aqua took the chance to attack them.

They were being _watched,_ most likely by Aqua. She activated an Observation spell, and she found the source coming from something standing off towards their left. She glanced behind her, staring directly at the spot, but…

Nothing. She couldn't see anything there, but she knew _something_ was standing there. Was it that Priest they thought might be Aqua, or was it someone else?

She shook her head and focused on the fight. Hoost was beginning to get tired, but he still rushed forward. Rex raised his blade, but…

"Ha!" Although he blocked on hand, the other hand had snaked out and delivered a blow to Rex's arm. He cried out as it was broken, but he still managed to hold onto his sword.

Tanya turned towards Yunyun. "Use Plan Flash!" She nodded, and Rex nodded too.

Hoost glared down at them. "What now!? You've been playing tricks right from the start, but to so brazenly announce your intentions…!"

He charged forward, once more aiming for Rex. As everyone closed their eyes, Tanya began to activate another spell. Yunyun shouted "Flash!"

Hoost scoffed. "Ha! We demons don't see with our eyes! This body is just for temporary-"

"Sharpen Blade!" Tanya had explained to Yunyun that their plan to use Flash wouldn't work. However, they had also come up with a way to use it as a distraction anyway.

Tanya's Reinforcement spell sent energy into her legs as she ran behind Hoost and used her rifle to slice into the back of Hoost's right leg. She could hear the arrogance in his voice fade as the pain caught up with him.

She quickly rejoined the other three, staring at Hoost. He was now favoring a single leg, and…

**Now! Strike him down! Kill the blemish upon his holy land-**

Tanya growled. That voice was still pleading that they justify their every action as being in the service of that jumped up celestial flunky. She closed her eyes, shook her head-

And he looming over her, clutching at the wound she'd inflicted. "_What_ was that spell? I've never heard of anything like it!"

Tanya looked to Yunyun. "You've still got one last item, right? Use it now, while he's weak."

Yunyun nodded and reached into her bag, drawing out a potion. Hoost charged forward again. Tanya readied her shield, preparing to take him on and to continue to ignore that stupid voice in her head.

"The rest is up to you!" Rex threw his sword at Hoost as he charged, and he was momentarily stunned.

Tanya was too. What _idiot_ would toss their weapon away like-

But it was too late. Hoost deflected the sword off his facial horns and then sank his clawed hand into Rex's guts. He turned to Tanya.

"Active Barrier!"

He raised his arm, Tanya stared him down, and-

"Paralyze!"

The expression of pain-fueled anger was washed away. "Ha! You're a Crimson Demon, and you don't know this? To those of us with extra lives and false bodies, Paralysis is…"

He stopped talking, and Tanya smirked. He was completely unable to move. Yunyun began to speak. "Paralysis is useless against demons is something I am well aware of! After all, my study results were Number Two in class!"

Tanya continued to smirk at the demon, whose face seemed unburdened by the magic locking him in place. His eyes shot to Yunyun, glaring. "Perhaps you would like to withdraw? Without your front line fighters, you'll never kill me before I am released, especially if how defensively you have been fighting is representative of your attacking prowess."

Yunyun was silent, and Tanya scoffed. "Come on, Yunyun. I'm sure we can end him quickly. What do you say?" She turned to look at the Crimson Demon, only to find that her eyes were looking as far down as they could, with her head pointing at Hoost and… locked in place…

Ugh…

Tanya's eyebrows creased, while Hoost began to chuckle. "Oh, you Crimson Demons! I'm not good with dealing with you people. How did you even manage to Paralyze _yourself_?"

Tanya glared at Yunyun and saw her break out into tears again. "I- I don't know! I got that potion from the last shop I visited! A beautiful lady told me 'this potion will enhance the area of effect and the power of Paralysis.' It was even a cheap price!" She shouted the last part, and Tanya sighed.

"Did she have red hair and purple robes?" she asked, not including the 'large breasts' part of Wiz's innate description in her question.

Yunyun nodded slowly, and Tanya sighed. "Well… I suppose, if you had someone that could actually move you away from battle, that wouldn't be a bad potion." Tanya illustrated the point by stepping back from Hoost. Viktoriya followed her, shrugging at Yunyun's surprised face.

Hoost sighed. "Well, I might not be able to deal well with Crimson Demons, but I know humans well enough."

He turned his gaze to Tanya. "How about it? You all can run back to the town and fetch Lady Wolbach, and I won't be forced to hurt your friends."

Tanya, still glaring at Yunyun, turned to meet Hoost's gaze. She shrugged. "Hurt them all you like. I don't really know those four, and my duty is to protect Axel. Adventurers are well aware of the dangers of taking on monsters of all types."

Everyone made sounds of varying confusion, while Viktoriya slapped Tanya on her shoulder. "Tanya!"

Tanya turned to the woman, almost amazed that she had the audacity to… _scold_ her – she wouldn't have dared to do something like that back in the Empire.

She smiled. It was nice to see that she felt Tanya was more of a friend than a superior. "Well… I guess we'll have to dissuade you from the idea that you can enter Axel while threatening to burn it to the ground."

She reloaded her rifle once more, and she turned to Viktoriya. She raised her eyebrows and smirked. "No Visa?"

The woman blinked, but she too smiled. "No Visa!"

They turned to Hoost, who was looking quite a bit more concerned, despite being frozen in a position of attack and malice. "Hey, w-"

"Fire at will!"

Their bullets couldn't be dodged, not at this range, and certainly not while he was paralyzed. They targeted the few weak points in his frontal defense – his neck and waist, mostly, but they also made sure to target his shoulders and elbows. A minute passed, where the only sound was their rifles and the grunts and, eventually, cries of the Demon in front of them.

After a minute, Tanya couldn't do any more. They were running out of bullets, and this reminded her far too much of some of the things she had been forced to do on the Eastern Front.

She sighed and shouted. "Cease fire!"

Viktoriya followed the order, and they both stared at Hoost. The areas they had targeted were looking quite…

Tanya frowned. They were cut and bruised, but hardly any of the wounds were bleeding. "I thought Demons were supposed to be physically weak?"

His face twisted into an ugly glare. "And this hurts like Heaven! It might not look like much to you, but I'm built to take physical damage! Even this much is unprecedented, and-"

Yunyun suddenly shouted out, and Hoost too stood up, glaring at them and no longer paralyzed. Tanya frowned – mostly at herself for letting him monologue – and he sighed. "Look, I really don't want to have to, but I'll start taking hostages if you don't let me go."

He looked into Tanya's eyes, which didn't waver. Viktoriya, however, sent a glance towards Lorelei, and Hoost's attention turned to the beastman.

Tanya gave Viktoriya a skeptical look – she was supposed to have a good poker face – and Hoost turned back to them. "Come on. We can-"

The sound of a flapping piece of cloth interrupted the hulking Demon, and he turned to look behind Tanya. Viktoriya turned to look and Tanya, after watching Hoost's face for a sign that he was playing a trick, did so as well.

Yunyun began to talk from behind her, the fact that she was standing next to an unrestrained Greater Demon forgotten. "Ugh!? Where… where did you come from!?"

Hoost also seemed wary of her, if the stiffening of his body was anything to go by. The other Crimson Demon, as if she had practiced it before, tilted her head and uttered, nonchalantly, "That beast can't move anymore? Hi. I'm a passing Archmage. You people stand aside. I'm going to have a good time."

Tanya blinked, even as she began to back away. "We knew you were there the whole time. Your presence due to the 'Invisibility' spell you were using were apparent to anyone with any amount of mana. You even cried out after we used that Flash spell."

She ignored Tanya's words, as did everyone else. Rex, who was grasping a roll of bandages – probably borrowed from Sophie, who had made her way towards Rex and Terry – cried out.

"You are…"

He trailed off for a moment before gasping. "The Mage who couldn't back up any of her boasts! What are you doing here? It's dangerous." He was trying to warn her.

Tanya turned her gaze to the barely-sitting Rex. "Have you _been_ here for the past few weeks? She's been using that stupid Explosion magic, and she's got a million Eris debt to prove it."

Yunyun now spoke. "…Megumin?"

Again, as if she was making a speech to an audience of hundreds and not talking to exactly eight people on an open and deserted plain, she began to shout. "Last night, I forgot my daily use of Explosion magic. When I was about to get out of bed, someone used Sleep magic on me…"

Yunyun yipped unhappily. "You… you… you were awake?! Wait, were you awake the whole time?"

Megumin ignored everything they were saying and pointed her staff at Hoost "Therefore, the magic power from yesterday was entirely wasted… I'm currently looking for a good target to use magic on…"

Tanya turned to Viktoriya, who looked just as concerned for the sanity of everyone involved as Tanya did. She sighed. "Clearly, they haven't yet realized that letting an opponent get time to think is a bad idea. Viktroiya, start casting Create Water and Freezing Gust on Hoost so he can't move at the last second, like he was clearly planning to do."

His gaze turned to her, clearly shouting something about betrayal despite the fact that Tanya wasn't on his side, but Viktoriya was already hard at work, putting the Type 97's dual cores to use in easily using both spells at once. He was quickly covered in a thin layer of ice that Viktoriya continued to build up.

Tanya, meanwhile, was moving Lorelei behind Megumin. She was currently breathing, but she hadn't yet regained consciousness like the other two.

The decision took only a moment to make. "Heal."

Her breathing became a little less labored, and Tanya grinned triumphantly. She went about moving the other three as Hoost begged for his life and Yunyun yelled at Megumin for tricking her and Megumin continued to make a speech to a whole _eight_ people, most of who were too weak to be able to reliably remember any of it.

Rex seemed particularly upset about something, but Tanya just rolled her eyes. "Chin up. If fighting battles is really your thing, I hear that there are going to be a lot of undead on the frontlines and here in Axel as well."

He seemed to stiffen as she carried him like a sack of flour, but she placed him down next to her friends. He began to insult Megumin's lack of ability as Tanya got Yunyun behind the Crimson Demon.

Finally, Megumin seemed almost ready to finish things. "This is it. My finishing move – Explosion magic!"

Just as Tanya was about to order Viktoriya away from the struggling Hoost, Megumin continued to speak. "Yes! It is more powerful than any weak Detonation or Blast magic! Where they can only crack rocks, _my_ magic can do more than anyone wielding those paltry spells."

She was almost… no wait, she was _definitely _staring directly at Tanya. She just raised an eyebrow, and Megumin glared at her and turned to Hoost. Tanya felt the magic being released and-

She turned to Viktoriya, looking between her and Megumin. She couldn't hear her that well with all the rushing magic and ice and-

"Hey, wait! She's not-"

Hoost seemed to be trying to mutter something through the ice, and Tanya looked at Viktoriya as she looked at Tanya and Megumin. Her eyes widened.

"VISHA!"

Tanya made a decision. She pointed her gun. "Enchant bullet: Explosive Detonation!"

The blast hit the ground between Hoost and Viktoriya, and sent Viktoriya sprawling. Hoost was knocked free of his frozen prison.

Before Tanya could rush forward to get Viktoriya, a hand grabbed onto her ankle. She turned to see that Rex was grabbing her, and before she could shake him off-

"EXPLOSION!"

From her scepter – whose floating-orb thing was glowing – issued a bright beam of light. It rushed to meet the ground where Viktoriya and Hoost had been. Several circles appeared around the ground she stood on and in front of her scepter, and the explosion detonated.

_BOOOOOM!_

A great column of fire was sent skyward, sending the already sprawling Viktoriya and Hoost farther away. Smoke billowed from the explosion, and the entire plain – as well as the walls of Axel – were brightly lit by the great light. Tanya was distracted from her worry for Viktoriya for a few seconds by the sight…

She shrugged at the explosion and the triumphant look the Crimson Demon was giving her.

"Meh."

She was technically able to cause that much destruction on her own, but she needed either the Type 95, the Circlet of Greatness, or a casting time that was at least double that of Megumin's to gather enough mana into a single spell.

Besides that, she and the 203rd, when they'd finally caught up with those Republican rats, had done that much, in addition to their exploits everywhere else.

Hell, that tiny speck of force had nothing on the weapons of war conceived of by men and then dropped on her first homeland. It just wasn't all that much, compared to everything, especially considering how long it took to charge.

"Wh- What do you mean, 'Meh'? You don't _get _to dismiss my achievements like-"

Tanya glared at the girl, who was now on the ground, having worn herself out. She was about to give her a lecture on just why she didn't care about this Crimson Demon – the least of which was that Tanya could avoid an attack that telegraphed and then literally wipe the floor with her tired body – but she had more important matters to attend to.

She turned to the six people looking at her and smiled apologetically. Or, she smiled as apologetically as she could when Viktoriya was wounded, which wasn't much above a sneer. "Sorry, everyone, but you are all out of this fight, especially since he survived."

Megumin piped up again. "Of course he's alive. You blew him out of the way."

Tanya looked down at the **insignificant speck** at her feet and then glared. "If you had killed Visha, I would have taken great pleasure in ensuring the demise of you, your family, and the village of idiots that share your bloodline."

Before she could say something that enraged Tanya enough to deliver on her promise, she waved her rifle. "Sleep."

As one, the tired and weary defenders all dropped into unconsciousness. Tanya took a deep breath and then turned, sprinting towards where she could see Viktoriya's body.

If she was hurt, the **speck **would face more fines for using her spell without following regulations again. If she was dead, Tanya would parade her corpse around on a pike until the fle**sh rotted away and exposed her heretic bones to the air**.

She shook her head and leaned down, resting Viktoriya's head on her lap. "Heal. Heal. Heal."

Casting it multiple times didn't really help Viktoriya any more than if she said it once, but it was cathartic. Slowly, the woman's eyes wavered open.

"Colonel…"

Tanya smiled down at her. "Hush, Visha. I'll defend you."

She struggled. "N- No. I've got to help _you_. Please…"

Tanya shook her head. "Stop, or I'll have to cast Sleep on you." She considered her options and then stopped resisting. Tanya looked up to see Hoost staring at them.

"You… I might have survived that spell, even though I was close to half of my health. I am, however, alive, and you are alone. Please, let me retreat."

Tanya stared up into Hoost's eyes, and then took a deep breath. He would be returning to the Demon King with news of this battle.

If she found out and revealed that Aqua was in town, she would have to defend it from the Demon King. That was her job as Governor, and she quite liked this posting far from the frontlines.

If Hoost thought that Tanya was hiding anything from the Demon King, the Demon King would consider ignoring her advice, and… someone in her position would have to fight against a prospective employer. She really would rather not, and so…

She sent a mote of mana spiraling up through her soul. "Fine, Hoost. You can leave, but let's make one thing clear: you only leave because I have chosen to let you."

He tilted his large head, even as the mote of mana traveled towards the artifact on her head. "Really? Because from where I'm standing-"

She cut him off by letting the mana of the Circlet of Greatness flood her with mana. She grinned, placing her bag under Viktoriya's head as she rose.

**Take up the weapon the father bestowed upon you and strike down this scum on the heel of his holiness!**

Tanya blinked and looked at the bag. She could. It would be so much better if she was at full strength, but…

She smiled softly at the relaxed expression on her adjutant's face. No, she would let her rest and drive him off. This needed to be done quickly.

She stood up, taking her rifle in hand, and floated into the air with nothing but a thought. Hoost's expression, which had been wary, was now downright scared.

Tanya didn't let her own confusion show. She wasn't concerned about Hoost, of course – she _would _be able to deal with him with as much mana as she had now – but she was instead concerned with the rifle in her hands.

Namely, it didn't feel like it weighed several hundred pounds, like Iris's present had the last time she had used the Circlet. It was possible that her strength had grown in the last few weeks, but she was sure that her other stats would have increased as well.

She shook her head. She would look at her Adventurer Card later. For now, she turned her attention to Hoost.

He finished his earlier incomplete statement. "…you clearly have the upper hand in any negotiations, so I'll just leave. Is that alright?"

He was bowing low, and though that wasn't excellent– **he should be licking the dirt off your boots and begging for the swift death of the father's divine presence **– it was enough.

"Go back to the Demon King. Tell him that the person he's currently working with – that's me, in case you haven't realized why I'm letting you live instead of **smiting you in the name of god** – has let you continue your existence," she decreed, only slowing her speech slightly at the twinge on that contract she had made.

She continued on. "Also tell him that I am sorry for helping you realize that you were only his pawn, and that the… most recent Hero Candidate is as strong as Wolbach at their full power."

He nodded again and spread one of his wings. She tilted her head. "Heal."

Before her eyes, her mana went to work repairing his damaged wing but ensuring the wounds on his shoulders and hips and neck remained. He seemed mystified, and then turned to look at her with a question on his lips.

As Tanya began to rip away that first mote of mana from her Circlet, her face fell.

Hoost never finished his question, and his face fell too.

That face was, of course, attached to a head, which came to rest in front of Tanya. She cast furious glances between the head and the body that collapsed into the dirt.

Four people that had been previously unseen were revealed. She slapped a grin over her anger as she realized who was there.

Mitsurugi, Darkness, Cecily, and…

She glared. _Mary_. That silver-haired harlot was showing her face? She must really believe that the stupid luck 'goddess' could protect her, because she wasn't getting away without that much power behind her.

Cecily grinned at her, oblivious of her anger. "Hello, my- I mean, Governor Degurechaff."

She glared at the… _woman_ was all that she could call her without getting the urge to run her through for what she had said and done and reminded her of yesterday.

She shrank back, and Tanya looked to Darkness with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, to be glared at so fiercely… perhaps you'll let me take the place of-"

Tanya rolled her eyes and then looked to Mitsurugi, who smiled. "Hey! Yesterday, after you left, this Priest healed me and Darkness up. Her faith in Aqua is apparently stronger than any of Eris's Priests."

Tanya smiled, trying not to let her anger become obvious. All of them were opposed to the Demon King, and she couldn't let them figure out that she would actually let him go. "Wonderful! I knew that I could count on you guys."

They seemed confused, and Tanya just raised an eyebrow. "What, you thought I couldn't see you coming? No, I know Darkness's mana signature very well, no matter how weak it is. Thank you all for surprising him like that. I didn't want to put the town at risk," she said, lying shamelessly.

They all nodded, and Tanya glared at 'Chris.' It would be amusing to watch her do acrobatics to weasel out of the crimes Tanya was going to pin on her, the least of which was arming potential terrorists.

They had, after all, attempted to murder someone that had been instrumental in saving Axel from that Undead Mage. If it hadn't been for her, more people would have died.

She smirked. She didn't enjoy killing, and she was, chiefly, a man who preferred peace and stability to war and death. In this instance, however, she would take satisfaction from making sure that she was hanged.

Maybe she'd even reinvent the guillotine for the occasion?

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **And so, The Explosion spin-offs are done and dusted. Hoost has been killed, and it seems we might have another fight coming soon. Tanya continues to misunderstand Chris, and Lorelei continues to trek towards the conclusion that Viktoriya and Tanya are equally unsure and completely blind concerning their mutual love.

Anyway. I hope you all enjoyed. We're coming ever closer towards the end of my stockpile and towards them (finally) realizing that they're better off together and in bed than any amount of emotional distance away from each other.

**A/N 2: **Apologies to all! Chronicles of an American Woman by Seng2 is located on Archive of our Own. I forgot to add that.

**A/N 3: **Responses to Reviews:

**Harmless Orange: **

CH 030 Comment: Not exactly the reaction I was expecting, but I'll take what I can get, I guess.

**woodxvii: **Exactly what I was going for.

**indbrony: **I do have a _vague _idea for the end that involves listening to 'Pure Imagination' as Tanya and Viktoriya reaffirm their love despite the struggle before the song cuts to Kazuma and co. getting up to their usual bullshit.

**DNWorks: **As Isekai Quartet has shown, if she didn't take so long charging up to be cool, Tanya would probably consider her beyond her without Being X's help.

And, concerning Hoost… yeah, he was fun to write. And if you think you've seen the last of him? Since when has death stopped Demons?

**SuperiorFreak:**

CH 029 Comment: See, this is why you all should be writing it. I hadn't even thought of that, and now I'm going to work it in somewhere. Thanks!

**Navarone2013:**

CH 030 Comment: I suppose that I… have been a bit presumptuous. I keep assuming that readers have combed through the KonoSuba LN's with the world's finest comb. It summons a random monster, and Alderp was lucky enough to get a Duke of Hell, even if he doesn't know it.

Oh, and of course I serve the glorious institution of the Soviet Yunyun that would make even Tanya consider communism lol

CH 032 Comment: While Viktoriya calls her Colonel, she technically achieved the rank of Major-General, even if she didn't have much time to use it before getting barbecued.

**Enigmatic47:**

CH 030 Comment: They will, don't worry. Now, as to whether I, a friendless loser who makes Yunyun look like a highschool gossip, can write a convincing relationship is up for debate, but I hoping to – and researching in order to – avoid that.

**ErrorDataExpunged:**

CH 030 Comment: If you remember way back to when Tanya and Viktoriya finally looked at their kill counts on their cards, they give an exact number.

**wolf girl811: **She would need a very big bribe or a good reason. She may or may not get those eventually.

**Pyromania101: **Chapter 36 is when we get a scene – him meeting her – from his perspective, while Tanya and Viktoriya and Lorelei will scout him out during the Cabbage debacle in the next chapter.

I mean… I don't remember her exact words, but her reason for leaving Axel and Megumin and Rex's party had something to do with wanting to learn advanced magic…

On that note, the idea of a necromancer Yunyun just entered my mind.

**Tylermech66:**

CH 031 Comment: I have considered the idea before, and it _would _tie in with the glimpses of Being X and Eris here and in the Omakes. I might do something with it, but I think I'll leave that idea to the No Game, No Life Crossover that I can't seem to find.

**Melodias el Dragon:** Sure! I'll take a look, but I warn you that I may not quite understand everything. I don't speak any other languages than English. Still, I'll give it a shot!

**xbox432: **I think that I have had her undergo quite a bit of change between the invasion of the Russy Federation, but she is a bit more… invested in those around her, shall we say, in the manga than she is in the Anime.

And uh, remember: that whole thing about treating beastmen like that is purely conjecture based on the Eris and Axis cult's ideals, and that he is not well-informed about them, as any airheaded isekai protagonist would be concerning the more duplicitous actions of his allies.

**TheRangerBoy: **Huh. I had assumed as much – it's probably just a general insult that means lazy in Belzerg – and you are right that it would likely mean something different.

However, if it did have its own meaning in the language of Belzerg, wouldn't that be translated by whole language they had put in their heads?

**AsTheGlassMelts: **

CH 001 Comment: Fuck. Well… yes, the math checks out. Despite using a purely mathematical scale for the power of that thing, I didn't actually do the math. I could have had Tanya think she's outsmarting the gods, and I didn't do it.

Well, all I'll say is that have 10% Luck makes a hell of a difference compared to having 10% strength… but her Luck is already shit, so it…

Ugh… please, don't look at me.

CH 006 Comment: Wait, what do you mean Canonically? What did I miss? I thought those two were about younger siblings and cousins?

Jesus, you're giving me a heart attack… but continue to do so if I'm missing anything else.

**Father Chaos: **I KNOW! It's amazing to write mutual pining – which I definitely didn't look up the definition of just to be sure.

**121698: **After I begin posting a side story that I have in the works – which is different from an Omake, trust me – I might make an Omake for that.

Oh, and before I go…

**Neogoki, sailormage, setokayba2n, Sprengkamp, woodxvii, Xemnahort, **and **Ruroni209 **have requested it, and so…

IT SHALL BE! Expect a Pokemon Crossover to come eventually, I do _not _know when! I suppose when my muse strikes my over the head and takes the pen from my hand.


	34. Cleaning up and Catching a Break

Tanya cracked her knuckles and glared at Mary again. "Now, what excuse do you have, harlot? Last time I saw you, you attempted to murder me with those idiotic compatriots of yours, in addition to giving me a kiss and exploding my stuff. Not to mention your _past _attempts at killing me."

She leaned down and prepared to pick up Viktoriya, ignoring most of the 'threat' they presented.

She fought the urge to laugh. 'Threat.'

Chris couldn't break her Active Barrier with her Thief skills, unless she also had some of her skills from her time in Tanya's second life, but she would have used those during their last encounter if she did.

Darkness couldn't _hit_ her barrier, much less break it.

If Cecily _looked_ at Tanya wrong, she was blowing her head off.

Overall, only he might actually put up a fight, and he seemed more confused than angry for her insult of his newfound friend, so she would have some warning if he suddenly decided to attack.

Despite his abilities being worthy of praise, he tended to wear his heart on his sleeve, from what she could tell.

She hefted Viktoriya over her shoulder and then grabbed her bag. She might have liked to carry her in a more comfortable position, but Tanya had her rifle and her bag to carry. Still she took care not to rest Viktoriya on any of her bruises or wounds.

Tanya began to walk closer, dodging around the… pile of ashy dirt that had been Hoost's body. Chris, instead of looking concerned, seemed… smug, besides the brief flash of anger at the insults Tanya had hurled at her.

Tanya scowled. She was fairly sure Mary didn't believe she could take Tanya – she was just a simple Thief, after all, without a Computation Jewel to boot – which meant she thought she wouldn't be fighting her… or she had more minions to throw at her.

Darkness stepped forward. "Wait Tanya! Chris was the one who told us you were fighting Hoost! We wouldn't have gotten here in time if it wasn't for her."

Tanya fought the urge to glare at her even more.

This stupid Thief had ensured that one of the potential allies of someone in her situation had been killed. Just typical.

She stopped in front of the group of four, until she shook her head and trekked over to the survivors of their latest battle. They all seemed fine. Their wounds were bleeding a bit, but, hopefully, the Eris Cultists would-

She spun towards Cecily. "Will you fix them? I'll pay you, so-"

She smiled radiantly. "Oh, of course! I'd do anything to Heal up my favorite loli!"

Tanya glared at her as she cast Heal on everyone – including her – and the bleeding seemed to stop. She slung Viktoriya off of her back and into her arms to better assess her wounds, breathing a sigh of relief as the gashes on her legs and the bruises that covered her arms and face faded.

She made a note to get her new clothing – her pants and boots were ruined – and then she turned towards Sioux again, glaring. They had followed her towards the group of six sleeping adventurers.

Tanya shook her head. "Fine. She'll only be imprisoned for life instead of getting executed." She couldn't execute her for destroying a Demon without people wondering at her loyalties.

Darkness looked panicked, Mitsurugi seemed confused, and Cecily stepped forward. "Ah, please… though it warms my heart to see a… I mean, someone like you acting so strong, she did help us."

Tanya's unchanged expression showed that she didn't care, and Mitsurugi stepped forward. "Yeah. She did help us save you, Degurechaff. What could she have done to harm you?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "She took great pleasure in arming unstable adventurers with weapons of great power in an attempt to murder me."

Chris, with her smug smirk receding into a nervous smile filled with… trepidation, shook her head. "No, you don't understand! I was under the influence of Demons! I didn't know what I was doing."

Tanya raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Chris didn't budge. It grated on her, as a Goddess, to claim to be so easily tricked, but she wanted to be near Darkness.

Besides, she needed to stay in Belzerg and look for those two Divine Relics that were in the capital. They might have moved around – though that was doubtful, considering they had been stationed in nearly the same place for quite a while – but they wouldn't leave Belzerg.

If she was reduced to running around at night and hoping that no one recognized her from wanted posters, things would take a much longer time.

Honestly, she would have rather not come with the Reincarnate Mitsurugi, but she didn't have a choice. He had asked her to lead them to the danger, not trusting himself with her directions due to his lack of knowledge about the town.

Tanya's glare softened into a pensive look, but her suspicion hadn't faded in the slightest. No, the look on her face was about as real as Mary's.

She sighed. Chris had picked out Hero Candidates specifically, and the Demon King didn't have any need to look in on…

Wait. _Tanya _had been in Axel. He might have sent people to kill her. But…

She shook her head. No, in all likelihood, he had sent Verdia and Ragcraft to identify who had arrived with two 'Divine Relics'. He wouldn't need to send anyone else, and sending a Demon that could control Hero Candidates to check on a backwater instead of helping man the front was the height of foolishness.

Tanya looked up at the group. She knew what this world's mental manipulation was like, too. People got distracted and vacant looks in their eyes, and they never moved with any amount of fluidity. They certainly didn't have the ability to fight.

However, she couldn't just declare that Chris was in the wrong. There wasn't any reason people wouldn't suspect that as a defense.

There wasn't any reason they would take her on, after all, and being under the influence of a Demon was a much more probable reason than being a traveller from another world.

Her gaze shot from the silver-haired Thief, who was starting to look panicked, to Darkness.

The Crusader blinked, and then blushed. "Ah… if Chris must still pay for her crimes, then maybe I could take her place? Yes, being forced to go to jail and being subjected to the gaze of the policemen would be wonderful…"

Tanya rolled her eyes, and then she blinked as she realized what she could do. "Darkness, you know that the police all know of your actual identity, so they wouldn't do that in fear of being executed. However, you _did _give me an idea."

She smirked and turned her gaze on Chris. "We'll just go to the police station and have you interrogated. If it is true that you were under the control of a Demon, then we'll easily know in just a few moments."

Chris nodded, smiling widely. That response put the Devil of the Rhine off – she was expecting hesitation or fear of being found out, but Chris was a Goddess of Luck.

She had one of the best poker faces in existence.

Degurechaff began to order them around, asking them to help carry people back. Chris was tasked with the bigger Crimson Demon, Cecily got Terry, Darkness got the smaller Crimson Demon, Mitsurugi got Sophie, and she took both of her party members.

They began to trek back. Mitsurugi offered to help Tanya carry her friends, but she refused. Tanya would do this, if for no other reason than she didn't trust any of them enough to let Lorelei or Viktoriya near them.

Meanwhile, Chris began to plan.

She was fairly sure that she didn't have any divine mana when she was in this body. Priests, and, unfortunately, this devil, would surely detect such mana and quickly come to inspect/murder her for resembling a deity.

If she didn't have any of it, then she would be caught in her lie as her… intentions of lying would be clearly reflected in the ringing of that bell.

Well, there was no way she was avoiding it, then. Darkness was on board, which meant she couldn't try and get her friend to waive this whole production without a good reason, and she didn't have any reasons she could voice. If she was going to be forced to leave…

She sighed. She would need a suitable distraction in order to run. The girl in her arms might be good for a projectile to throw at Mitsurugi, but for Degurechaff…

Chris didn't have many items, and her Bind would only slow her down for so long, thanks to the array of knives they apparently had on them at all times. She needed something…

Bigger. She was just a Thief though. She didn't have any smoke bombs, and those wouldn't work to hide magical tracking-

Her gaze darted to the Lucky woman that was being held over one of Tanya's shoulders. She could see an odd and conspicuous item hanging from that bandolier she wore. Chris smirked.

Perfect.

Cecily began to talk to Darkness. "Hey, I was wondering if you would enjoy converting? The Axis Cult allows for far more benefits for its members, especially since we don't have many Crusaders. We accept anyone, and someone with your obvious fetish might find the perfect man in our cult!"

Suppressing her growl of annoyance at the words of that airhead, she quickly activated her Lurk skill. Degurechaff was far too smart to fall for it for long – she'd use that same tactic of scattering dirt all over the place – but it would work long enough.

"Ah… the perfect man, who would abuse me fo- Hey!" Darkness revealed her disappearance, but Chris didn't have to hide any longer.

She swiped the grenade from Tanya's adjutant's bandolier and threw the girl on her shoulder at Mitsurugi. He struggled to deal with the sudden new weight, and Degurechaff spun around, looking for her.

Chris smirked. "Sorry, Devil, but I won't be going to jail. My quest is divine, and I'll see you gone soon enough!"

She pulled the pin and flung it towards her. She activated her Lurk again and slipped away, already beginning to plan.

She would find some schmuck to hand Darkness a note from her, and then she'd leave. The Capital was her next destination, and then she'd work on her personal project of turning that Mitsurugi fellow into the perfect Degurechaff-slaying machine.

She'd already helped to plant the idea that they couldn't be trusted in his head, which had led to the delightfully perfect situation where he was worried they were Nazis.

Besides that, she'd continue to adjust The Atheist's Luck until she couldn't take a step without falling over and cracking her neck.

Tanya saw the grenade flying towards her and _moved_. The bodies on her shoulders were allowed to fall, and she snatched the object out of the air easily.

Taking hold of its wooden shaft, she flung the grenade into the air. She cast her gaze around, searching for Chris, but…

She sighed angrily. Chris was gone, but she wouldn't be out of Axel yet. She turned to Darkness, an eyebrow raised. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself? How the hell were you tricked by someone that took all of ten minutes to show her true colors?"

For her part, Darkness did seem rather saddened. "But… my vision…"

_Twitch._

_BOOM_

Tanya rolled her eyes as everyone else flinched at the sound of the grenade going off. "And? Did you rely on your own consciousness to defend her instead of rightfully letting her try and come up with a half-decent excuse? You idiot!"

Instead of getting all worked up, as she usually did when she got insulted even tangentially, she lowered her head like a kicked puppy.

Tanya shook her head. "Well, it's in the past now. We'll put out a warrant for her arrest and wash our hands of her, right?"

The Crusader nodded glumly, and they made their way to the Eris Church. Tanya wanted her friends back, and she just didn't have the energy to Heal them herself.

-OxOxO-

Tanya was still staring at the people that Hoost had beaten. None of them had woken up yet, even though all of the Priests there – at the behest of Tanya's money – were working on them.

She was beginning to grow… worried.

She sighed. No, she would wait. They were alive and well, and they would wake up soon enough. She stole another glance at Viktoriya and nervously tapped her shoe.

Still…

Then she began to move, and Tanya lunged from where she had been nervously standing to see her eye-to-eye, leaning towards her and resting her knees on the ground.

"_Are you okay? Does anything feel off? If those picky Priests did anything to you, I'll be sure to fine them into next week and recruit-_"

Viktoriya cut off Tanya's rambling with a small smile. "_I'm fine. What… happened?_"

Her expression soured. "_Just as I was about to let him go, Mitsurugi came in and killed him. Unfortunately, someone in my position might have to find a way to offer the Demon King compensation for his lost minion._"

Viktoriya nodded. "_Well, at least no one else died, right? We didn't really have many missions where no one got killed, in those last few years…_"

Tanya's face felt a bit pinched at the reminder, but she nodded anyway. She slipped back into the language of Belzerg. "Yeah. Oh, 'Chris' also showed up. She got away though. Darkness is going to put up a-"

Tanya's expression quickly became concerned at the stormy look on Viktoriya's face. Viktoriya didn't often brood, but she certainly looked like a practiced hand at the act with the deep lines on her face.

Tanya nervously asked, "Uh… are you alright? What did I say?"

Viktoriya blinked, and then, blushing, she muttered something about being fine. Tanya just shrugged and turned to Lorelei as she woke up.

She shook her head, and though the Eris Priests had been reluctant to let Lorelei in on account of the ears and the tail, Tanya had forced the matter through. She sat up, and Tanya smirked.

"Honestly, I thought you'd take a bit more damage than that. Aren't you supposed to be a front line fighter?" She asked it rhetorically, looking outwardly unimpressed in the woman.

She sent a similar glare back at Tanya. "And I thought you were supposed to be a good Adventurer? To think you'd let me get beaten so early on. Does your magic even work?"

They continued to glare at each other for a moment, but they quickly broke down giggling. The others were also waking up, one by one, and Tanya took the time to reach into one of her many pockets to retrieve her Adventurer Card.

She studied it closely, trying to find what had changed to make her strength _not _her lowest stat, and then-

"Uh… Lorelei, you wouldn't happen to know how Luck is decreased, would you?" Tanya asked, making sure not to let any of her panic affect her voice.

Luck didn't affect anything other than your ability to win card games, right?

She blinked, but she did quickly jump into an explanation. "Well, it can go down depending on the job you take. Front line fighters usually see their Luck increase at a much slower rate than that of Rangers and certain Priests, but to _lower_ your luck, you'd need to…"

Her face became puzzled, and she scratched her head. "Uh… I think that can only happen if you ingest certain potions, equip certain items, or insult Eris or Heaven. Why?"

Tanya licked her lips. "Uh… my Luck is now in the… _single _digits."

Lorelei was silent, for a moment, until she seemed to choke on her own tongue. Tanya voiced her earlier thoughts about Luck not affecting anything other than gambling and certain skills, and Lorelei scoffed while making motions to grab her card.

Tanya held the card away from her, and, with a huff, Lorelei launched into an explanation.

"Would the Eris Cult have so many followers if it only helped adventurers? It helps merchants the most, but it can also help out anyone, as long as your faith is strong enough." As she lectured her, Tanya's face began to fall.

Mitsurugi looked away from her, and the others mostly began to focus on the others that were waking up. Cecily was hugging an _unresisting_ Megumin – again, Tanya would blow the bitch's head off if Megumin so much as whispered rape – as Yunyun looked on and Mitsurugi was talking quietly with Rex's team. Darkness was still looking between the three of them.

"Additionally, Luck can impact every aspect of your life. You'll get ripped off more easily with a Luck stat that low, and many ventures you attempt to carry out, such as _relationships_, will suffer."

Tanya's face, looking dejectedly down at her card, shot up to Lorelei's. She squinted at the beastman, who seemed to be staring at her… knowingly, for some odd reason. "How so?"

She shrugged and seemed to be looking at Viktoriya for some reason. "You'll get harassed on dates, hit with water from passing carriages, get bad food served to you, and generally find many of your endeavors impacted negatively. She isn't regarded as a love Goddess because her Luck can hurt you just as much as it harms you, but she'll help you out if you're a diligent adherent."

Tanya scowled, and then she mentally shrugged.

It wasn't like she'd ever been planning on getting married in her first life. Stuff like that cost too much money for too little return, back when she had been convinced that emotions could be forgotten as easily as phone numbers.

She was technically more open to the idea now, but she doubted she'd find anyone that she liked enough for any kind of commitment.

She looked like a girl, she had no desire to marry someone that was into traps or lolis, and this place was a Medieval backwater that probably thought homosexuality was caused by Demons or something, which left approximately no one that she would want to marry or that would want to marry her.

"Oh well. I wasn't exactly interested in getting married back in Japan, and the thought had never crossed my mind in the Empire," she said with a negligent wave of her hand.

Lorelei watched Tanya's gaze flick towards her as the girl said the word 'never'. Tanya then looked around the place, grimacing at the approaching Priest.

As that happened, Lorelei watched Viktoriya look at Tanya…

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. She wasn't looking at the blonde longingly, per se, but Viktoriya certainly seemed morose about _something_.

Tanya turned back to Viktoriya, and Lorelei smiled to herself as the other two began to talk in that language of theirs.

Oh, they _totally_ wanted to _date _each other, at least. They'd sent so many looks at each other and taken excuses to be close, and Lorelei had been awake enough to see Tanya practically tackle Viktoriya when she stirred. Lorelei would need more concrete evidence for the Succubi, but…

She smirked and began to plan. She'd have to find some way for them to start dreaming of each other. Maybe they should have some sort of a day off after all of the hard work they'd been doing?

-OxOxO-

"GRAHH!"

Tanya tried not to pull her hair out – Lorelei had spent a good amount of time making it look more than presentable that morning, combing it and putting it back in a ponytail – but she was getting _consistently_ hindered by the corruption of the guards and the lack of a good information network.

Her first problem was finding the Archpriest, who she was almost sure was Aqua, based on what little information she could get on her.

She and her party, as well as Rex's party and the Crimson Demons, had recuperated for the rest of the day of the battle against Hoost and, the very next day, they'd headed to the guild to ask Luna some questions.

After questioning Luna, she had learned that the Archpriest had been accompanied by a person that looked like a Hero Candidate.

He had 'dark' hair – which could mean anything from black to dark red, due to the array of bizarre colors that stained people's hair here – and dark eyes – again, as long as it wasn't on the rainbow, it was considered 'dark' here. He also had black and green clothing that she had judged to be similar to the stuff Hero Candidates often wore.

Luna hadn't labeled him as a Hero Candidate, however, because he didn't have any interesting ability or weapon, besides an abnormally high Luck stat. He'd even decided to become an Adventurer, like Tanya and Viktoriya had, after they had begged some old guy for money to join.

This convinced Tanya.

She herself had contemplated stealing Aqua away and making her come down with her, in an attempt to get carried by a self-proclaimed goddess and get that wish all the faster. She had chosen the Circlet on the assumption that she'd be delivered to an advanced society and not a Medieval one.

If she had known, she would have picked either of the other options. Aqua would have known things that Tanya didn't which would have allowed her to advance faster, not to mention how helpful she'd be against the Hero Candidates that had attacked her.

Tanya had spent the rest of that day looking for her. She hadn't, however, found her in any of the spots someone of her power should be working. She wasn't at any Church in the city, nor was she near the orphanage/school. She wasn't even loitering near the high-end, noble-dominated parts of the city.

The next day, she had then moved on to more unusual spots, where the Guild's announcement system didn't properly reach, which might explain why she hadn't heard the announcement yesterday, but even the most removed location any self-respecting arrogant toerag of a 'deity' would be hiding out at were within range.

They hadn't found anything, and Tanya now readily admitted that she couldn't think like jumped-up holy pretenders.

What a shame. She'd have to find some way to console herself about such a… _tragedy_.

After that, she had spent time running the town, signing paperwork, and addressing the concerns of people whose disputes went up the chain farther than any of the people she had appointed, in that week of work.

Then, yesterday, she and Viktoriya had decided to do something more productive than looking for Aqua and start asking the guards about Chris.

She had not been amused.

Apparently, one of them had let her out and ignored all of Tanya's new laws for a _pitiful_ 10,000 Eris. Then, he had _admitted _that, to Tanya's _face_, and offered to give her a cut.

Tanya's response had been appropriate, considering her oldest enemy had slipped away to fight another day: she'd confiscated the money and ordered the police to arrest him. She'd then gone back to the mansion to write some letters.

None of them had been returned happily. The guards protecting the farther reaches of Alderp's previously held territory hadn't gotten the warrant for her arrest yet and had let her go, despite never getting a good reason from her about her travel beyond 'I want to travel a bit.'

She sighed as she thought back. Well, she had news for them. Her next round of letters had been sent out, even if her hands were aching and it wasn't even ten o'clock.

Maybe she'd invent a typewriter? It was just too much trouble to write everything out, even if some adventurer had already graced this world with pens and pencils. Although-

"Tanya!"

She shook her head and realized that Lorelei was staring into her eyes. She brushed her hands off of her shoulders and sighed. "Yeah? There's no need to yell-"

She gave her a skeptical look. "Really? You've been gnashing your teeth for too long. In fact…"

She turned her gaze to Viktoriya, who was now working at a separate and equally large desk. Tanya missed the woman's close presence, but this was more efficient, even-

"That's it! We're taking a break! No work, no worrying, no hardship! Just… let's have a bit of fun!"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "You aren't required to work-"

She glared at her. "Neither are you! Most nobles would balk at the amount of care you are showing to people! You've codified that 'school' thing, are sending aid and adventurers to the outlying town, and have generally improved people's lives! A _handful _of nobles can be named that did that on purpose without trying to gain some selfish compensation."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Hey, if this place's economy gets big enough, coffee will show up. I have plenty of reasons-"

Viktoriya spoke up now. "...to take a break. C'mon, we've been working for too long. Sure, we would have been lambasted for how little work we've done if we were on the Eastern Front, but we… we aren't there any more!"

She shouted the last part, and Tanya blinked as she considered the idea. They _had _been working diligently, and Tanya had been wanting a break for a while…

She smiled. "Alright. A bit of self-indulgence isn't horrible, especially for morale. A break would be nice…"

She frowned. The last time she had uttered that phrase, she had been marched onto the plane they'd just arrived in the Empire on to attack the Russy Federation.

She looked around the room, waiting for the filing cabinets or bookshelves to explode or for some similarly horrible thing to happen, but nothing did. She sighed in relief, and then smirked at Lorelei.

"Well, if you're so insistent that we relax…"

She turned to Viktoriya. "Wanna see some clothing from Japan?" Her adjutant's eyes lit up, and they both dodged by Lorelei's tall form to head towards Tanya's room.

Tanya quickly locked the door, and Lorelei's angry shouting could be heard through what Tanya knew was several layers of insulation. "Absolutely not! They might be integral to the defense of the Kingdom, but a Hero Candidate's clothing style is completely, _absolutely_, trash! They take the first opportunity they can to dump it! Their stuff is all low quality and looks like a particularly intelligent _potato _made it!"

Tanya just rolled her eyes and looked around her room. Her eyes landed on Viktoriya, who seemed to be… drooling for some reason.

Tanya revisited Lorelei's words, and then she groaned. "No, we are _not _getting potatoes. No, you aren't going to see if this world's rotten potatoes are somehow _more _dangerous than the regular ones, either from being more poisonous or from their ability to fight back, and you sure as hell aren't _eating _them."

Her unhappy expression caused Viktoriya to break out into giggling. Tanya soon let a smile mark her face as she reminisced about their past and trekked towards her closet. Viktoriya was looking around the room curiously.

Tanya didn't know why she was bothering with that. Her walls were mostly barren, which was expected, since they hadn't come to this world with anything, with the sheath for her _Seitengewher_ being the largest of her additions to the wall.

She had a desk with several books laid out on it. Her translation work was going well, but she was getting stuck in a few places. She'd have them copied and ready to…

She frowned as she reached the closet. Did this world have the Printing Press? She remembered thinking that it must, if the Guild had _paperwork_, of all things, but it was entirely possible it was some kind of spell.

Then she shrugged as she threw her closet open.

The merchant was the one who was dealing with production, not her. _He_ could have another problem to deal with instead of her, though Tanya was thinking about getting a typewriter of some kind invented regardless.

She brought out the clothes from Japan she had been able to find in the capital and sighed appreciatively. It wasn't much, and she was sure that a few of the shirts were references to things that had been invented in her absence, but it was nice all the same.

First were the jeans. They were, of course, men's jeans, because she wanted actual pockets. Then, she brought out a few shirts.

A thought struck Tanya as she stared at one of the shirts. "Hey, while we're on the subject of 'we're not on the front lines anymore, so we can relax a bit' warpath, could you stop calling me 'Colonel'?"

She heard Viktoriya make a sound of confusion. "Huh? I mean, I guess…"

Tanya rolled her eyes as she looked at the shirts. "You don't _have_ to, but people might wonder why you're calling me by a military rank, and I don't want anyone to think we deserted. That might not reflect well on us. Besides, if you're going to call me by any rank, just use the last one I got…"

Tanya continued to look at the shirts as Viktoriya thought her words over, eventually deciding to put the t-shirts away. It was beginning to get closer to winter, and it might get cold, even if the weather she could see through the large window overlooking the front ground was sunny.

"What's that one say?" Tanya jumped at the unexpected voice, and then glared at Viktoriya, who had crept up behind her.

"It just says… 't-shirt'? I don't know why, but I'm sure it means something to someone," she said. She was confused as to _why _a t-shirt would just say t-shirt, but she didn't claim to be some omniscient being that knew the answer to her every thought.

Tanya took a few more moments before picking out a few options and laying them out on her bed next to the jeans.

Her bed was a four poster dressed up in the colors of the Empire – more out of nostalgia than any real loyalty – and Tanya gestured towards the various options.

"Take your pick. I think they'll be fine in this weather, but bring a jacket just in case." As Viktoriya looked at them, Tanya decided she'd go with the yellow shirt that said 'I 3 Tokyo' in a mix of English and highly stylized kanji. She also picked up a pair of jeans, when Viktoriya began to speak.

"Uh… Tanya, it's a little out of the blue, but you don't have any tampons, do you?"

Tanya blinked at the sudden onset of that question, and she felt her face begin to brightly shine red as memories rose behind her eyes at the reminder of just who and how she had been instructed in the usage of such a… _device._

And no, it _hadn't _been Viktoriya. It had been the doctor assigned to their unit…

However, it was _Tanya _that had managed to invent the thing.

A broken conversation with some of the women in her _Kampfgruppe_ had led to her remembering the basic formula for one of the things from her last life.

A year later, and she'd been put through her own period, which was…

She shuddered. Well, it had been wildly uncomfortable and terrifying, considering they'd been fighting on the Eastern Front and she had thought she'd been hit with shrapnel. Viktoriya had also panicked, and, when they'd landed, Viktoriya had quickly realized what was happening, and she'd taken her to their doctor.

Who had explained what was happening to her body.

In detail.

Tanya shuddered.

And, of course, what had that woman pulled out besides a slightly improved version of the thing Tanya had proposed to those women in her _Kampfgruppe_?

Being X was no doubt laughing at her due to the fact that she'd end up as widely known for that invention as for any of her exploits.

She shook her head. After that talk, she had emerged from her tent shaken and not covered in bandages. The rest of the 203rd had been able to guess what had happened. They averted their eyes from her and blushed, and, when she had snapped at them irritably, they had quickly made themselves more scarce than usual.

Later that day, Viktoriya – after some pointed questions Tanya wished she had lied about – had taken the time to give her the talk her aunt had given her and explain… _everything_. As if she were really a fourteen-year-old who didn't have the memories of a different life in her head.

Tanya had wanted to dismember Being X more than ever after that, and she had thanked her short stature and stressful life and lackluster diet for once, as her periods happened _much _less often than was technically healthy.

Of course, she had been having them _much _more regularly in this world, with her regular diet and lack of regular life-threatening violence. They were just as horrible as always, but her Smith ability had allowed her to help with the problem a bit.

Mutely, Tanya reached into one of the dressers by her bed and pulled out one of her latest inventions: Packaged tampons.

She'd made them when she'd been forced awake by a nightmare after beating Hoost. She had been unable to fall asleep afterwards and, not wanting to really wake anyone else, she'd deconstructed a pillow and fiddled with it until she'd created the tampon.

That dream had heavily featured the Type 95, which was…

She shook her head and banished the memory of her dream and looked at the thing in her hands. The packaging was made of dark blue paper instead of plastic – something she couldn't recreate with Smith, no matter how many materials she assembled.

The only reason she hadn't yet pitched selling them to Wiz was because she would be mortified explaining the process and usage of the things to her.

Come to think of it, when had tampons been invented? What had those women done before they got them?

Tanya quickly forgot about the questions she _really _didn't want answers to. Viktoriya smiled at her as she unpacked the thing, and she turned her back to Viktoriya as Tanya began to hurriedly change. "Eep!"

Tanya rolled her eyes and turned around after finishing. "_Honestly, even if I am a man, we're done this too much. I'll still turn away, of course, but it isn't anything you haven't seen before,_" she complained quietly.

Viktoriya was silent, staring down at the clothing, and Tanya's expression softened. "If you don't want to wear any of it, that's fine. I'm not going to be offended that you feel no connection to a place you haven't visited before."

She paused, but Viktoriya shook her head. "I… no! I want to do this! I'll wear…"

She trailed off again, and picked out a pink t-shirt with a cute little cat on it that said 'neko neko nii.'

Again, Tanya didn't have the faintest idea of what it was supposed to mean, but it looked cute and Viktoriya seemed happy with it.

Tanya turned around to let her change, and Viktoriya stifled the urge to tell her it was alright. Sure, they had already seen all of each other, but Viktoriya wasn't…

She rolled her eyes. Alright, she was totally fine if Tanya saw her, but Tanya _probably_ didn't want to feel like a pervert for looking at her. She sighed and began to change.

It took her a few minutes, but they were both ready to leave. Tanya gave Viktoriya a quick glance and gulped.

Well, she certainly looked nice. It didn't hug her figure or accentuate anything or some other drivel like that. She looked…

Relaxed. It was different, and Tanya was happy she seemed to be looking forward to their break.

Tanya shook her head and pushed the doors open. "Lorelei! Come on, we've got to go!"

They scanned the hallway, looking for her. She couldn't be seen, however, and-

"HA!"

She jumped out from behind one of the doors to Tanya's room, rushing towards them and glaring. "Like I said, it's garbage! What are those squiggly lines supposed to mean? This cloth is absolutely coarse compared to what you _could _be wearing, considering how rich you are, and-"

Tanya just raised an eyebrow. "Then we should head to the Tailor, right?"

Lorelei paused at that, and Tanya took her silence as agreement. "Wonderful! Let's get going! I'll just threaten the guards real quick, and then we'll be off!"

Lorelei watched Tanya's eyes flick towards Viktoriya and, as the girl rounded the corner, Lorelei watched Viktoriya's face begin to blush violently.

She smirked in clear view of the woman, and Viktoriya raised an eyebrow towards her questioningly.

Lorelei's smirk deepened. "Oh, it's nothing. It's not like you're wearing your feelings on your sleeve, or anything."

Viktoriya blinked, but she shook her head and sighed, calling up an impressive poker face. Lorelei just giggled, and leaned down to speak into her ear.

"If you want to hide it from her, you've got to try a bit harder. It's honestly quite obvious." Before the woman could respond, Lorelei skipped down the corridor.

Part one was complete. While she was _completely _right about that horrible stuff they were wearing, Lorelei did admit that the only way for them to leave less to the imagination was to dress like a Thief, thanks to how ill-fitting their clothing seemed to be.

That would work for Lorelei, however. Over the course of the day, she would remind them of each other and the looks they sent each other when they were sure the other wasn't watching.

With her influence, they would have dreams, and she'd invite a Succubus or two in to determine if they did like each other.

-OxOxO-

Tanya raised an eyebrow at Lavendula. She was glaring at Lorelei, whose whole body seemed to have deflated upon being glared at.

Tanya rolled her eyes. She really needed to get around to training the beastman up a bit, if she was cowed by a single weak glare. Artillery fire would be helpful, but since she didn't have access to that, she would come up with… alternatives.

Tanya stepped forward. "Lavendula, how nice to see you. I need you to do some things for me and my _friends_."

She emphasized her last word in order to drive home that yes, they were both her friends. Viktoriya was looking around already, and Lavendula cast a cursory glance at both Tanya and Viktoriya before scoffing. "What, like get you out of those hideous costumes?"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "No. In fact…"

She turned to Viktoriya and pointed towards a corner of the room. "Get all of the stuff from the Hero Candidates. It would be a waste to let it all rot in here."

She spun around to see that both Lorelei and Lavendula were glaring at Tanya. "Now, I don't know what _they _want," she said, gesturing to both Viktoriya and Lorelei, "but I want my measurements taken."

The Tailor lit up, but Tanya made sure to shoot down any hopes she had of making a dress. "No, I don't want you to make me anything. I'll be having a… personal Tailor doing my work for me, thank you."

She frowned at that, but she did as asked, beckoning for Tanya to come closer to the backroom where Tanya had gotten her clothing way back in her first few days here. She followed her as Viktoriya and Lorelei looked through the clothing.

Lorelei was eyeing the clothing Viktoriya was looking at. She was sticking more to the kind of shirts she already wore regularly – clothing that wasn't too revealing and that was snug as well, mostly in lighter colors. She picked up a shirt that looked almost identical to the shirt she adventured in.

Lorelei grinned. This was another chance to get them thinking about each other. She smoothed her features out and forced it back down. "No, choose something a bit more adventurous. How about…"

She steered her away from the more bland, closed shirts and towards more open ones. "I don't exactly know much about the place you guys came from or about your past lives, but it seems like they didn't exactly favor openness. Since you're in Belzerg now, why don't you try something different, see if you like it?"

She seemed indecisive, for a moment, and then she nodded. "Sure! I guess this would be nice to wear on my date with Mitsurugi…"

As she walked away, Lorelei continued to stare at the spot her head had occupied.

What? Who…

She scowled. Mitsurugi!? She was thinking about _him_?

She took a deep breath. Maybe… she fought for both sides, men and women?

But… the looks she'd been sending Tanya definitely meant _more_ than just simple attraction.

She frowned. Well, if she was thinking about someone else, then Lorelei would have to focus her efforts on Tanya. That was…

That was very daunting, to say the least. Lorelei had been hoping to get Viktoriya interested first, so that Tanya would be dragged along. It seemed, however, that she'd have to do this the hard way and hope that Tanya would be more open to suggestion, without the distraction of anyone else.

She kept to herself, after that, choosing a pair of pants that, while just as flowing as her usual clothes, were a bit shorter.

"Uhhhhh…"

Lorelei looked over her shoulder to see that Tanya was back. She looked the same as when they'd left. She had her usual black pants and boots, bandolier, belt, cap, and her 'pistol' weapon was hanging from her belt. She still had that awful 't-shirt' on, too, but she was also holding a set of papers that probably contained her measurements.

Tanya was also staring at… Viktoriya, who looked quite a bit different.

Not much had changed. Her pants and boots still looked identical to Tanya's, as did her belt and bandolier, though the latter was wrapped around her waist like a second belt.

Tanya quickly shut her mouth as she studied her adjutant's… change. Instead of the white t-shirt with kanji on it, she was wearing something… different.

Tanya cleared her throat. "That's… certainly nice." She wasn't sure if she could provide much more intelligent commentary than that without whistling… _appreciatively_.

Her shirt was… well, it wasn't nearly as large as her other one. It didn't quite _hug _her figure, per se, but it was certainly made to… _accentuate_ her assets.

Tanya heard Lorelei cough off to the side somewhere, and she shook her head and covered up her stupid attraction to a girl that couldn't love her with a encouraging smile. "You look… nice. Do you have anyone in mind?"

Lorelei leaned forward, perhaps-

She gave Tanya a small smile. "Yes, I suppose. I was going to try to ask Mitsurugi out. We aren't _really_ at war anymore, and I, for one, want to move our lives towards something more… stable than back in the Empire."

As Viktoriya ducked back in the changing room, Lorelei caught a bare, flickering look of regret on Tanya's face before she smoothed it out and began to discuss the price with Lavendula. Lorelei nodded to herself as she began to look for something interesting for herself.

Maybe getting Tanya to have dreams about Viktoriya might be easier than she thought?

"Hey, pick out some materials you want to make my new clothing." Lorelei's head snapped up from where she'd been absentmindedly looking at the assorted jackets. Her eyes then drifted down to Tanya.

She raised an eyebrow, and Tanya gave her an unamused look. "I want a replacement for my dress," she said. She dropped her voice down an octave and said, "I want a suit. I don't particularly care about how it looks, I just want it to look _good_. Got it?"

Lorelei shook her head. "Fine, but the dress I got you was perfectly serviceable. Honestly-"

Tanya cut her off again. "Considering you _knew_ that I could have been wearing a suit and that you neglected to inform me about that fact, even after witnessing my dislike for the dress, _I don't care_."

Lorelei winced, but she did as she was told. "I better be getting paid for this…"

Tanya scoffed again. "Of course. Why-"

She was cut off by someone tapping her on the shoulder. Tanya whirled around to find Viktoriya looking at the jackets. "Tanya, you should get a jacket. It's getting close to winter, after all."

Tanya rolled her eyes and picked out an unassuming black and red one. "There. I don't need it for any other reason than keeping warm, so this should be good. Let's get going."

-OxOxO-

It took another five minutes for them to get out of there, most of which was consumed by Viktoriya and Lorelei going over various colors for Tanya's newest clothing. Eventually, they settled on traditional white and black colors.

Tanya didn't mind. She was currently thinking about what Viktoriya had said.

As they walked through the streets of Axel – Tanya had on her newest jacket, while Viktoriya was carrying bolts of Lorelei's cloth, her own new shirt, and the bargain bin of clothing from the Reincarnates – Tanya was contemplating Viktoriya's words about the passing of time.

"Hey, Lorelei, what's the current month?"

Lorelei blinked. "It's the 3rd of Horizontal Line, obviously. Geez, I thought you nobles were supposed to be smart, but-"

Tanya and Viktoriya were giving Lorelei twin looks of complete confusion, and Lorelei shot that look back at them. "What? Why are you looking at me like _I'm_ the idiot?"

Neither of them exactly liked that insinuation, but Tanya ignored it. "Is… 'Horizontal Line…' like, the name of the month?"

Lorelei blinked at her. When their expressions didn't change, Lorelei's did.

Her blank, confused look shifted into one of mirth as she broke down into a fit of giggles. "You- you two don't actually know? I mean, I thought that _I_ was unlucky, but for you two to not know the names of the seasons-"

Both of them put up with her laughter, and then, as she calmed down, Lorelei cleared her throat. "So, I guess you guys have different names for your seasons too?"

Both nodded, and she began to explain. "Well, the first month is Upside Down Pentagon, and then it's…"

She went on to explain a… decidedly _odd _array of names, saying their name and if they started the next season. Tanya found out that the month she had gotten here – June in her last world, Square here – was the end of spring and the beginning of Summer.

They continued to absorb the information, but around the ninth month…

"...Inverse Dot is the ninth month and the start of Fall. Horizontal Line, this month, is-"

Lorelei's explanation was cut off by Viktoriya's gasp and subsequent teary-eyed look. "Colonel! We forgot your birthday…"

Tanya blinked. "Oh yeah. I guess I'm… seventeen now." Honestly, nothing really felt all that different, and-

Lorelei came up behind the two of them. "Well, when's your birthday, Viktoriya?"

The woman blinked, and then said, "Well, if this month is after Se- I mean, Inverse Dot, then mine will be… the twentieth of next month, I think."

Lorelei nodded sagely. "Well, that's in a little over seven weeks. We could have a belated birthday for Tanya in three, so that we have time to get presents and arrange things."

Viktoriya seemed on board, but Tanya held up a hand. "Hey, I'm not all that interested in having some big party. Really, it-"

Viktoriya pouted. "But… you said that you'd let… _us _throw you a proper party once the war was over."

It took her a moment, but she did eventually recall that conversation. She had turned sixteen – the legal drinking age in the Empire. Unfortunately, everyone had held her away from alcohol until they'd been given leave in Dresdun, since, as always, resources were scarce on the eastern front.

For the small celebration of her sixteenth birthday, she had gotten a lovely fur coat – taken from some nameless communard – on behalf of the entire battalion, as well as two whole bars of chocolate from the higher officers of the 203rd. Those had been luxurious, since she hadn't had chocolate in over five months at that point in time.

She sighed. "Fine. For them, I'll let you throw me a party. I promise."

Tanya immediately regretted her decision as they stared at each other. "I'll talk to Darkness and the Police," Viktoriya began. Lorelei soon followed up. "I'll handle decorations and clothing and food and-"

Tanya latched onto that idea. "Food sounds wonderful. Let's get lunch."

If they continued to plot while walking behind her at a distance that just barely let her hear that they were plotting, but not what they were saying exactly, she didn't tell them. She had a very good feeling that she would regret promising anyone that she'd have a party…

-OxOxO-

They stopped at a small place owned by a former adventurer that had spotted Tanya walking by and offered to serve them anything they wanted for free. Tanya had been skeptical, but…

"Are you kidding? Without you, we might have gone out of business!" He continued to usher her inside, spouting off about her efforts to stop Verdia and bring back the monsters so that adventurers could pay for food again.

The other two seemed interested, and Tanya agreed that the place did look good. Still…

As they were seated, Tanya gave a look to the man that had ushered them inside. "We'll still pay full price. Like you said, we're not broke anymore."

He quickly left them alone after that, and they were quiet as they read the menus. Drinks were first, of course…

Tanya was reminded of a question she had had during their week of work, and she turned to Lorelei. "Say, do you think coffee would grow near Axel? I've been wanting some, but the stuff they sell here is garbage."

Well, it wasn't completely horrible. They'd been given worse stuff in the final years of the war, but if the capital had the good stuff, then she wanted some as well.

Lorelei shrugged. "I guess it might in the summer, but Axel's just too far north for that sort of stuff to survive for long in the winter. Besides, those plants are really tough for novice adventurers, with how fast they are."

Tanya nodded mutely. Right, food fought back in this world. She hadn't considered that a factor, but she supposed that, just like climate, the strength of adventurers determined what kind of food you could grow in a given area.

Eventually, she just decided to order tea. She didn't like the stuff, but it was better than nothing.

She was still thinking, even as she looked at the food. Was stronger food harder to come by, with how many adventurers had to be dragged to the front lines to fight against the Demon King?

A waiter came back with their drinks, and Tanya decided to order first. "I'll have the cabbage-"

The waiter gave her a pained smile. "Ah, actually, we're currently out of cabbage until they start their migration."

Tanya scowled and let the others order. When it was her turn again, she lowered her menu. "I'll have the corn-"

_THWACK!_

"Oh no! Someone, catch that corn!

The next ten minutes were filled with the hurried, desperate apologies of the chef and the waiter about the corn that had just flown out from the kitchen to land squarely on her face, breaking her nose and covering her newly purchased clothing.

She was fine afterwards – Heal once again proved itself useful – but Lorelei's subdued laughter and Viktoriya guilty smile hurt more than the vegetable had.

As they finally finished apologizing, Tanya just ordered some meat dish. When they left, Lorelei finally began laughing in earnest.

"Yo- You have such bad Luck! I've never heard of someone being attacked by food _outside _of battle! I mean, really, you should probably hang it up somewhere. A mighty Greater Demon can hardly scratch you, but a piece of corn can almost beat you!"

Tanya weathered the laugh-filled rant.

Her Luck was horrible, and it wouldn't improve anytime soon, thanks to the fact that some self-proclaimed goddess controlled the Luck of people in this world.

She was fine with that. As long as she eliminated every possible chance for Luck to matter, she wouldn't be caught in the machinations of one of Being X's lackeys.

The other option, besides trying to mitigate the chance for Luck to matter, was to eat Dragon meat.

During a short break in between her attempts to teach him how to lead, she had complained about her Luck when he had beaten her at rock-paper-scissors twenty times _in a row._

He had mentioned the fact that Dragon meat permanently increased someone's stats, though when she had tried to ask why every noble with money to spare didn't just eat it, he had blanched.

It's meat was tough and tasted like eating shoe leather, according to him, and, since nobles were fine with eating other high-quality food to gain experience, the demand for that kind of meat wasn't high.

Still. She'd look into getting some, if it wasn't _too_ expensive.

Revi had never actually eaten shoe leather, after all, while the 203rd had been forced to scavenge off the land and eat cow and horse hide during a particularly dire two weeks away from the supply lines on the eastern front.

She could stomach anything, if it meant avoiding a so-called goddess's wrath.

She glanced speculatively at anyone could enjoy something everyone else said tasted like shoe leather, it was Viktoriya.

The food did eventually come out, at which point Viktoriya glared at Lorelei for her continued attempts to poke fun at her. "Tanya doesn't need any Luck! Besides, are you really one to talk about having bad Luck?"

Lorelei froze, while Tanya's jaw was left hanging. She looked to Viktoriya to see that she was already wincing. Lorelei, meanwhile…

Tanya blinked. She had expected her to be...not bawling, but certainly upset. Instead, she was just glaring at Viktoriya with a single eyebrow raised.

Tanya elbowed Viktoriya. "Hey, I think that was a bit uncalled for," she said, holding up her hands when Viktoriya's gaze shifted to her, confused and indignant.

"You were right that I don't need Luck, and she did tease me for too long, but-"

"Yes. I think you might want to apologize, unless you want me to talk about what I saw this morning," she interjected. Before Tanya could wonder what that could be – she and Viktoriya had woken up around the same time – Viktoriya began to blush.

She lowered her head. "Ah, I… I'm sorry, Lorelei. That was a bit uncalled for, and-"

"A bit?" she said. Her mouth opened, and Viktoriya's panic only seemed to increase. "A lot! It was totally uncalled for and out of line and please don't say anything!"

She peered at Viktoriya for only a moment longer before laughing again. Tanya was looking between the two of them before deciding that she probably didn't want to know.

When the waiter came by to take their plates, offering to get them something portable to eat on their way to wherever their next destination was, Tanya took all of ten seconds before deciding immediately.

"I'll take the chocolate bar. She'll take the cheese sticks," she said, pointing to herself and Viktoriya. Lorelei quickly told him her own preference – an apple – and they were soon out of the door.

Tanya broke her bar in half and took two of Viktoriya's four cheese sticks. "Wonderful! It's been a while since I've had some good cheese!"

Viktroiya nibbled on her own food, looking at Tanya in confusion. "But… I thought you said you didn't like cheese?"

Tanya turned to her. "What? Since when?"

"After Tiegenhoff, during our two month assignment to garrison duty in the Republic's lands. You said that you didn't like any of the cheese." She explained.

Tanya blinked in astonishment. "Viktoriya, that was over four years ago. How did you remember that? Besides…"

She felt her cheeks flush the tiniest bit. "I, uh… I might have lied? I, um… thought that cheese was associated with the Francois, so I said I didn't like it to see more… patriotic."

Viktoriya just stared at Tanya for a moment before snorting inelegantly. Tanya's cheeks, now blushing in earnest, told both Viktoriya and Lorelei what she thought about that. "What? Francois and cheese is a thing, right? We didn't exactly have a lot of cheese in Japan. I was kind of… _lactose intolerant." _she said, switching into Germanian. "_A bunch of people in Japan were. I couldn't eat it without-_"

Lorelei interrupted her with a violent shake of her head, looking bewildered. "That's it. There's no way… whatever language you're speaking is real. What could _laktoseintoleranz_ possibly mean!?"

Both of them stared at her and then at each other with a knowing glint in their eyes. "_Well, I guess it's surprising that you like cheese, but that's a bit far, isn't it? To limit yourself just to appear more patriotic? And you ate plenty of cream, which always struck us as kind of weird, but…"_

Tanya shrugged. "_Maybe it was weird, but I wasn't exactly willing to take a risk."_ Viktoriya just sighed exasperatedly, while Lorelei was glaring at the two of them.

"_Do you have anything like that? Stuff you're allergic to? We haven't exactly talked about stuff like that, despite the years together,"_ Tanya mused. Viktoriya nodded absentmindedly.

She shrugged. "I'm allergic to cats, actually. I always wanted one as a child, but my relatives knew that I would get very sick if we ever got one-"

Lorelei, finally able to understand her, jumped in. "What? Since when? Wouldn't you be allergic…"

Viktoriya shook her head. "No. It's just cats, oddly enough. None of my family members have it, but…"

Viktoriya shrugged, Tanya nodded sagely, and they continued on, making small talk all the while.

It was different to the usual discussions of war and battle and magic she had had between battles in her last world. It was also much more enjoyable.

-OxOxO-

They had been ambling around Axel for a good time. Storm clouds were beginning to coalesce over the town, signaling the coming of a storm, or at least some cold. They were all fine – their jackets were comfortable and warm, even if Tanya's coat needed to get her blood cleaned from her jacket.

They eventually found themselves in what amounted to a merchant district. Tanya knew it was such, and not just because of the various people hawking their wares to passersby.

It was designated as such under the newest tax laws she'd laid out. The northwestern part of Axel would have the greatest tax breaks for merchants that wanted to set up shop.

Of course, taxes were only collected at one time of the year, but the Kingdom of Belzerg had a surprisingly well-designed system, despite how much of it relied on the nobility to remain truthful about who they were selling the food and products produced on their land to.

Of course, considering how most nobles were allowed to travel abroad to skip out on their taxes, perhaps there was some sort of unspoken rule or law that let them run off if they were truthful about the merchants they had sold most of their products to…

She shook her head. Regardless, the ideas of simply not taxing people if they did something you wanted seemed oddly foreign to the nobles that abused said ideas.

Tanya had even begun drafting plans for another ring of defensive encirclements if Axel even outgrew its current boundaries. She didn't anticipate it, but Darkness seemed to want them around anyway.

All in all, now that she only had Axel to focus on, instead of an area the size of a smallish country, things were going _much _better.

They were all mostly window shopping, gazing at the food and clothing and weapons being sold, but Tanya did eventually see something she wanted to check out.

"Raw Adamantite! Currently unsmelted, it's going for quite the cheap price here!"

A middle aged man was currently brandishing about various ores and stones in front of his stall. She quickly strode closer, throwing up the hood of her jacket.

Viktoriya followed her, but Lorelei said something about wanting to go examine a clothing stall. Tanya waved her off, wondering why she hadn't just got the stuff back in the shop they'd visited earlier.

The man smiled at her and jumped behind his stall. "Hello, wonderful little lady! May I perhaps interest you in some gems?" he said as he practically shoved a set of jewels under her nose.

She was about to protest, when she thought better of it. She had several things she wanted to make right now, and gems _would _help with one of them.

She nodded uneasily, and asked him what they were. He grinned. "Wonderful! Here, I have a wide selection of gemstones for every occasion! Any fine Blacksmith could create a crown fit for-"

Tanya cut him off with a wave of her hand. She was fairly sure she knew what she wanted, if Alderp's books were to be trusted.

"I want amethyst, bloodstone, lapis lazuli, moonstone, ruby, white diamond, and any Coronatite you have on hand. I'll be making two rings, both in… gold, I suppose. I also want to see any Adamantite you have."

He seemed floored by the specific request, but he paled as she said the word 'Coronatite'. "Hey, I can't just-"

Viktoriya spoke up. "He has some. It isn't much, but the magical signature matches what was described." The man blanched, glancing between them nervously.

Alderp's library contained many books he described as 'useful.' She hadn't read all of them, especially the ones that were about seduction – she had no desire to know about what his 'tactics' were if he thought that switching bodies with a Prince he hadn't spent more than an hour with was a good idea – but he had recommended this one in particular to her.

It was twenty times as useful as he had made it out to be. It was titled extravagantly – 'A thousand different components for any enterprising Archmage' – but she grudgingly supposed it deserved the title.

It contained thousands of pages about the particulars of the importance of various metals, herbs, gems, and anything else that was even vaguely magical.

Usually, she wouldn't have bought into such snake oil so quickly, but various examples of gems, metals, and plants being used that were included with the book were convincing, and Alderp swore on his life – _literally _– that it was all true.

He claimed it had been written by the Crimson Demons – not that Tanya was all that swayed by that, considering the ones she had met thus far.

What _was _important was that it told her the uses of various metals and gems, which was why she was buying what she was.

The thing she wanted made, a ring, would be of the utmost importance. It would feature the lapis lazuli, the Coronatite, and the white diamond.

The first gem was heavily associated with truth, and it was the original reason Alderp had suggested the book.

Lapis lazuli was what gave most of those truth-detecting devices their power. Chunks of lapis lazuli were adept at sending out magical signals whenever lies were told near them, and those were used in the creation of those bells.

He'd suggested that she get a jasper amulet, carved with the image of a stormcloud on it in order to hide her lies.

She had no need for something like that, however.

She wouldn't let one of those things get within a hundred yards of her, especially now that she had taken a good, _long _time to read through the extensive legal laws affecting Belzerg as a whole and Axel in particular. She wouldn't ever have to sit in front of one with the loopholes that she could exploit.

Not that she planned to _ever_ be in a situation that would require one, but she wasn't a fool who thought that the unexpected would never happen.

The next gem, Coronatite, could hold massive amounts of mana, and enable anything it was used to power to last for ludicrous amounts of time. It was rare, and it was legendary.

In this case, the word legendary just meant 'highly illegal.'

Because of how dangerous it was, some forgotten King of Belzerg had declared that it would never be allowed in the nation. The book had unabashedly noted that 'no faraway King could stop the Crimson Demons!'

You couldn't carry much – it was just _that_ noticeable to people, even if they didn't have Observation spells – and she was hoping to get most of this for a _very_ fair price by taking whatever tiny flecks of it he had on him.

The last, white diamond, was tough, pure, and would supposedly absorb 'bad' energy.

With those three combined, she was hoping that she could find someone powerful enough to make her a mental protection ring that blew her current one – a simple gold band – out of the water.

The second ring she had in mind was a bit more… superfluous, but she hoped it would help quite a bit.

Amethyst was supposed to help prevent one from becoming drunk. She was hoping that would help with her alcohol intolerance and bring the total number of drinks she could have without getting completely wasted up to, maybe, five.

Moonstone was supposed to increase Luck and, specifically, help you find your way.

The ruby and bloodstone were supposed to help with preventing blood loss, which would greatly help prevent her bleeding out in battle. Also…

She smiled as he eventually brought everything she had asked for forward. Those two were supposed to help with easing the pain of menstruation.

She turned to look at Viktoriya, who was staring intensely at the man. "Actually, I'll take more of the amethyst, moonstone, ruby, and bloodstone." He silently brought out more, eyeing them both nervously.

Tanya looked over the gems, running weak, invisible Observation spells over them. She was wondering if she should talk to either of the local Crimson Demons to find out if they could recommend her to someone who could make her what she wanted.

She couldn't do it – Bill had told her, in no uncertain terms, that making magical equipment with Smith was impossible – and she remembered some merchant in the capital telling her that you had to use Skill Points to make that kind of equipment.

Tanya had… none. She had used the last of her Skill Points to level up her Smith enough to get a proper grenade.

Besides, she didn't have the faintest clue as to how to convert Skill Points into items without a skill.

She was hoping that Wiz might know of a way around that particular limitation, but if not, she might have to figure out where the Crimson Demons lived and pay them a visit.

Tanya then picked up the chunk of Adamantite. It was good, but…

"I'll take two more like this." She wanted to make a piece of chainmail to protect her body, on the off chance that her Active Barrier was ever brought down.

It wasn't _likely _that such a thing would save her. If she didn't have the mana for an Active Barrier, it was likely that she was out of mana and about to die. However, no precaution was too much, considering this bizarre world.

Maybe she would run out of mana, but still have all her energy or something. She didn't know, but more protection never hurt.

Tanya nodded. "Good. This is all, of course, expensive, but the presence of Coronatite, an illegal and dangerous material, is, obviously, illegal and dangerous. However, I'll be willing to take that contraband off your hands for only 100,000 Eris. I'll even pay for your other suspicious goods. At half price."

In the end, he didn't dare haggle much. He thought Tanya had power – though he assumed she was a noble instead of the Governor – and he respected that assumed power enough not to try much.

Then, it came time for the hardest part. Viktoriya probably thought they were done, but…

"I… would also like to purchase all of your Mithril, at full price." He named a figure, and while she didn't like it, she wasn't going to steal the Mithril in order to get what she wanted.

She took a hunk of the stuff from him, and she felt a _pull_ on her mana…

She was shaking and wearing handcuffs and there was red and yellow and a disgusting _monster_-

Tanya took a deep breath as Viktoriya placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She thanked the man for his business and then walked away. She needed to get this stuff stored, and then they'd go see Wiz and ask-

"Emergency Quest! Emergency Quest! We need all able adventurers to assemble at the front gate! I repeat: all able adventurers, assemble at the front gate at once!"

Tanya sighed tiredly. "Just shove this stuff under the Japanese clothes. Let's go deal with whatever the hell this is and then go home."

-OxOxO-

It took them a while – they had to stop to make sure that the bag wouldn't tear, but stuffing all the stuff inside the t-shirts made sure that the first thing to tear would be the shirts – but they did eventually get to the front gate.

People were panicking in the streets, and while Tanya was tempted to think that the Undead Mage was back, their exclamations gave her different ideas. Most, while upset, seemed aware that this was coming sooner or later.

The Undead Mage wasn't close enough or powerful enough to cause monster shortages, so that wasn't it either. Tanya was hopeful that this would be over with in a few short minutes.

As they drew closer, Tanya almost wished they hadn't come. She could see people bringing large baskets, and she had also seen some kind of cage being brought towards the gates.

It was probably some kind of quest involving getting some kind of flying fruit or vegetables. There was, however, a good reason for coming.

Luna had used the _emergency_ announcement system for this. While Tanya didn't think this counted – it was fucking _cabbage_, not the Demon King – this announcement would reach absolutely everyone in town, and it would probably carry into the plains for a while, too.

Lorelei was there too, looking quite pleased. Tanya looked her up and down, her eyebrows soon creasing. "Where's your stuff? Didn't you buy anything?"

Tanya's innocent question caused a sweat to break out on Lorelei's forehead, and Tanya sighed. "Whatever. If you want to do something else, we're not going to stop you."

Lorelei looked at the ground mutely. She had informed the Succubi of the ring that blocked them from seeing Tanya's dreams, but it looked like this quest would interfere with them having any saucy dreams…

She sighed. Well, the most she could do was make the dinner they had in the evening as suggestively romantic as possible. After that, the Succubi would either have to wait for another day or try their Luck anyway.

They reached the front gate. The melee was already at full throttle – adventurers were…

Tanya groaned. How were people losing to _cabbage_? It was a _vegetable_. She was also aware of the fact that no less than twenty of the male adventurers in town were over level 25, thanks to the Succubi.

Just as she was about to seek out Darkness, she spotted someone off to her left. She hurriedly gripped her pistol and tapped Viktoriya on the arm, and she did the same.

Standing just feet away was, without a doubt, Aqua.

She was…

Tanya blinked. She was filling the cages that were probably supposed to house the cabbage with water, as well as a few cups. She was then…

_Twitch_.

She wasn't trying to poison the water or convert the people she was giving it to, she was just… being helpful.

Tanya shook her head. No, she was just luring them into a false sense of security. At any moment, she'd begin attempting to convert them to whatever ridiculousness her religion subscribed to. It-

"Uh… are you guys okay?"

Both of them spun towards Lorelei, who jumped back at the terrifying glares on their faces. "Uh… ah, well, if you've got some sort of vendetta, don't let _me _stop you…"

Tanya turned back around. Well, Lorelei was right, that Tanya would probably get a vendetta against Aqua. However, they didn't know who she'd already snatched up in her net. They needed…

They needed to know more, which meant not _immediately _blowing her away. Besides, they didn't have their rifles, since this should have been a quiet, easy stroll through Axel.

"Hold back. We'll observe her first. If her… first friend is like any of the others, I know _just_ what kind of bullshit to say to him in order to get him to dance to our tune." Viktoriya nodded wordlessly, and Lorelei half-groaned, half-whimpered. "I was joking about the vendetta…"

Tanya took the time to begin assessing the rest of the adventurers attacking the cabbage. It didn't seem all that different from the last time she'd fought against monsters.

Aya, Shizuka, and Takashi were all together, as were another two teams of only men. The cabbages were being drawn to them the most, as was the function of the potion they'd drank months ago. Meanwhile, other adventurers got between the cabbage and the main focus. She could spot a few familiar faces, as well as-

Tanya face palmed. "Darkness…"

Indeed, the Crusader was getting beaten up by a flurry of Cabbage. She was taking blows directly to her armor, and was seemingly immune to the glare Tanya was sending at her.

Other than that there wasn't really any-

Tanya snarled, and then began to march towards the buildup of mana. Her hood was up, so Aqua and whoever had dragged her into this wouldn't recognize her.

"Darkness shrouded in-"

"Sleep."

_THUMP!_

Tanya stared down at the idiotic Crimson Demon, taking a deep breath. She then spun around to march towards Luna while dragging the idiot.

"I told you not to let her out of the guild if she accepted a quest within a mile of Axel. Why are you letting her do this? She still has a massive debt to pay off, and I won't hesitate to throw her in prison if-"

Luna held up her hands. "Please! Those things are sort of true, but she already paid off her fine, and she dumped another million Eris into the Guild to be allowed to continue to use Explosion close to the city, so…"

Tanya's anger hadn't diminished, and she took a deep breath. "Luna. Fines aren't limits for poor people and the price of doing things for rich people. They are, as of last week, _tailored _to your income. If she can afford it now, fine her for _more_. She shouldn't be using such a dangerous, destructive spell anywhere _near _Axel! Do you know how much extra-"

Tanya was aware she was making a bit of a scene, but she didn't mind. Everyone was too focused on getting Cabbage right now to-

_Thunk!_

Tanya was hit with a Cabbage and sent flying towards the front gate. She felt something impact her head from the ground, and she groaned, even as Viktoriya, Luna, and Lorelei crowded above her.

"Stupid… Luck… Heal!"

She hoped that that spell would keep her away from the Church, because she wasn't going. Really, today had shown her that if she tried to go out, she'd get more than she bargained for just because of a stupid idiot that lived in a different dimension.

She'd make sure her breaks were more sedate than this next time…

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **And there we go! Chris didn't stick around long, the Cabbage quest has occurred, I made a dumb reference to an anime meme, and Tanya's horrible Luck continues to manifest, as do effects of the Type 95.

And of course, the main three continue to grow closer together, having a bit of fun. Don't worry, we'll get back to the more exciting stuff in the next chapter, which will include a downright UNFORGIVABLE cliff hanger.

**A/N 2: **And yes, I did manage to work in a Steven Universe reference. While lapis lazuli _is _associated with the mind, and jasper, being rather soft, was inscribed with images and used as a sort of defensive talisman against all sorts of things, mentioning them both in the same area makes it rather obvious.

**A/N 3: **Responses to reviews… will arrive eventually.


	35. Training, Love, Bad Dreams…

Tanya's eyes began to creep open, though she stifled the groan she wanted to let out.

As was usual in these situations, Tanya immediately ran what she personally liked to call her diagnostic check. It reminded her of the technology of her first life, and it was much less disheartening than calling it a 'post-crisis checkup on her health and sanity.'

She was laying under some blankets, which meant she wasn't bleeding. She also could feel her clothing on her, which was a relief.

She could also feel bandages covering her face, crisscrossing her head. She groaned audibly.

What had hit her again?

"Colonel! You're awake!"

Tanya blearily opened her eyes to look at her surroundings. She seemed to be in a bare-bones room, snuggled into a comforting bed that would look very out of place on the front lines.

Viktoriya and Lorelei stared at her worriedly. She had been knocked out for a few hours. Everyone else that had participated in the quest were at the guild, probably enjoying their food. Luna had been apologizing profusely all the way to the Eris Cult's Church and then on their way home.

Tanya blinked owlishly at them. "Lieutenant Serebryakov?" she asked, bleary eyed and groaning.

Viktoriya blinked. Lieutenant?

Her eyes widened and something _very _unpleasant landed in her stomach at the usage of one of her _old _ranks. Tanya continued, unaware of her feelings. "Where are we? And…"

Tanya looked very concerned. "Who is that? I…"

She looked down at the bed, for a long moment, and then asked the white-haired woman, "Ma'am, are you aware of the… _things _on your head?"

It was Lorelei's turn to blink owlishly, but Viktoriya jumped forward. "Tanya! What's the last thing you remember?"

It _couldn't _be. She'd only hit her head, right?

Tanya blinked. "Um… I think it was just after our first offensive leading the _Kampfgruppe_. I got a bit wounded due to…"

Her expression darkened. "Damn, it's that girl from Tiegenhoff. Do we know if she has a name? Lieutenant?"

Viktoriya was trying not to panic. "C- Colonel… that was _years_ ago. We… we're not even in the Empire!"

Tanya blinked. "Really? That sounds hard to imagine…"

Tanya could see the beginnings of tears forming the corners of Viktoriya's eyes. She frowned and quickly began to speak again.

"Besides, if we're not in the Empire… then _why _are you calling me by that _rank_?"

Viktoriya blinked. Tanya's face remained questioning.

She blinked again. Tanya grinned.

Viktoriya felt her eye twitch as Tanya's grin began to wobble, and Lorelei, sitting on a plush chair to her right, stiffened.

Finally, Tanya couldn't take it anymore. She doubled over into full-blown laughter. Viktoriya thought it _might _have been quite nice, to see her so clearly relaxed. "Y- You actually thought I had _amnesia!?_ What kind of trashy fiction books do you read, to think that?"

She continued to laugh. Viktoriya might have described it as wonderful as the songs of birds or as beautiful as the sunset or some other wonderfully poetic comparison, but she was currently not feeling all that happy.

She leaped forward, climbing on top of Tanya's bed and staring down at her with an angry pout on her face. "Don't do that! It wasn't funny! What if you actually didn't remember anything that has happened in the last four years, huh?"

Tanya's laughter died down, and even her smile faded as Viktoriya continued. "What if I actually had to explain to you everything that had happened? Everything we had been forced to do and everything that had been done to the 203rd? To you?"

She leaned down and looked into Tanya's eyes. Tanya could make out every detail of her wonderful face at this distance, and Tanya could also see the emotions Viktoriya felt were being etched into her own mind.

Viktoriya was on the verge of tears, and Tanya felt burning shame well up inside her throat. She grumbled, more due to the emotion than a desire to apologize. "Alright, I'm sorry! You're right, having to explain everything that happened in the last few years wouldn't be fun, and I shouldn't joke about something like that."

She sniffed. "Promise?"

Tanya nodded hurriedly. "Yes, of cour-"

Viktoriya was now grinning at her, just as smug as Tanya had been.

Tanya glared at her and assaulted Viktoriya with her tiny fists while screaming obscenities for tricking her back. Lorelei watched them intently.

Tanya extracted a promise from the woman that she wouldn't call her Colonel anymore, no matter what. She wanted to be called Tanya, since they were _friends _and not superior and subordinate and since they were moving on from the war as best they could.

Lorelei nodded to herself. Not tonight – the injury would cause Tanya to be extremely careful – but maybe in the next week. Tomorrow, at the earliest, Lorelei was calling the Succubi.

Tanya sighed as she got out of bed. "Right. Where is everyone else? What happened after I got knocked out?"

They explained, and Tanya peered at them. "And you aren't there with them? You'd get a lot of good food with good experience, compared to their regular fare, and you decided to just stay here with me?"

Viktoriya nodded for the both of them. Tanya opened her mouth to ask why, but she didn't ask. She sighed.

They were her friends, after all. This sort of thing was expected, she supposed.

-OxOxO-

After a late dinner – a wonderful meal full of experience that made Tanya thankful she had required Alderp's chef to stay with them – she went up to her room.

"Well, I think I'll get in a few hours of… translating work," she said.

She had finished a lot of the books. Most of the more pleasure reading ones – some Manga, as well as other, more internationally acclaimed books – were finished by now. She only had a few more to do…

They weren't the science ones. She was keeping those to herself, for now. Releasing them could be seen, in accordance with her contract with Verdia, as a breach.

No, the ones she had yet to finish translating were _sure _to be big sellers, even if Tanya felt just the tiniest bit squeamish about it.

Porn was a very large business with an even larger pool of consumers to draw from, from her limited understanding. The devout Eris Cultists might see it as blasphemous or something, but people like Dust who didn't care or only paid lip service occasionally would indulge themselves.

Both Lorelei and Viktoriya nodded, and she quickly jumped into her room. Viktoriya went into her's, and-

She blinked. Lorelei had followed her in. "You know you're still wearing her shirt, right?"

Viktoriya looked down as she felt a bit of panic, and Lorelei slipped in. She made a beeline for her jacket. Before Viktoriya could say anything, Lorelei shouted. "AHA!"

She grinned and held up her-

"No! Don't touch that, please!" she cried out. She attempted to grab her Adventurer Card, but Lorelei held it high above her head.

"Oh no, I want to talk to you for a bit about some… _uncomfortable _topics. I need a bit of collateral, and your card obviously has incriminating evidence on it," she said. Viktoriya's face darkened, but she nodded eventually as a glare began to build itself on her face.

Lorelei smiled happily, but Viktoriya wanted this done quickly, especially considering the topic she guessed was coming up. "Come on, can't we do this later? The lights are a bit draining, and I want to go to bed."

Lorelei just raised a skeptical eyebrow. It was true the lights drained mana in order to function, but Viktoriya hadn't exactly done much today.

Lorelei smiled. "Alright, just answer a question for me."

Viktoriya nodded, prepared for anything that she could say.

"Do you love Tanya?"

Viktoriya felt her face light up guiltily.

Okay, she _wasn't_ prepared for anything.

She tried to keep up her poker face, to stop herself from giving up the goat, but she felt herself involuntarily bite her lip. She shuffled her feet unconsciously, and wrung her hands as she tried to refute her question. "Uhm…"

Lorelei grinned. "I _knew_ it! You've been sending each other looks for _weeks_, I just thought it was some weird thing from that Empire place you come from. You two _are_ Axis Cultists!"

Before Viktoriya could become too irate, Lorelei held out a hand. "By the way, that is the _polite_ way to ask if you're homosexual."

Viktoriya's stormy expression at the insinuation that Tanya would ever bow down to a Goddess was frozen, for an instant. It contained fury, anger, and a desire to defend Tanya.

Then, Lorelei's words hit her in the face and danced across the tracks of her train of thought.

Then, she looked down at the ground, looking very much like she'd like to reassess her life.

"Y- you mean, when you asked us if we were Axis Cultists, you were asking…?"

Lorelei nodded once, grinning. She was waiting for a response.

A flustered realization, a clunky attempt at deflection, even a backhanded, 'so what?' were all anticipated.

Instead, Viktoriya calmed down and just… sighed. She cleared her throat. "Lorelei, I really don't think anything will happen," she admitted. Nothing but… sad acceptance took root on her face.

Lorelei stared at her incredulously, and Viktoriya nodded. "Tanya just… isn't _interested _in love. I'll tell you that she does like women, as far as her preferences are concerned, but she isn't… interested in anything beyond the physical."

She took a deep, slightly sad breath. "I've come to terms with it. She… turned down my… _advances_, once, when we were on the front…"

She shuddered. "God, that was embarrassing. No, she gave me an easy out, and I haven't mentioned it again."

She shrugged helplessly. "Now that we aren't there anymore, I've been thinking about trying to… well, not settle down, the Demon King still needs to be dealt with one way or another, but… try for more normalcy. Get a boyfriend. Go on some dates. Normal stuff that I couldn't do fighting a war."

Lorelei was hit by a sudden wave of indecisiveness. She thought that it was just a simple thing about miscommunication, but…

Lorelei growled. "But what if she does, and she's just been… unlucky?"

Viktoriya raised an unsure eyebrow, and Lorelei pushed forward. "Like I told you two, Luck affects everything, including relationships. It's entirely possible that she thought you were talking about something completely different."

"But… no, how often would that happen?" she asked Lorelei.

Lorelei sent her an skeptical look. "Seriously? Off the top of my head, there are no less than _twenty _acclaimed comedies detailing the effects of Luck on a person's life, and nearly half of them involve misunderstood love."

Lorelei blinked and Viktoriya's continued skepticism. Did she really not know of them? "Haven't you heard of them? 'Miscommunication with this Girl I like' and 'I wish my Luck was better so I could wed my love' were both showing in Elroad, even."

Viktoriya shook her head and looked as if she might be reconsidering, if the pained expression on her face was anything to go by, but she finally shook her head firmly. "No. It's… she…"

She sighed angrily. "I've made my peace with this. I'll keep my feelings for her to myself and when I find someone suitable, I'll… move on."

Lorelei was staring at her sadly, and Viktoriya took her chance. She activated a quick Flight spell and applied it to the book, knocking it out of Lorelei's hands and into her's.

She stood. "Now, if you would please…"

She gestured towards the door with an unhappy glare. Lorelei needed no more prompting and left quickly. That…

That hadn't gone as well as she thought it had. She hadn't thought that she had _tried_ before, but she was fairly sure that it was probably Tanya's Luck, even if Viktoriya seemed to be attempting to ignore it.

If she left any room for misinterpretation, then it was very, _very _easy for horrible Luck to make Tanya think Viktoriya was talking about something completely different. She sighed.

She'd try tomorrow, then, after a lot of sleep. Today had been oddly draining, despite the fact that it was supposed to be a break day.

She blanched. Was she becoming a… workaholic?

She shook her head. No, she wasn't becoming obsessed with her work, and she was fairly sure that Tanya was a good example of one.

Lorelei wasn't anything like her in that regard.

Right?

-OxOxO-

Lorelei stretched out in her bed. Her covers had been snatched away from the evenly distributed position she left them in when she made her bed and were concentrated on top of her.

She was sure that her hair was a tangled mess and that one of her ears was probably caught in it, but for now, she didn't care. Laying in bed for a while, just relaxing, was a luxury she hadn't been able to partake in since…

Well, since before she'd become a beastman, she supposed with a sound at the back of her throat. Still, despite the sudden reminder of her past, she was stubborn and ignored it. Her relaxation wouldn't be ruined, not by-

"GOOD MORNING!"

Lorelei jerked herself into a sitting position, covering herself with her blankets. What- Who-

Tanya was grinning down at her while… flying. Lorelei stared for a minute, and then sighed. She let her blankets drop.

"Woah, wait a- oh, you're wearing pajamas. Yeah, get dressed, though. Breakfast is ready," she said. She then proceeded to lazily glide out of the room.

Lorelei shook her head. It still amazed her that they treated being able to fly as a simple secret and not something… _more_.

She wasn't a scholar or Archmage, and she didn't work at the Kingdom's Magic Research Institutes, but she knew that such a thing shouldn't really be impossible, or everyone would be doing it.

She sighed and, after Tanya left, she began to dress herself. Just as she was about to leave, however, Tanya's voice sounded through the door.

"Lorelei? Make sure you put on your adventuring gear. We're going to be doing a bit of work today."

Lorelei blinked and then scowled at the door. She'd put on something much more casual than her usual jacket-over-chestplate and long black pants, and now she was making her change again?

She just shook her head and went back to get her gear. Honestly...

She was downstairs within the next five minutes, and she found herself staring at Tanya and Viktoriya as they ate. Nothing seemed overly out of place. The birds were chirping, and they were just eating their food, quietly discussing something in words she couldn't yet make out.

This was, however, an odd scene for _them_, for a number of reasons. For one, the servants of the household that hadn't yet left out of fear were standing around, looking nervous.

Tanya usually ordered them to make themselves useful by tidying up or by helping her fill out paperwork. That they hadn't been dismissed yet was different.

Next, the fact that Tanya and Viktoriya were _discussing_ something was also odd. They usually saved that sort of thing until after breakfast.

Of course, they also usually paid very little mind to etiquette. They claimed that since they used so much mana, they needed to eat a lot in order to get most of it back. Lorelei, however, thought this was just an excuse for how much food they could make disappear, especially in the case of Viktoriya.

That they were quietly eating and not shoving as much food into their mouths as they could was decidedly odd.

Lorelei quickly walked across the expansive room and sat down next to them. They both smiled at her before turning back to their food, and Lorelei immediately realized what had changed.

Tanya was holding a cup of coffee in one hand and staring at Viktoriya.

Her stare might be called 'thankful' by those without a large vocabulary, but Lorelei could think of a number of much more… _advanced _words that would describe it.

Tanya sighed happily. "It's wonderful, isn't it? Thanks to Elroad's trade, we've been able to import coffee beans more regularly. And the guards have almost finished helping us convert the west wing of this horribly space-inefficient mansion into a factory where I could even house workers, if I ever trusted them enough for that."

Lorelei sat in her seat gingerly. She knew that something was wrong, but she wasn't quite sure-

The sound of clinking silverware and food being eaten stopped, and Lorelei cast a nervous look towards Tanya and Viktoriya.

Viktoriya looked apologetic, mostly, but Tanya seemed to be deliriously happy, if the maniacal grin splitting her face was anything to go by. "How wonderful. I thought it would be harder to convince you to sit down."

Lorelei felt her eyebrows come together, and she tried to stand. She couldn't however; whenever she tried to push herself up, a force would push down on her.

Tanya continued to smile. "Our Flight spells might be used primarily to allow us to fly, but they are really misnamed. They should be called 'Force spells', because all they do is apply a force in a direction. A basic example would be using some mana to keep you seated."

Lorelei gulped, and Tanya sighed. "Really, you have no one else but yourself to blame. If you'd dressed me in a suit instead of a dress, we wouldn't even have to do this."

Lorelei opened her mouth, but Tanya shook her head. "No. You saw how unhappy I was at the thought of wearing a dress, and yet you neglected to tell me that I could wear a suit."

"Now, without further adieu…"

Lorelei felt herself rise in the air as the servants that hadn't left yet grabbed her chair. They carried her around the table, and…

She turned around as much as she could. "Hey, wait a minute-"

But they were already up. They were also wearing their standard adventuring gear, and Tanya had her 'rifle' out.

Tanya shook her head. "Nope. Besides, I'm training the guards today as well. You might as well get a bit of training in as well."

And, just like that, the servants threw her out of the open window. She crossed her arms in front of her face-

_CRASH!_

Lorelei was in the air with the bright sunlight beaming down on her. She could hear shocked gasps coming from a group of people she only caught a glimpse of as she nearly hit the ground.

Tanya, however, wasn't _that _mean. She jumped out of the window after her, shot to the ground, and slowed her fall unnoticeably using her Flight spells. Both Viktoriya and her were standing on the ground, looking at the guards.

They began to make their way towards their perch. Tanya would have liked to fly above them, but she knew that humans in this world didn't have that kind of magic. Instead, she'd be getting on top of the large mound of dirt she and Viktoriya had constructed hastily in the early hours of the morning using the Type 97.

She stared down at the group. It was certainly a larger number of people than the one that she had trained before – there were a few hundred people in front of her instead of fewer than seventy five – but she was still confident that she could make them into proper guards.

Honestly, she should pay herself using Axel's money. She was, after all, training the guards of Axel as well as the men under her own employ.

Tanya smirked as she began to climb the hill. "Hello, everyone. You are all aware of who I am, and I know very well what you all are."

She got to the top and glared down. "Disregarding Lorelei, you are all weak at best, and cowardly traitors at worst. You have disregarded your jobs for even the slightest hint of cash, leaving the police to pick up your slack."

They were not arranged into columns, something she would be rectifying soon. However, making an important impression came first.

She let a little bit of unfocused mana slip into her Type 97, casting a very ominous light on them all despite the rather sunny weather. "I will be rectifying that. You are part of the guards, which means that you work for the benefit of Axel, then me, and then yourselves and your families. Not the other way around."

Some of them seemed to be getting the idea – they straightened up and held their spears more tightly – but most of them didn't. She sighed.

"Alright. Since some of you seem to need a bit of motivation…"

She pointed towards the odd boxes that were stacked in the shade of the mansion, which was a few hundred meters away. "You all will be retrieving tools from those boxes. You will then be digging defensive trenches."

They might not be fit for a modern war that included tanks and planes, but trenches had proven not completely useless during the initial days of the fighting, way back then. Tanks were expensive and new, so the General Staff hadn't wanted to use them all that much, which had reduced much of the fighting in the west to trench warfare. As time wore on, however…

Well, tanks began to be produced in massive numbers, and the fears of losing them, either due to capture or destruction, became mitigated when both of those things happened to the small number of tanks anyway.

She was almost thankful for it, as she was sure the fighting in the east would have devolved into similarly useless trench warfare too.

She shivered at the thought. Trench warfare on the scale of the eastern front was stomach-turning. So much waste…

Here, however, where none of those things would exist for a few hundred years – or until Tanya invented them – trenches were a viable tactic, when you didn't have the walls of a castle to hide behind. She would endeavor to drill it into these people's heads.

As they began to grumble as they meandered towards the crates – only Lorelei was running – Tanya aimed her rifle.

"Enchant bullet: Explosive Vaporization." She lazily aimed towards where they had been standing and fired. The explosion shook the ground, and many of the people collapsed to their knees. It didn't take long for them to turn around and stare at her and the crater.

She smirked. "Ah, did I mention that we'll be attacking you all with Blast and Detonation spells? It must have slipped my mind…"

She shrugged and took aim, even as Viktoriya fired a round off at the ground. They all panicked and began to run to chase up with Lorelei, who had already pried open a box with her sword.

As it collapsed, Tanya could just make out her ears shaking as she found not shovels, but a number of Horned Rabbits. Viktoriya continued to fire, and Tanya continued to speak loudly. "Ah, be careful about working together. If you don't work together, you'll be forced to take on the monsters alone."

Tanya could not help the laugh that built up in her throat. They all seemed to run faster after it, but she didn't have the faintest idea of why. She was…

She was just enjoying her memories. It had been far, _far _too long since she had been able to train the 203rd, and it was honestly nice to be able to help people rise above their ineptitude and to something that resembled competency.

As they finally began to open up the crates and fight off the monsters that some of them contained, she and Viktoriya moved off of the hill to stand next to them. Their Reinforcement spells ensured that they were there in only a few seconds, where their run had taken nearly sixty.

Tanya spoke up. "You all will now run back while we fire at you. We won't fire on the building, and," she warned as she saw a few of them get a cunning look on their faces, "if you try and take advantage of that fact by camping over there, your friends will be peeling your remains out of the bricks when I'm done with you."

They all began to run, and she frowned at a worrying sight. "If you abandon your weapons, you can take them out of your guts when I throw them at you. Soldiers that think abandoning their weapons at the first sign of danger are useless!"

She would, of course, Heal them afterwards, but they didn't need to know that-

She blinked. Actually, wait, they _should_ know that. They'd be much more motivated in not getting hit if they thought even a near-death experience wouldn't save them.

"And, if any of you start to get wounded, don't worry; I'll be able to Heal you so you can continue immediately."

She grinned as they began to dig their trenches. She glanced towards her adjutant and blinked at the odd sight in front of her.

It wasn't the clothing or the concentrated look on her face, but her rifle. At the end of it, her bayonet was mounted. It seemed like it was always there.

"Isn't it odd how we don't take off our bayonets anymore? We used to do that every time we came down from flying, but now…"

Tanya shrugged, and Viktoriya nodded her head. "We can't always use our rifles, though. I guess it makes sense, even if it is new. That doesn't mean it's bad, though."

Tanya gave her that. "Yeah, it was a bit annoying to take it off and have to clean it…"

She smiled and shook her head as the far off guards shouted. "Hey, remember how we were told to conserve everything, including clips?"

She smiled at that. "Yeah! What were they thinking, ordering us to do that? I know resources were tight, but to have to conserve even those tiny pieces of metal seems…"

Tanya shrugged as she aimed her own rifle. "Well, no one has ever claimed the General Staff were perfect."

"Only you, right?" she asked, and Tanya giggled at that.

"You know, you're not too shabby yourself," she said, complementing the woman. They fell into a companionable silence after that, taking almost hilariously wide shots at the mounds.

Eventually, all the movement stopped, and Tanya and Viktoriya went to their hill. Everyone was crouched down, staring worriedly at the walls. Tanya even saw that some of them were still digging, making an increasingly complicated series of trenches behind the small, earthen wall they'd made.

She nodded. "Alright everyone, we're moving on! Next up, you'll be forming into groups and going through this obstacle course while monsters chase you all around."

They all groaned again, but she glared, and they stopped quickly.

She smirked.

Good. The bumpkins out here could listen to orders after all. It would be seen if any of them could be competent guards, but they at least had a bit of groundwork laid.

-OxOxO-

Four hours. It was now _fours hours_ since she'd been thrown out of a window without even getting to eat.

She was sweaty and sore by the end of the first.

She was aching by the end of the second.

She was close to begging them to stop by the end of the third – not that that would have stopped them.

And now, after the fourth, she had finally collapsed.

Things had deteriorated after that first exercise. They'd been told to go through the obstacle course, obviously, but the monsters chasing after them were much more problematic.

Giant Toads had been used to motivate them. Some – those that had bothered to get armor, like herself – had had a much easier time, but a few people had been taken into their mouths for a few terrifying seconds before they were saved by their fellows.

After that, a short break was called. It had, however, been just as tiring. Those two monsters had quizzed them on the laws of Axel regarding allowing people and products into the territory that the Dustiness family now helped administer.

Any time they failed, the two of them would order them to do an exercise, and if they failed _that _too much, they'd begin to take lazy shots at them.

Thankfully, Lorelei was exempt from _that _task, not that it mattered in the long run.

After that, it had been a course on proper equipment handling and upkeep, as well as tactical formations. Many of the guards didn't even have Adventurer Cards, much less actual training.

Those that suggested they didn't need it were given twenty minutes to run around the entire estate ten times or to be given a more permanent punishment.

_Then_, they had decided that normal monsters weren't enough, and they'd ordered them to attack a monster. The first had been… pathetic.

A single Orc, despite their strength, was no match for all of them. The next beast, however…

She shuddered. It had been a Giant Slime. They were slower than normal Slimes, they were easier to hit, and they even did less damage, due to the diffuse nature of their bodies.

However, they were also very, very dangerous. The only part of a slime that mattered, its core, was deep within it, and none of them had any spells, which meant it was virtually unreachable. That, however, would have been manageable, if it were just a larger-than-average Slime.

The Giant Slime, however, produced regular Slimes at an astonishing rate compared to any other slime. Tanya and Viktoriya had needed to step in to protect the guards, and they'd called them all pathetic anyway.

The ease that they had taken the Giant Slime out – only one or two spells each – probably convinced many of them that going against them would be suicide.

After that, things had been better. Their next quiz had been more lenient… except for Lorelei.

She was told to match the answers of the Guards, and she realized she should have paid more attention during the first quiz. They had taken shots at her every time she'd failed, making her run laps and _still_ answer questions while running at a breakneck pace.

Now, they were giving some kind of speech to the guards, introducing their new commander, or something.

"Men, I think that if you continue to improve yourselves and uphold Axel's laws, we won't ever need to repeat this exercise."

Lorelei glared from her position on the ground. Still, all of that would have been acceptable. However…

She glared at the pair petulantly. They had the audacity to tell her that her outfit could use a bit of sprucing up.

As if they weren't the ones who had forced her to get covered in grime.

"This," Tanya said, gesturing to the woman at her side, "is Captain Aloerina Vola Essex. She is your commander, and you will treat her with the same respect you do me."

They all looked at the woman nervously. She had, after all, been one of them a few weeks ago, until Alderp had recommended her for promotion.

She was dressed like they were. Brown leather covered her chest, shins, thighs, and upper arms. Unlike them, she had a sword at her side instead of a spear in her hands. Tanya continued to gaze down at the troops below her.

"Of course, if you all _can't _continue to improve under her, then I will have no problem stepping in again." They all straightened up at that, while Aloerina stepped in front of her.

"Ah, Governor, that isn't necessary." She held out a hand in front of her, and Tanya saw the people below her all wince.

She fought off the urge to smirk. This was, of course, all calculated. If the idiots below her thought that Aloerina could stand up to her, then they would listen to her orders, if it meant avoiding Tanya.

Tanya didn't exactly like making a good portion of the town's defense fear her, but she had decided it would be the best tactic to actually get them to do their damn jobs.

She sighed, and she dismissed all of them. Those not being paid by her followed Aloerina out in two columns of two, forming a great train of soldiers that would go back to their barracks and set out on horseback to their assigned towns.

They shouted as they left.

"Eris, forgive me. I'll never miss another Sunday if it means I won't see her again."

"Finally, we'll be free to go back! I'll never accept another bribe!"

"You guys, it wasn't that bad. Having someone standing over you like that, holding your life in the palm of your hand…"

Tanya resisted the urge to beat herself in the skull to forget that last one and the unsavory things it implied, and then she shook her head.

Honestly, she thought she might have gone a bit overboard, but Viktoriya's suggestion to test out Alderp's summoning 'Divine Relic' had been a good one. They didn't really know how it worked, after all.

Besides, Tanya hadn't wanted to upset her. They had been having such a good time just… talking.

The Relic, as it turned out, was simple. Like Alderp had said, you just shouted 'Summon' and watched as your monster appeared.

That Tanya had gotten an Orc was _absolutely _due to her horrible Luck, and she was thankful Viktoriya had beaten the thing's head in a bit before tossing it to the guards.

Viktoriya's summon was much more interesting, even if she couldn't control it. Releasing something like a Giant Slime in enemy territory could be interesting…

Tanya walked over to Lorelei, who was still lying on the ground. She raised an eyebrow. "You haven't fixed yourself up yet?"

Lorelei felt her eye twitch violently. "No, your graciousness."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Oh, relax, you big crybaby. I hope that _you_ know that worse things than this await you if you make me a suit that suddenly turns into a dress, yes?"

Lorelei nodded slowly. As Tanya turned away and smiled at Viktoriya, she thought that at least this had done one thing.

Throughout their exercises, Lorelei had been watching Tanya and Viktoriya. What she had seen confirmed it.

While they hadn't _done _anything, Lorelei could see that both of them were _looking_ at each other when they were sure the other wasn't.

When her own heart wasn't trying to murder her body for making it work so much, her ears meant she could hear the way that their heart rates increased when their conversations turned from talking to complementing each other.

It showed that Tanya was interested in Viktoriya, even if they both denied it. Or, even if they both privately acknowledged that they had feelings and still didn't act on them, Lorelei wouldn't wait.

She swore she was going to make them so fucking horny for each other that the Succubi would find it _hard _to stay away. It would take a bit of doing, of course, but…

If she could figure out what they liked – perhaps from Viktoriya's diary or a small bit of innocuous conversation…

If she then used that knowledge later, during dinner, perhaps…

She smirked. Oh, this would _totally_ work. And, in the meantime, maybe she would alter Tanya's suit.

Instead of being black and white, she'd switch the traditional colors around a bit. She'd look good – Lorelei hadn't ever made something that _didn't _look good – but she would also look just a bit… different.

-OxOxO-

After a quick lunch they headed out. Tanya had neglected to bring her mantle, and was instead letting her rifle hang on her back instead of having it be in the way.

She would, however, have to start wearing either her mantle or her jacket whenever she went outside. It was just getting too cold out, and she knew that Heal didn't work on diseases.

They were headed to Wiz's shop. Tanya hadn't gotten the chance to ask her about how magical items were made, and she wanted to ask her if she could teleport to the Crimson Demons.

That was, if Wiz was even there. Tanya knew she had a lot going on these days.

The cemetery, while now much closer to the city than it had been, still needed to be maintained by someone who was responsible, which meant that the Eris Cultists were definitely out.

She was also escorting the children of various 'middle class' families to the orphanage for school. Tanya was hoping Aloerina or Gerrard would recruit some Mages into the guards so they could take over that job, but until then, Wiz would do it.

Finally, while she had plenty of items that sold wonderfully – most of which were Tanya's inventions or derived from them – she also bought just as many expensive and seemingly useless ones as well.

Tanya pushed open the door and smiled as she entered the room. Wiz was there, speaking to a pair of adventurers that seemed interested in buying some of Tanya's products.

After they bought it and left, Tanya walked up to the counter. "Wiz! How are you doing?"

The Lich smiled. "I'm doing fine. It is a bit tiring to have to cleanse the graveyard and protect the children, but I'm doing okay."

Tanya nodded, and then she scowled at the thought of the children. Or, more accurately…

"Wiz. If you see a suspicious Axis Cultist attempting to stalk the children, make sure to alert the police. She's getting thrown out of the town if she does something like that." She was staring down at the counter angrily.

The police, at her request, had tailed Cecily. She was, supposedly, gone. Tanya didn't completely trust the police however – if the guards had been so bad, could the police be corrupted too?

Wiz blinked, and then looked between Tanya and one of the two behind her. Tanya turned around and saw she was staring at Viktoriya.

She turned back around. "Is something wrong?"

Lorelei saw Wiz attempting to reconcile the fact that Tanya was practically ordering her to call the cops on an Axis Cultist when Tanya herself was suspected to be an _Axis Cultist_.

"But…" the Lich began. Lorelei stepped back, away from Viktoriya's line of sight, and began to shake her head. Wiz really shouldn't ask, since Tanya was more likely to blow a hole through the roof than let her finish a sentence containing the words 'are you' and 'Axis Cultist'.

Tanya stared suspiciously at Wiz. She stopped her earlier sentence and began a new one. "Ah… would you all like some refreshments?"

Tanya tilted her head, and Wiz explained. "I've begun offering to make tea and coffee for people in the hopes that they'll come back more often."

Tanya shrugged. "Sure thing. I'm not here to buy anything besides the usual potions, but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions."

She nodded happily and went into the back, and they busied themselves with looking at the shelves. There was most of the usual stuff that she wouldn't dare touch without first learning what their drawbacks were.

The most odd was a 'Friendship Crystal.' Despite the name, she could feel it drawing on her mana, which meant that there must have been quite a lot of Mithril used in its construction.

"Here you all go!" she said, bringing both a pot of coffee and a teakettle. Lorelei took a bit of tea, while Viktoriya and Tanya had some coffee.

It wasn't… bad, per se, but it wasn't Viktoriya's. As Tanya stared down at the cup, she thought about that.

It was quite weird that even the chefs in Alderp's mansion couldn't make coffee better than her's. They had many, _many _more skills related to cooking and preparing ingredients, but no matter what, Viktoriya's just tasted better.

She shrugged and put it out of her mind. "Wiz, I was wondering if you knew how to make magical items? You are an accomplished Archmage, after all, and your shop's products are… powerful. Plus, you made those fans, right?" she said, neglecting to mention that, disregarding the items she provided through the Succubi, they all also had undeniable drawbacks.

Wiz glanced at her curiously. "But… what about all of your items? Aren't they…?"

Tanya shook her head. "No. I told you, they might _seem_ magical, but none of them involve anything magical, even if the… fan that you created uses Mithril."

After thinking for a second, Wiz shook her head, and Tanya's hopes sank. "No. I did, after all, just want to become the owner of a magic items shop. We don't usually make our own products, and I get most of mine from the Crimson Demon Village."

Tanya tilted her head. "But… you're a Lich right? Aren't you guys supposed to have tons of skill points? Why wouldn't you put some into something as useful as that?"

Wiz might not have been alive, but she certainly did sweat like a normal person. "Uh… actually, I mostly focused on learning spells and a bunch of skills I got for becoming undead…"

Tanya stared at her with an annoyed expression, but Wiz continued on. "Umm… besides, there isn't a spell that makes magical items."

Tanya raised an eyebrow, and Wiz nodded. "Not initially, anyway. There are a few spells – like Explosion – that Archmages and Mages can't learn unless they've studied it or seen it, no matter what. That goes for a few skills as well."

"As is expected, the Crimson Demon's don't even have to learn the skill in order to make magical items, and, if they do learn the skill, they can supposedly match any creation of a non-Crimson Demon using a small fraction of the skill points. The fan was mostly just me messing around. I couldn't make anything really impressive," she finished, giving Tanya an apologetic smile as compensation.

Tanya was, however, happy enough with what she'd been told. "I don't suppose you could just teleport me to the Crimson Demon village?" Tanya asked.

Again, Wiz shook her head. "No. I'm afraid that I haven't registered them yet. I mostly get my supplies through an intermediary, although…"

She blinked in confusion. "Ah… though, I probably should have saved a teleportation point there, when I last traveled there…"

Tanya, with a disgruntled look on her face, shrugged. "Well, I can make my own way there, eventually. I have a number of items I want made, and I suppose that they'll probably be my best bet for getting them done."

Wiz asked what they were, and Tanya told her. "Well, I need three different rings, mostly to prevent blood loss and mental attacks, among… other things," she said, trailing off at the end.

If she was going to get an item made, she was wondering if they could get her a gender-swapping item. The Succubi _still_ hadn't found any, despite the fact that they were common enough to be pointed to as something seemingly outlandish that magic could do.

Wiz blinked, and then she stared at Tanya. Then, Tanya stared at Wiz, because the Lich was blushing. It was pretty easy to make out due to her pale skin, but-

"Ah… with my knowledge of how well connected you are to the Succubi… the item they're searching for would also probably be made there."

Tanya's blush matched and then exceeded anything that the Lich could probably mutter, and, with a muttered goodbye, she left without inquiring as to the nature of that odd Friendship Crystal.

Lorelei soon followed the blushing pair out of the door. What…

What item was she searching for?

Viktoriya and Tanya were now speaking quietly to each other. "_Ah, was she speaking about the… gender-swapping item you mentioned a while back._"

Tanya nodded mutely. "_Honestly, how unsubtle have they been? And how does she know exactly what I'm looking for anyway? I never told the Succubi what it was. Or does she even know?_"

After a few moments of silence – and a promise to herself to go talk to them – Tanya shook her head. "Well, I suppose I'll just be making myself a bit of Adamantite armor with the stuff we purchased. Hey, do you want any, Lorelei?"

The beastman in question shook her head, and then she huffed as her ears slapped her in the face. "Um… no, I'm good with my chestplate. I shouldn't really bug you about it-"

Tanya scoffed. "Nonsense. You might not technically be my personal Tailor, but you are in practice. I really would pay you, but since we're friends and party members, I'll just ask that you let me make you something for once, alright?"

Tanya didn't really want to pay Lorelei, if she were honest. Alderp claimed that Tailors usually demanded a lot of money, since their job was a very niche one that didn't have a specific guild to protect it.

Besides, she was trying to be nice, and the beastman did eventually agree to having an arm guard fashioned out of Adamantite, after a bit more needling.

Soon, Tanya and Viktoriya left Lorelei.

She wanted to do her own thing for a bit, while Tanya wanted to drop off all of the books she had translated. With her finally having finished that task, she was hoping that she would get some more money.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei stared at the Succubi, her mouth wide open.

"Sh- Tanya is really like… _that_?" she asked, not quite sure that she was awake. Maybe Tanya had learned skills from the Succubi to make her have bizarre dreams as an extension to her punishment?

As one, they shrugged. "Well, she hasn't _told _us that that's what she wants, but, based on the exhaustive lists of items – yes, multiple lists of highly exclusive items – we've sent her over the past few weeks, there isn't much else it could be. We… aren't sure why she wants something like that, but we're fairly sure it isn't out of some odd fetish. She would have to be an Axis Cultist – a real one – if that were the case." Lorelei nodded in time with them.

Tanya didn't seem the type, but… why would she want a gender-swapping item otherwise?

Lorelei shook her head, and the so-called Receptionist Succubus stepped forward. "Ah… you realize, if she finds out that we told you, there will be consequences, right?"

That statement might have been a threat, in different circumstances. However, their plain, friendly outfits – the generally plain and pragmatic garb of the peasants – and Tanya's involvement meant that they were both aware it was a genuine warning.

She would first take revenge on Lorelei, and then she'd turn her attention to the Succubi. She would ignore their pleas for help and cries of blame and punish them all the same anyway.

They all shuddered, and Lorelei shook her head. "Well, whatever. You have chosen someone to do this thing, right?"

They all turned to the Succubi that was referred to as 'Lolisa,' and she smiled and saluted. "I'm ready!"

It had been a pragmatic choice. If Tanya woke up, then there was a very real chance she would try and kill anyone that came into her room unannounced, and only ask their cooling corpse questions afterwards.

Lolisa was probably familiar enough with Tanya that that wouldn't happen. Hopefully.

Lorelei nodded. They would do this tonight, as long as Lorelei was able to… spice things up between them, so to speak. She would need a few things, though…

Namely, she would need chocolate, coffee, perhaps a dress or hair catalog, uh… potatoes, maybe? They'd said something about them when they'd ducked behind Tanya's door to dress for their break.

And, of course, she would need a large amount of Luck.

If she stopped on the way back, she'd be able to attend a Saturday prayer and ask for Eris to help her in achieving her goals. After that, she would be as well off as she could be.

-OxOxO-

Tanya wiped sweat from her brow and surveyed her work. It had been… very interesting, to say the least.

She had enough skill points to work the metal using Smith, thankfully, and she had constructed both her chainmail and Lorelei's arm guard in a few hours. She had gained a lot of experience – practical experience, not the kind that would level her up – working with the metal, and…

She shook her head. It really was miraculous stuff.

She was fairly sure that Adamantite was as effective as _tank armor_ that was two times as thick, even though Adamantite was at least four times lighter…

She wasn't sure if her bullets could pierce either her chainmail or Lorelei's arm guard. Definitely not without magic, and even then…

She sighed and cast a small Flight spell at her chainmail, and she marveled as it nearly went flying off of the table. Magic seemed to be Adamantite's one weakness.

It didn't block or absorb magic at all. Iron, supposedly, did at least a small bit to help defend against magic, but Adamantite just… wouldn't.

She shrugged. With both her Active Barrier and her chainmail, she very much doubted that any conventional weapon in this backwater would hurt her, as long as they aimed at her torso.

She looked off to the far end of the table and glared at her last creation. It…

She scowled and shook her head. It had been… quite easy to work the Mithril into whatever shape she wanted, when it was hot, but her Smith skill had malfunctioned a few times.

She had no doubt it was due to that metal's nature.

She turned away to the leftover materials deep in thought. Now that that box was made, she could keep all of the so-called Divine Relics in there without having to worry about some servant or Alderp getting any of them.

Or for them to try and continue corrupting her mentally.

It was locked – using a padlock she had invented and would probably end up selling in Wiz's shop – and only she and Viktoriya knew the way to open it.

With the leftover Adamantite, Tanya wouldn't be able to make much of anything. There wasn't even enough for a dagger. Maybe she could offer it to whoever made her rings in the Crimson Demon Village?

_CRASH_

"I'm BACK!"

Tanya jumped up and grabbed her pistol, while Viktoriya launched the book she was reading into the air in her rush to grab her rifle.

Tanya soon saw that it was Lorelei, and she sighed in relief. The book hitting the ground with a muffle 'whap' sounded around the room, and Viktoriya hastily went to pick it up.

As she really should have expected, books were copied and reproduced at frightening speeds using a skill. The Librarians Guild told her she'd have to become an apprentice to learn even the name of the skill that produced the books.

That wasn't happening – she had too much to do – and Tanya didn't mind that much.

Even the sigils of the Eris Church that had been displayed at the place hadn't gotten her too angry. She was fairly sure that the church of her last life had had something to do with preserving books in Europe in her last two lives too.

Lorelei was rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry about that, but…"

Then, she just smiled at them. Tanya squinted at the woman, and then turned around quickly, heading towards the Mithril box.

She needed to put up the relics, then she'd deal with whatever Lorelei was failing at hiding she was doing, judging by her face. She supposed that all was fair in love and war, but Tanya really hoped Lorelei wouldn't take her training that morning personally.

Having to participate in some kind of prank war would probably end up getting pretty tiring.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei smiled at Tanya. They'd just finished dinner a few minutes ago, and Lorelei had whispered something to Viktoriya before nearly pushing her out of the door.

Unfortunately, neither of them seemed all that tipsy from the sparse amounts of alcohol the servants had served with dinner, so Lorelei would have to take a bit more _direct _action.

Though… she would have been disappointed if she hadn't had to use all the stuff she'd bought to try and get them thinking about each other.

Meanwhile, Tanya couldn't take it any longer. Lorelei had been acting very… _odd_. She hadn't critiqued their decision to wear their adventurer clothing while Tanya had been working.

She might have gotten used to it, and Tanya would have written it off if it wasn't for the other inconsistencies.

On their way to the treasury – to get Alderp's Relics – her room – to store the Type 95 and Circlet of greatness inside the box as well and leave it there – and the dining room, she hadn't mentioned the vast number of changes to the west wing Tanya's guards had been directed to make.

Instead of opulent rooms that served a single purpose that could have been fulfilled by a similar room in another part of the mansion or by a single object – honestly, having so many mirrors was just wasteful – a whole twenty rooms of this place were now dedicated to other, more useful purposes.

The first was a barracks. The guards were now housed inside, instead of a virtual shed on a corner of the property. They'd be able to more effectively deploy themselves from here now.

The next was her production line. A large ballroom, as well as a few other rooms she'd knocked down walls to get into, were now dedicated to housing the equipment she needed to produce bullets, guns, grenades, and anything else she could think of.

The rest were more miscellaneous – storage for materials and resources, mostly – but they could be changed into something more specific if she ever needed anything.

And Lorelei hadn't mentioned anything that had been replaced. Most of the gold and silver had been melted down, and the rest of the more valuable items had been moved into the east wing.

Art, statues, weapons, clothing – all of it, more fit for a museum than for a place where people lived had disappeared from this portion, leaving it feeling, in her opinion, like the General Staff's Headquarters in Berun.

Lorelei stretched out. "Hey, are you ever gonna get married?"

Tanya tried not to choke on the small bit of their dinner – lobster, the head chef had said – that she was still chewing on, and she only just managed to send Lorelei a bewildered look before she swallowed.

Lorelei shrugged. "I mean, you are a noble, right? Viktoriya and I might be well past the technically marriageable age of 14, but you're not all that much older."

Tanya felt a light blush descend on her cheeks. "Lorelei, what did I tell you when you gave me the spiel about the Luck stat?"

Lorelei nodded her head as if she'd been expecting it. "Yeah, but you never know when you'll find the one."

Tanya crossed her arms. "Well, then you have your answer. Unless I find someone like that and foolishly decide that they might actually want something as ludicrous as that-"

"Maj- I mean, Colo-" Viktoriya shouted as she burst through the door. She descended into a coughing fit, and Tanya just smiled fondly at her former subordinate's inability to call her by her name.

"T- Tanya, look!" she said, and, from behind the door, she revealed a sight that had Tanya nearly drooling.

Chocolate, in the form of bars, kisses, and a _giant boulder_, were displayed on a cart. As Viktoriya wheeled it into the giant dining room – Tanya had been told that not having a room this large for eating would make any other noble that ate here tremble from claustrophobia – more servants came behind her.

Tanya could see a giant coffee pot surrounded by bottles of wine and sake on the cart they were wheeling in, while the other servants were carrying stacks of… catalogs?

She blinked at the odd sight, and-

_Twitch_.

The last servant was bringing in a bowl of what appeared to be potatoes. Why-

Lorelei grabbed her attention. "Well, I thought it was high time for a small party celebrating what we've done. Solving the economic woes of an entire country, saving a Princess from a potentially life-threatening plot, and effectively governing Axel would be wonderful achievements for a person's lifetime, and you've accomplished them all in less than a month."

Tanya blinked at the effective summation of what they had managed to get themselves into, and she sighed. Honestly, all she had ever wanted was a safe, peaceful, nine-to-five job, and here she was, over seventeen years later, eating chocolate, potatoes, and coffee inside a mansion fit for royalty inhabiting a body that wasn't what she wanted.

Viktoriya seemed to be trying to decide between the chocolate and the potatoes, and Tanya shrugged as she stood up to join her.

Lorelei smirked behind their backs and waved the servants out of the room. It had cost her most of her money, but she had bought some of the best wine that nobles could buy.

She was, after all, helping them realize their affections for each other, and if Lorelei sprinkled in a bit of harmless fun – like hiding a camera behind a false mirror she had found in one of the storage rooms – as revenge for having to do training, well…

They wouldn't mind right?

"No! I want the chocolate! I'll play a game of cards for it!"

"Ha! I would be a fool to do such a thing. Instead, let's play the knife game."

"No! I won't let you lose a finger! We'll split it!"

"I have a better idea: we'll eat as much as we can as fast as we can!"

Lorelei watched the food disappear with slack-jawed awe. Usually, children as small as Tanya might devour sweets in order to taste as much of it at once as they could. Adults that also had a sweet tooth, like Viktoriya, might take a bit of time to savor their chocolate.

These two did neither of those things, instead choosing to grab as much of it as they could and begin stuffing anything that still had a package into their pockets.

That wasn't to say that they did something different with anything that was still packaged, they were just a bit more careful about it.

Finally, all that was left was the giant boulder of chocolate. Lorelei had thought it might be a bit much, but they didn't seem to think so. They stared at each other, and Lorelei wondered, for a terrifying second, if she'd wasted all of her money on something they would come to blows over.

Thankfully, that wasn't so. They just giggled at each other and moved on from the remaining chocolate. They would probably revisit it.

"How about… you'll eat the potatoes first, while I begin to have some of the coffee?"

Viktoriya shook her head with a smile on her face. "Ah, Tanya, you shouldn't make me eat all of this, and that wine does look good." Tanya rolled her eyes as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the giant coffee pot.

Then, she blinked, and looked between the coffee in her cup and the potatoes that Viktoriya was offering to share with her. She sighed.

"Alright. Even if coffee or wine doesn't go well with potatoes, I'll eat them together for you." Viktoriya beamed, and Tanya felt the warm familiarity of… coffee… well up in her chest as she drank some of the good stuff.

She smiled warmly. Yes. The coffee was making her feel all fuzzy inside.

She eyed the wine. It looked awfully expensive, and while she hadn't yet fit the amethyst into a ring, she carried around the two stones in a pocket. They'd done wonders during the dinner, but this much might overpower them…

She shrugged. What was a little alcohol? She might be a lightweight, but it was all good fun. The only problem might be Aqua, and she didn't seem like much of a threat, from their observations yesterday…

Lorelei was there, watching them all the while. When they began to drink coffee and wine and sake and offer her some, she would always take a small bit and be sure to keep a clear head.

When they began to eat the potatoes and… _stare _at each other, Lorelei raised an eyebrow. She hadn't thought that one could have _fun _eating potatoes, but they had fun spearing the ones that weren't yet cooked and tearing into them.

When Tanya got up from one side of the table and sat next to Viktoriya, Lorelei had to rub her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly. They were… _giggling_. And feeding each other potatoes.

Wh… t… they were _potatoes_. W… how could _vegetables _be associated with memories good enough for them to look at each other like _that?!_

Then, an hour in, they began to feed each other the chocolate they had so fiercely divided up at the beginning, eating their own and then taking bites from each other's candy as well.

They even began to toss the little kisses into the air, only for the other one to catch it or miss it. Either way, they'd be giggling by the end of the toss and prepare for another.

When Viktoriya carted the last hunk of chocolate over – looking as if she was using the cart for support as much as she was just retrieving it – and began to try and take chunks of it…

Lorelei was left wondering if she was being pranked… because she didn't think that there was any other explanation for Tanya sitting in Viktoriya's _lap_, placing the boulder in _her own_ lap, and then feeding Viktoriya chunks she cut off using some odd spell that turned her fingers into blades.

It just… Tanya was staring at Viktoriya _lovingly_. As if she were all that mattered.

Tanya the Evil. Tanya the Sadistic. Tanya the girl who rested her head on Viktoriya's chest and fed her chocolate. They played with each other's hair, giggling occasionally due to Tanya's _ahoge_, which tickled Viktoriya's nose.

Viktoriya was looking at one of the catalogs with interest, speaking in their language that sounded made up half the time. She pointed out things occasionally, and Lorelei was almost having a breakdown due to how much time Tanya spent considering the things in the catalogs, regardless of if they were for men or women.

_Twitch. Twitch._

She glared at the two women ignoring her. Lorelei couldn't _not_ feel that she was being pranked.

Like, wow, they looked like they were already married or something.

Her hands grasped her forehead painfully. Had they been? They were usually very circumspect about it, but their war must have taken a good many years, and a lot could happen during a war.

Were they playing one long, drawn out trick on her, to see how far Lorelei would be willing to go to try and see if they liked each other? If she found Dust in whatever gutter he was sleeping in, would he tell her in a matter-of-fact voice that they'd been together since the day they got there? Had Lorelei just been so worried about her own situation that she hadn't noticed?

She shook her head as the boulder of chocolate finally disappeared, as did the last of the coffee. They looked ready to sit there for a good long while, so Lorelei got out a bit of paper and began doodling on it.

Tanya had told and shown her that drawing what you were trying to create helped a great deal when it came to trying to create it or make modifications to the original. Lorelei didn't know what their Empire must be like for them to have even _half _the stuff that Tanya managed to come up with, but Lorelei was thankful for the advice all the same.

Tanya's suit would be wonderfully made, if odd in coloring. Lorelei was also considering making something else…

Perhaps Viktoriya would like something that had been more specially made? The dress she'd worn to the Princess's party was nice, but it had also been a bit rushed, even with her maybe-threatening the Tailor she'd hired. There was only so much you could make in a single night.

Finally, after nearly half an hour of quietly drawing and watching Tanya and Viktoriya nearly nod off, she put her foot down.

The entire table shook, and Lorelei quickly stood. "Alright. I think we should head off to bed, right? Tomorrow is Sunday, and I'd like to be able to go to Church without having to wait until eleven."

That seemed to startle them out of their stupor. Tanya was the first to realize what their position was, and she was able to get to her feet, even if she looked unsteady.

"Stupid… stupid body. Stupid wife…"

Lorelei's face twisted into a horrified expression aimed at the back of Tanya's head.

No…

Th- they _were_ pranking-

Tanya apparently realized the fault in her own words, and she spun around fast enough that she began to turn green. "Ugh… no, not what I meant. It… it's just a stupid joke. We- I'm not married."

She turned around and began to grumble again. "Stupid religious values…"

Lorelei saw her chance, and, as Tanya slipped out of the door and Viktoriya began to wake up, she began to walk next to her. "You know, while the Eris Cult frowns on… differences like that, the Axis Cult actually welcomes sexual deviants. Homosexuals included."

This time, Tanya did spin hard enough that she lost her balance and wound up on the floor. She was groaning, holding her head, and muttering. "No… no one's that stupid… you'd have to alienate _so many_ other people… such a failed business model… I'm too drunk…"

Lorelei just shook her head and helped Tanya up. She was snoozing softly now, and she breathed a sigh of relief that she wouldn't have to clean up her vomit, or something.

Lorelei took her to her room, set her down in her bed, and cast one last appraising look back at her.

Yes, she was still wearing her ring. Hopefully, the alcohol and interaction would prove distracting enough for Lolisa to get in, slip it off, and then take a look at her dreams to see if she was dreaming about Viktoriya.

Lorelei went back down to the first floor and into the dining hall, only to find that Viktoriya was already gone. She raised an eyebrow at the seemingly empty room, wondering how she had managed to miss her.

Lorelei shrugged. They'd get to her room soon enough.

She cast a long look around the room and then went to the largest, most expensive looking mirror she had ever seen. She pushed down on a section of it and watched as a room was revealed to her.

Tanya and Viktoriya hadn't noticed that the alcove that was usually there was now occupied by a mirror. She grinned as she looked in.

Instead of a bust of the King, Lolisa was there, giving her a thumbs up and a wide smile as she stood behind that camera. "I got a whole bunch! Looking in on their dreams is almost a formality at this point – only magic can force you to do things you don't want to – I should make sure that they're open to the idea without so much alcohol."

Lorelei nodded. "Good. I'll lead you to Viktoriya's room."

Lolisa nodded, and they began to make their way through the mansion. As they walked around – Lolisa had donned a robe to hide her 'work' clothing – Lolisa struck up a bit of conversation. "Say, how many people are in this place again?"

Lorelei blinked, and then tried to remember what Tanya had told her. "Uhh… I think she said that fifty guards were being used as manual labor, since she'd probably end up protecting them more than anything. She also said that twenty of the servants stayed after her 'week of work.' Besides that, it's just us and them."

Lolisa blinked, and she appeared to be staring off at something in the distance that only she could see. "Uh… I think you guys have got a squatter, then. There's an extra person."

"How can you tell?" asked Lorelei, and Lolisa endeavored to answer with a shrug.

"Well, it's pretty simple. Since weaker Demons have to feed on emotions to supplement our lack of souls, I can sense the emotions and, by extension, the souls of everyone here. Even if they don't have many emotions when sleeping, I can sense that there's an extra person here."

Lorelei blinked, and then sighed. "I… I guess we'll have to tell Tanya? Unless she _knows…_"

She trailed off and tried not to think about it, and Lolisa's silence was telling. Neither of them really wanted to know what Tanya was doing to an extra… _guest _she didn't want anyone else to know about.

Eventually, they got to Viktoriya's door. Lorelei looked to Lolisa, and the Succubi gave her a thumbs up.

Lorelei nodded and slipped into her own room. She wanted plausible deniability, just in case, and getting into her pajamas was first among that.

As she retreated, Lolisa squared up with the door and cast off her cloak.

It hit the ground with an inelegant thump, but Lolisa ignored it and rubbed her hands together. This would be a very tricky assignment, but she hoped that her initiative would get her promoted.

A promotion didn't really do much in this tiny community of theirs, but if a stronger demon ever showed up for whatever reason, she'd get to interact with them sooner.

"Unlock," she whispered, barely even allowing her voice to be audible. The spell was very helpful when she was getting into places, and she wasn't about to get found out during this easiest stage.

She slowly looked around the room. There was a four-poster bed her target was sleeping in, while the room was decorated.

There was a plant next to the window, which was closed and locked, and her wardrobe was slightly ajar. She fought the urge to snoop around and focused on her task.

She looked at the ground. There were various pieces of clothing strewn about – mostly plain shirts and positively sheer underwear – and the dresser by her bedside was stacked with pictures of Viktoriya and Tanya.

She shook her head and focused on Viktoriya. She had a job to do.

The woman hadn't even taken off her clothing at this point, just laying there. Her rifle was close to the bed, and she seemed to be grasping something in one of her hands. After nodding to herself, she began to ready her mana.

These two seemed to be almost impossibly perceptive around mana, so the Succubi had spent hours training to make sure that they were as efficient as they could be. Lolisa unfurled her wings and quietly took to the air, making sure that she was above the ground and the clothing on it, but not too high.

These two were very paranoid, and she didn't doubt that Viktoriya might have set traps in the room, just in case.

Then, after a minute of slow, quiet flight, she was next to the girl, staring down at her.

Honestly, she wasn't sure what Tanya saw in her. She was sort-of pretty, yeah, and her chest was ample, but Lolisa was fairly sure that there were plenty of other people with more and less of both, especially among the nobility.

Still, she was betting with the other Succubi on them getting together. They seemed too connected to each other for anything else to happen.

Then, Lolisa began to work her magic, peeking in on her dreams. This process was especially tricky to pull off on the unsuspecting – which was a reason they'd become a business in the first place instead of trying to steal emotions – but they weren't Demons for nothing.

Then, after a rush of wind she was in. She twirled around, trying to see if she and Tanya were dating or if they were having a wonderful moment under a tree or-

Lolisa's eyebrows rose, as she realized what she was seeing, and then she felt her mouth open slightly. She looked away and-

She shook her head. No! She might not be one of the more powerful Demons related to lust, but she was a Succubus, damnit! She could look at this without flinching from embarrassment. She looked up-

And she immediately turned red. She looked away again.

Well… Viktoriya certainly had a… _vivid _imagination, then, to be able to think of Tanya like that and also imagine using their spells like that…

She shook her head and sighed, preparing to change the dream. This, they _hadn't _told Lorelei about.

To make sure that they _really _might be interested in each other, they wanted to see if they were having a lewd dream and turn it into something more… classically romantic, or vise versa.

She began to work her magic, choosing to speed Viktoriya's… honestly breathtaking subconscious mind forward. Now, Viktoriya had experienced it all at once, even if she would be a bit more hazy about the details when she woke up.

Then, Lolisa began to work her magic. A battlefield wouldn't be any good, even if they'd spent a lot of time on them together.

It took her a moment, but she eventually snapped her fingers and began to work. A battlefield wouldn't do any good, but perhaps flying high in the sky would be a good backdrop?

Soon, she was high up in the sky. She pulled Viktoriya's subconsciousness into the dream, and began to have it fly about. She was alone, for a moment, and then Lolisa worked a mirror image of Tanya into the dream, flying next to her.

Then, she watched. If things didn't change, then she might have to reconsider. But…

She smiled softly. They began to weave about each other, playing games and having fun. This was good…

Then, her eyebrows rose again. They were… hugging. And kissing each other softly. She smiled happily, and left Viktoriya to fly around some more.

That was confirmation enough that the Succubi could at least try and get them hitched up. Letting so much lust go to waste would be horrible, if Tanya reciprocated.

She found herself back in her body, staring down at Viktoriya, whose expression had gone from… vaguely guilty to happy.

With a quick movement, she turned to leave. Hopefully, Tanya's meeting would go just as-

"Ah… Colonel… look out… Explosive Vaporization…"

Lolisa's content expression rapidly shifted into one of abject horror. She turned around, only to see that the woman was just tossing and turning in her sleep.

She sighed. Really…

Then, something in her clenched fist began to shine brightly, and everything in the room began to float.

Including her.

Luckily, she was a Succubus. She began to float forward, but a pair of underwear hit her leg, and she couldn't help herself.

She bent down to examine them. Really, having such negligee lying around was inappropriate, and-

Lolisa's amusement faded as she realized that they were much too heavy for simply panties. She began to ruffle inside it, and she pulled out one of their odd explosive devices.

Lolisa felt herself growing pale as she looked at the other floating pieces of clothing. She could see, in the glint of the moonlight flowing through a crack in the curtains, that each one of the pieces of clothing also had the explosive devices.

She quickly left the room, taking care not to slam the door shut behind her. She waited, for half a moment, for Viktoriya to begin shouting, but nothing came of it.

She nearly sank down and began to relax – one wrong step would have seen her erased in a ball of flames, and she hadn't even known it – but she wasn't out of the woods yet. She had one more thing she needed to do before she left to give everyone confirmation.

She stood up straight and looked at the door to Tanya's room. Despite its outward appearance of being identical to Lorelei and Viktoriya's rooms, she knew that Tanya would be the hardest.

She had that ring on, and the only people who were concerned about mental attack had been attacked mentally before and expected to be again. Slipping in would be hard, but she had been training for this.

She could do this!

Slowly, she turned the knob, holding her breath. As much as she was interested in the outcome, she wasn't going to let Tanya catch her if she could. Lorelei could be trusted not to sell them out if they didn't know who to blame, but she would sacrifice Lorelei for her own sake in the face of Tanya's anger.

She peered into the room. There was a small amount of light, and Lolisa looked around for it. Her curtains and wardrobe were closed, and she knew that the amount of light in there wasn't right, if the only light coming in was from the hallway, so-

She found it. Next to her bed, there was a box that was softly glowing white-blue. Her eyes were drawn to it for a moment, and then she continued to assess the room. There weren't any clothing or other items on the ground where she could hide traps.

Her staff – as well as its attached blade – were also closer to the door. She suspected she had one of her tiny, handheld, metal wands somewhere near her bed, but if she didn't have the staff, there wasn't much she could do.

Probably.

As she floated in, she scowled. No, Tanya had her fingers, which could be used as blades using some odd spell none of them knew about.

She knew _that _from experience, and while she didn't have scars from their earliest interaction, it left an odd taste in her mouth to be so thoroughly beaten by someone who hadn't even known what a Succubus was.

Lolisa shook her head and floated over, taking care to look at Tanya's sleeping form. She was currently smiling, though whether that was the after effects of the alcohol or some nice dream was hard to say. Hopefully, it was the latter, because if Tanya was too drunk to have dreams, she would have to give up for tonight.

She continued to look her over, trying to find that damn item. There, on the middle finger of her left hand, was a gold band that stood out against the rest of her outfit.

Lolisa smiled, and then crouched down next to her bed, taking care to keep flying despite the odd position. Her hand was hanging off of the bed, so it was just a matter of slipping it off.

Her eyes, for a moment, were drawn to the softly glowing box next to her bed. If she wasn't mistaken, that was probably Mithril, but she sensed something… _else _coming from it…

She shook her pink-haired head. She had a job to do. She refocused on Tanya Degurechaff's hand.

She blinked. Actually, it looked like something – possibly the ring – had caused a bit of pain there, if the white scaring was anything to go by.

She lifted up a hand. Doing this and flying at the same time was hard, but she could pull it off.

Slowly, she grasped the ring with two of her fingers. Her hand was, thankfully, similar in size to Tanya's which meant she didn't have any maneuverability problems.

The seemingly simple gold band was warm to the touch, and she began to slip it off. Just a bit more-

It was off of its starting place and near the middle of her finger when Tanya began to shift.

She quickly let go and backed up, expecting the worst. Tanya didn't change her position, however, instead choosing to settle back into her previous position. Tanya's expression seemed troubled, but she wasn't awake.

Lolisa didn't dare sigh in relief, lest she wake the girl. She crouched back down in the air, eyed the ring, and then took hold of it again.

It was hardly connected to her now. Gravity had almost taken care of it, and all she needed to do now was nudge it off.

Quick as a flash, Lolisa grabbed the ring. She smirked and-

Lolisa gasped as the other girl's expression became completely blank, her breathing evened out, and her form, laid out in a haphazard tangle of limbs, straightened until she was as straight as a board.

Then, as Lolisa began to let her guard down, the girl sat straight up in her bed. She had only a moment to choose, and she decided to try and rise to the ceiling to hide. She pressed herself against the cold stone.

Thankfully, she didn't see Lolisa. She was just…

Lolisa sighed in relief. She _wasn't_ staring at the far wall of her room, where the wardrobe was. Her eyes were closed. Lolisa activated the powers granted to her by her demonic nature, and she grinned.

She was still asleep. She was just _sleepwalking_.

As she got up from her bed, Lolisa wondered if she would go and try to join Viktoriya. That would _certainly _prove that the woman was interested in Viktoriya.

She got up from her bed and walked over towards the glowing box. Lolisa blinked in confusion. Was it brighter now?

She heard a chuckle from below her. "Oh, Tanya. You're getting far too sloppy."

She furrowed her eyebrows. She'd heard of people talking during their sleep, sure, but usually those were just fragments…

She continued on, "Really, 06, 01, 19, 31? The month, day, and year I died? Sure, no one _here _might know it, but you never know…"

Lolisa tried to contemplate what _that _was supposed to mean, and she decided she didn't want to know as the girl giggled happily.

Lolisa began to make her way across the ceiling to the window. She might be able to get a dream if she waited, but she wanted to be sure that she had an avenue of escape in case she woke up suddenly. Lolisa looked downwards.

She was retrieving objects from the box. One looked to be a familiar necklace from when they'd first… brought her to their building without her consent. Another was an odd piece of headgear she hadn't seen before.

A necklace, simpler in looks than the first, was put around Tanya's neck before Lolisa realized that she was moving with too much fluidity for her sleepwalking to be real. Lolisa began to activate a spell…

Lolisa's face scowled. How this human could be giving off readings of being asleep and signs of being awake at the same time?

The girl below her palmed something she couldn't make out, and Lolisa gulped.

She turned around and stared up at Lolisa, her eyes wide and open and empty, and a wide grin split her face. Her head tilted, and she seemed more amused than angry at the Succubus.

Lolisa's next move was caused by pure panic. Lolisa couldn't get out of the window in such a short amount of time, she sure as Hell couldn't beat her in a fight, and the grinning girl was gathering her mana to her, preparing for something.

She launched herself into her dreams.

-OxOxO-

Lolisa inhaled, and she tasted ash. Something was ringing in her ears.

She tried to look around, but the fog – was it fog, if it was green and yellow? – clouded her vision. She rose up from the fog.

Gray. All she could see were gray expanses of what might have once been farmland, with a sky filled with brewing storm clouds above the gray landscape. Now, it was a patchwork of craters and…

Lolisa shook her head in denial. There were bodies, hundreds of thousands of them. They stretched as far as her eyes could see, filling the craters like drops of water in an ocean.

The ringing grew louder.

She rose higher, to escape the land, but they were multiplying, rising up. She couldn't see the green gas, and she couldn't see the ground.

The bodies were rising, and she couldn't fly. She was falling to the ground. The bodies were rising to meet her.

The ringing grew louder.

She was standing on the bodies, and a tidal wave of force hit her side. She was tumbling over the bodies, being thrown and tripped by the corpses. They were crying out, hateful and filled with terror.

She hit her head, but her vision remained clear. Lolisa got up and looked around.

The ringing grew louder.

Her eyes grew wide. In the far distance, a mushroom-shaped cloud rose, red and yellow and _burning_. She looked down at the bodies.

The ringing grew louder. Everything gained a yellow tint, like she was wearing tinted glasses she couldn't feel the weight of.

The bodies were leaving her and forming a mound. She fought to keep her balance on the bodies as she stared at what they were moving towards.

They were crawling towards a hill. She looked up the hill.

The ringing was not ringing.

The ringing was _laughter_.

A figure with hair that was stained red was laughing, spinning. Her eyes glowed yellow. She was pointing the odd staff that Viktoriya and Tanya had at soldiers, who rushed at her with similar weapons or swords or shovels.

The figure cut them down. She detonated them. She spread more of the yellow-green gas, and the men and women facing her collapsed, clutching at their throats. She hit them with her hands, tearing chunks of their flesh away from them.

She laughed.

They got close to her, and hit her with the odd weapon's attached knife. They pointed it at her, and a loud ringing assaulted her ears as flashes of light assaulted the girl. They beat her with their swords, their knives, their shovels, their fists.

She laughed.

She bathed in the blood. In their blood. In her own blood.

The yellow tinting grew stronger.

She launched them away from her easily. The bodies began to rise. Missing arms, feet, hands, heads, organs, dead men and women rose. They marched out from her position on top of the hill, and she laughed.

They did her bidding. They attacked faceless thugs. Two old men, frightened and panicking and wearing green, official looking uniforms. An ageing old man with a pointed beard and more medals than even the King could have. A dark-haired man with glasses who looked oddly satisfied.

They ripped into familiar faces. They tore Dust to pieces. Lorelei had her head split in two. Luna was ripped in half.

They…

They bowed down. Not to her, but to the source of the yellow tint, a shining ball of light in the sky. The ringing laughter was gone, replaced by pleading…

"**I am but your humble servant! Please, give me more! More enemies which I must destroy! Let me use the faithless undead to drive a spear into their fellows! Allow me to exalt your name! Let me rip into the flesh of the nonbelievers. Let me taste their blood!"**

Something echoed from a far off place. "**Please! Please! I'll do anything! Just please-"**

She was laughing again, and the light from the ball in the sky – not the sun, but the girl's necklace – overtook everything. Everything was yellow, and-

Lolisa was laughing hysterically. All she could hear was the laughter – her own, the other _thing's _– the terrifying, insane laughter of a madwoman. A white smile broke the haze of yellow in Lolisa's vision.

Lolisa was _burning_. Every inch of her skin was on fire. Her wings were turned into ash. Black, tangy ash filled her mouth, her nose, her-

-OxOxO-

Lolisa cut off the connection. That was no, dream, it was a _nightmare_, a horrifying vision of something worse than Hell-

"Ah, you've seen my happiest dream."

Lolisa was forced to the ground, and as her vision swam, she looked up.

The thing was staring down at her. Lolisa had been on the ceiling, and now she was on the ground. She was pointing a sword at Lolisa.

She took a deep breath. "Now, let's get down to business. I will suffer no Demons to exist, and after you, the rest of this heretical town, then the nation, and then the _world _will follow."

She was laughing, her eyes and the items she had put on were glowing yellow, and Lolisa wasn't in that dream anymore.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** That got… pretty heavy. When I started this story, I never imagined things going in this direction, but I think it's interesting. I don't have much more to say on the subject, other than I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you don't mind the cliffhanger too much.

**A/N 2:** As with using the announcement system to find Aqua in the first LN, Wiz not being able to teleport directly to the Crimson Demon village in the 5th LN, despite going there in Megumin's prequel stories to seek out Megumin's father, is an oversight.

That was sort-of kind-of fixed in the movie, with them being teleported to the Orcs directly instead of to Alcanretia, but that doesn't really excuse the oversight.

Whether it is an oversight on her part, the writer's part, or both, is debatable. You decide

**A/N 3:** Did anyone nearly have a heart attack when it looked like Tanya might have amnesia? That was just as much a prank against you all as it was a prank against Viktoriya lol.

**A/N 4:** Tanya saying 'stupid wife' is a reference to the mini-series of 'Youjo Shenki.' 'Kami,' the Japanese word for god, can also mean wife when it's 'Kami-san,' according to the translation I watched.

**A/N 5:** Responses to Reviews:

**Pyromania101:**

CH 033 Response: Funny that you should mention them, considering that they are on the path to the Crimson Demon Village…

Yeah, she'll go there eventually, don't worry.

CH 034 Response: Nearly! Chapter 36 is when they get introduced, as does an unfortunately named 'Friendship Crystal.'

**Amazing:** No.

**wolf girl811:**

CH 033 Response: I would love to, but do you have a more concrete idea of where the special was? The idea is good enough for an Omake on its own, but if I have a know where it was exactly, then I might be able to work it into the story – kind of a 'where did these books come from, can I trust them' gig.

CH 034 Response: Please, I beg of you all… stop giving me good ideas, there's already so many plot threads going on…

**Navarone2013:** Most characters from KonoSuba are actually pretty strong, when they aren't compared with the unfortunate attempts at overpowered characters that the main cast is.

**DNWorks:** Hypothetically, it would mostly come down to equipment, allies, and Tanya's willingness to use the Type 95 to its fullest.

If she were willing to pray to Being X, then she'd win without a doubt, he'd hand the win to her on a silver platter. Though, that's like arguing that Batman would win if he'd just kill people... *Ahem* If not, then…

It probably comes down to equipment and allies. Tanya with a gun and Circlet might be able to practice a bit of guerrilla warfare to even the odds before putting the Crimson Demons in a trap that utilizes their quest for awesomeness to keep them in place, but it's just as likely that home field advantage and their strength would let them win.

If we brought possible allies into it with a few years of preparation, they would remain relatively evenly matched, as tanks would fight the golems that rebuild the Crimson Demon's village. If she had enough people, she could flood the town with numbers…

Overall, it would come down to Tanya using the Type 95 to its fullest effect and the Crimson Demon's willingness to ignore their chuunibyou nature and walk into a trap in the hopes of turning it around on her.

**JLBB:** Glad you took the chance on it, and thanks for the praise!

**xbox432:** Thank you for the praise for the battle! As I've said before, I struggle a bit with the action scenes, so getting positive feedback makes it worth it. Your guess about Rex is pleasing – let's me know that what I'm trying to do there is working well.

I hope you continue to enjoy!

**Monkey Typewriter:** I mean… it has a much more… slow approach in the Light Novels – Megumin is forced into talking with her to get money, and… anyway, it came off as a lot more creepy than anything Kazuma did to his teammates. That's why she's a bit more... obvious about it.

**121698:**

CH 026 Response: While technically feasible, it does do to remember that you have to be an adherent of a Deity and to convince a large number of people into changing their ways in order to instigate a Break – even if the original spark for the change is a King of England wanting to get divorced and declaring himself the head of a religion.

Though, if you had centuries, I suppose it's probably possible, but you'd probably have to spread it to all corners of the globe, find a local Deity that is associated with some of the things Eris is, and then rename everything to make it appeal to the pagans a la Christianity.

CH 032 Response: Ah, well, I'd suggest waiting a bit longer, because it's going to take longer for these two love struck idiots to finally see what's right in front of their eyes…

**Amatsumi:** Are you sure about that? I'd agree with you if I was only using the Light Novel or Anime versions of Tanya, but the Manga version of her gets into some pretty kooky misunderstandings.

**Zorix:** *Writes down a good idea that I hadn't even considered*

Also: it was a more gradual process, but she hasn't exactly been using the Circlet since the Capital, and would have no reason to think that it had decreased so much – though the fact that she couldn't find anyone reliable to help with the paperwork should have tipped her off.

**SuperiorFreak:** Lapis is up there for me too, though I'm more partial to Peridot because she gives a lot of info on the society of Homeworld and smol.

**Father Chaos:**

CH 033 Response: Sounds interesting, and I haven't seen it done before. With the lock down going on, I'd even have enough time to read it.

CH 034 Response: To answer the question as to whether Tanya would have heard of Rome and Greece and the homosexuality present: Probably not.

While I am sure that there's a word for it, I know it is a _poor_ idea to apply my limited experiences to other people's and cultures, but judging by the fact that, as an American, I did not hear about a single bit of the homosexuality present in history – despite the fact that I took lots of history classes – it strikes me as improbable that a Japanese man raised in the 80s, whose culture has very little to do with the Mediterranean and the people in it would hear that much about European History in his schooling beyond Imperialism coming into Asia.

And… yeah, it is stupid that she won't listen to anything about the Axis Cultist, but her last life had a Christianity that was similar enough to her first life's that she could equate the two easily. She's done much the same here – assumed that they praise a different God and do mostly the same things and convinced herself that wasting more energy on a topic that brings up memories she hates would be just that: a waste.

**MarkoncioX:**

CH 033 Response: Thank you very much! I struggle with the more action-oriented portions of the story, so the appreciation matters!

CH 034 Response: Chapter 36. We're nearly there!

**Shadows from Twilight:** *Chuckles Jojo-ly* That assumes that I'm not currently having a meltdown trying to juggle everything!

**TheAceol:** Yeah, but as I've said, it does develop – at least a little bit – as it goes from the first Light Novels to the later ones.

Still plenty of silliness, though.

Anyway, you're welcome, and I hope you continue to enjoy.

**tylermech66:** The problem with talking to them bluntly is that they're scary as fuck… and part of Lorelei's thing is that she's really happy about being accepted despite her 'flaws,' and she doesn't really want to either push them away or do something reminiscent of people talking down to her because beastman.

And as always, thank you to **Imperial warlord**, **Sprengkamp**, **Boyzilla**, and **SoleReclaimer**, and everyone else who continues to support the story!


	36. …Worse Nightmares, Meetings…

Lolisa wasted no time. Tanya was supposedly a veteran of a war and, while not _technically _a veteran adventurer yet – there was some sort of complicated process involved in being officially titled a veteran – she was a powerful one.

Lolisa jumped at the door, one of her hands curled around Tanya's ring. The curtains were too thick for her to be able to push past them and break the window, so she had to hope that they would-

_BANG!_

"AHH!" she cried out. Her leg began to scream at her that she needed to disintegrate, that existing was too painful and worth too much energy, but she just collapsed to the ground and grabbed her leg.

All she could think about was the pain, the pain of her soulless body asking her to move on, to give up, and she could only cry out and desperately-

"Active Barrier!"

The room was filled with light, and Lolisa saw that the door was now glowing due to an odd, patterned barrier. Her attention was dragged away from the door as the girl leapt at her.

She tried to move, to get out of the way of the sword, but Tanya simply tackled her. As the air was forced from her lungs, she sat on Lolisa's body.

Her small form pressed down on her with a disproportionate force, and Lolisa realized that the odd barrier on the door was also pressing down on her wrists. Lolisa looked up at her, who was sitting so that she was sitting just above where Lolisa's small bit of clothing – what humans would call panties – began.

She was staring down at her. The smile was gone, and her sword – and the silver wand that she had been afraid she would keep near her – were poised to strike her.

"Uh… Tanya, I'm flattered, but you know Demons don't have anything like nipples or vaginas. We couldn't exactly do anything like… _that_."

Levity probably wasn't the way to go, but Lolisa didn't have many other options. She didn't have the power to break out, which meant her words were about all she could go for, and even they didn't exactly sound all that funny with the pain crying out in her leg.

She gave Lolisa a genuine smile and… she giggled cutely.

"You're real funny, you know?"

Then, the insane, face-splitting grin was back, and her sword plunged into Lolisa's shoulder. She tried to cry out, but her other hand had dropped the silver wand and was clamped down over her neck, choking her.

She cackled.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei grimaced. Lolisa wasn't supposed to take this long. She had heard her close Victoria's door – no matter how quiet she was, Lorelei's hearing was unparalleled – and she had heard something that sounded like speaking coming from Tanya's room. What was she-

_BANG!_

Lorelei shot up. No matter what she had told herself and the other Succubi, she wouldn't let one of them _die_ just so that she wasn't punished, no matter how scary Tanya was.

She was out of her room and staring at Tanya's door. Then, she heard Victoria's door burst open, and she turned. Lorelei's eyes widened as she backed away from the towering force of anger.

"I knew it. Tanya might let her guard down, but _I _didn't. Aqua could come at any time, no matter how protected we are and how… dopey she is. I wasn't going to say anything about the clicking of a camera and the _person_ I sensed behind the mirror, only making sure to trap my room."

Lorelei held up her hands as Viktoriya – her eyes bloodshot from a killer handover and her arms shaking – stalked closer, her rifle in hand and her necklace glowing. "You've sold us out. That stuff was just to get us to sleep deeply – how did you know about potatoes, anyway? – and you're trying to _kill_ Tanya-"

Lorelei cut in. "You've got it all wrong! I just wanted to…"

Lorelei groaned briefly, but she did what she had to. "I wanted to help you. You've done so much for me, and listened to my problems and _not _looked down on me. You seem to think that it isn't weird to treat _everyone _with basic decency, and I wanted to pay you back. I got the Succubi to help me prove that you two love each other."

Victoria's anger faded only a small amount. "I told you, I tried! I spent years wondering, and she just… _isn't_ interested in love!"

She sniffed, and Lorelei watched the bloodshot eyes begin to leak. "I- I… I wished that she would love me, and prayed, and…"

Viktoriya was crying now, and Lorelei felt absolutely terrible. She opened her mouth.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!"

They both turned to Tanya's door, their earlier argument forgotten. "Lolisa's in there. We need to get in."

Viktoriya wiped her eyes with a growl. "Fine." She walked up to the door and knocked. "Tanya! Let us in. We can talk this out," she said tiredly.

Laughter was their only answer, and Viktoriya tried to push it open. The doors in the mansion didn't have locks, supposedly because Alderp wanted to be able to snoop on whoever he wanted without having to worry about anything as basic as privacy. That man-

It didn't budge.

Viktoriya felt her expression grow worried. "Tanya? Let us in. Now."

She banged on the door, and nothing changed. She quickly activated an Observation spell.

Victoria's face fell. "No…"

She banged on the door, and crazed laughter echoed from behind it. Lorelei stood there, watching.

-OxOxO-

She ignored the banging. "The faithful, those that choose to follow me, will be allowed to live and fight for glory and heaven, but your kind, Demons and devils, should be eradicated on sight."

Lolisa shook her head and tried to ignore the pain and urge to simply give up and fade away. "T- Tanya, please. T- think of the other Succubi. We won't do business with you anymore."

She tilted her head, and Lolisa continued. "I- I looked so hard for that item you wanted. We… we eventually figured out what it must be you were looking for, even if you didn't tell us. There just isn't any other kind of item. Please…"

She raised an eyebrow, and the sword in her shoulder shifted. Lolisa bit back a scream and a curse. "I- I thought we were friends, Tanya. I suppose this might be revenge for suggesting you'd follow a God or Goddess and for the kidnapping, but-"

"Hehehehehe…"

Her laughter faded, and she stared down at her pitifully, and she twisted the sword. Lolisa couldn't help it. She screamed again, unable to focus on anything but _holding on, not dying-_

_THUMP THUMP_

She looked at the door, while Lolisa made sure her hand was still shut tight around the ring. "Ah, my faithful servant… your services aren't needed. I can take care of a single insect that _dares _to spite me," she called out.

Lolisa stared up at her, with tears in the corner of her eyes, terrified confusion shining in her eyes.

The girl sighed, shaking her head. She smiled down at her, like one might look down on a child.

"How _clear _do I have to make it to you, Demon?" she asked, all humor or reverence or insanity gone. She shook her head, and she smiled insanely again.

"Tanya von Degurechaff isn't home right now. Please, leave a message for **Johanna **of **Berun **after the scream."

Lolisa shook her head, and the creature brought a single hand with shining blades on her fingertips up to her face. Then, it disappeared, and she felt her wing being punctured.

She screamed again.

"Ahahah! HAHAHAH!"

It trailed off, and Lolisa heard the sigh echo through her fading vision. "I could think of no better name to christen myself with than that of another of god's most faithful defenders-"

A voice sounded through the door. "Tanya, please stop! Yo… you're under its control! Fight it!"

Tanya stopped, and the yellow glow that seemed to suffuse her body winked in and out for a moment. Lolisa saw her chance.

She opened her hand and thrust the ring that she had held onto on one of her fingers. Lolisa was fighting through a lot of pain, but this should-

She- no, _Johanna, _inhaled deeply and breathed out slowly, and then she shouted "**NO!"**

She took another few deep breaths, and she stared down at Lolisa, smiling horribly. "I will not let you live, no matter what. If they had given us more time, I might have been able to do _so _much more."

The spell holding the door shut cracked, and Viktoriya and Lorelei burst into the room as the sound of shattering glass echoed through the room. Viktoriya had on her clothing and was wielding her rifle, while Lorelei was still clad in her pajamas.

Johanna ignored them. "Yes, I would have done so much. I would have ripped out your heart and eaten it in front of you. I would have cut your legs open and _pleasured _myself with one femur and _drank the marrow_ from the other. I would have-"

_BANG!_

The sound of Viktoriya's weapon cut her off, and she finally took notice of Lorelei and Viktoriya. Lolisa couldn't have been happier, for a moment, until the sword pressed against her head.

She glared at them. "Not another move, or she gets it. A Demon's silver tongue can't function with a blade in their brain."

Lolisa stared at the ceiling dispassionately. "I think _you're _the one with the silver tongue, but sure, fine, blame the Demon. We're easy targets."

Neither of them were moving, just staring at her. Lorelei quickly surveyed the room and grabbed Taya's rifle before she could get any ideas. Viktoriya stared at her, anger and fear shining in her eyes.

Her anger seemed to fade, and she sighed. The insanity was gone, and she seemed just as sad as Viktoriya. "Viktoriya, she _needs _to be punished for this. What if she had killed me? Can you trust her? Can you trust… them?" she asked, eyeing Lorelei.

Lorelei's eyes widened as Viktoriya's rifle lowered slightly. Viktoriya's gaze seemed to shift away from Johanna for a moment.

Lorelei stepped forward. "No, don't believe her! She said some… really disgusting, out of character stuff. There's no way she'd say that, and she's literally _glowing_. That can't be normal, right!?"

Viktoriya's wavering expression hardened into resolve, and she aimed her rifle at the girl.

She scoffed. "Come now. You would never hurt me, would you, Visha? You told me you wouldn't hurt me, right?"

Viktoriya's lip quivered for a moment, and then she shook her head slowly. "Whatever you are, devil, Tanya would rather _die _than allow herself to be controlled by someone like you and your horrible master."

Her expression shifted into intense anger, the glow from the Divine Relics intensified, and her knife was pointed at Viktoriya. "I am no Demon, and I serve no false deity, like the beast beside you does. I serve Go-"

She choked on her words, the yellow light began to flicker again, and Viktoriya smiled triumphantly. Her idea had worked. She stepped closer, and-

The light was back. "No! I do not fear the wrath of Go- I am a servant of Go- I will gladly go to hell, if it is in the service of Go-"

Johanna couldn't say it, and she screamed. Her hand, impaled in Lolisa's wing, raked across the leathery appendage, and the Succubus cried out.

Viktoriya looked at the girl on top of Lolisa. She was covered in blood. She was still trying to say the word God with all the deference and reverence the most pious would give the word. She was wearing the Type 95 and the Circlet of Greatness, meaning Viktoriya would definitely lose in a fight.

A glow was coming from one of her pockets, likely the summoning Divine Relic, and another necklace shone brightly next to the Type 95.

Her eyes widened, and she stepped closer. Johanna was too distracted – trying, desperately, to show her devotion by pronouncing his title – to realize what was going on, and Viktoriya crouched down until she was leaning over the Succubus and staring into Tanya's yellow, distant eyes.

She took the necklace in her hands and turned it around, staring at the _kanji_ on the back.

"_Your things are mine, my things are yours. I'll turn into you._"

She screamed, and grabbed Viktoriya's arms roughly. "No! You'll have to let **me **out, and when you do, I will cleanse this world **in the name of Go-**"

Viktoriya felt her vision fade, for a split second, and then…

She was staring at herself. The girl…

No, Tanya. Tanya was inside her body.

Viktoriya-as-Tanya blushed as she thought about that phrase, casting her eyes downwards in shame as she tried to banish that sentence from her head.

Tanya was _inside _of her-

"Ah… thank you for the lust. It's really helping me not die right now." Viktoriya-as-Tanya felt the small body she was in heat up even more at that, and she jumped up from Lolisa.

Lolisa looked at her curiously. "What happened? Why aren't you… batshit crazy anymore?"

Lorelei stepped forward. "That necklace that Tanya recently lets two people switch bodies. That is Viktoriya, while…"

She looked at Viktoriya's body. With a start, it shot up, standing above Lolisa. Viktoriya-as-Tanya looked down at Lolisa.

"Ah, let me cast Heal-"

Tanya-as-Viktoriya cut her off. "No! You might hurt her!"

Tanya-as-Viktoriya wobbled over to one of the dressers and pulled out a roll of bandages. As she bent down, Viktoriya-as-Tanya slipped the ring on her finger off and gave it to Tanya-as-Viktoriya.

She slipped it on, but her actions caught up with her in that moment.

Viktoriya-as-Tanya saw tears well up in her body's eyes.

"Wh… what did I…"

She dropped the bandages. Lorelei quickly caught them and began to try her best to bind the wounds as Viktoriya-as-Tanya walked over to the now-taller woman.

"Tanya… it's alright. You're fine now."

Tanya-as-Viktoriya was quiet for a moment, and then she began to shake her head slowly.

Her head's denial of Viktoriya-as-Tanya's words quickly gained a voice. "NO! I'm not _fine!_ I've got some _insane _split personality disorder that's picked out a _name _for itself!"

Tanya-as-Viktoriya tried to keep calm, but she couldn't. Shaking her head wouldn't help, and she wasn't sure where the Type 97 was, so she couldn't activate a Pain-Reduction Reinforcement spell to take the edge off of her emotions.

She couldn't hide from her feelings and failures and-

The floodgates were opened, and she was crying on the now-blonde woman. "I- I've probably got shit tons of PTSD or some other stress disorder. Or maybe more than one! I'm just bottling it all up and hoping that just- being… _logical_ will let me ignore these problems and this magic and this insanity! I've never been f- fine."

They were sitting on the bed now, and Tanya-as-Viktoriya was crying on her shoulder, choking out her words between suppressed sobs. "I'm not _okay! _I've got some insane thing that calls itself god after me, trying to convert me! It's… it's _working_! I'm- I'm going to give in and kill millions. I'm horrible, and I would have k- killed you too."

Viktoriya-as-Tanya shook her head. "Never. You'd never let yourself do that-"

The crying became more pronounced, and she gripped her tighter. "I would have! I would have given in and let myself go. Just to make it stop, for deliverance."

Viktoriya-as-Tanya stiffened – what was she talking about? – but she didn't pull away. She hugged her tighter, and that only made her cry more. She wasn't yelling anymore.

"Why don't you hate me?"

Viktoriya-as-Tanya blinked in confusion, and Tanya-as-Viktoriya glared at her, tears and snot leaking down her face. "I'd have let you take a bullet for me in an instant at the beginning. I had wished I had left you on the Rhine for helping me with the 203rd. I disliked you all for not quitting on me during training. I would have gladly sacrificed you all for a chance to live. I'm a coward, and you…

She glared at her with sorrow instead of malice. "You. Still. Won't. Hate. Me."

Viktoriya-as-Tanya just smiled softly. She pulled away – only enough that her face could be seen – and looked herself in her eyes.

"We all make mistakes, Tanya. Even if you would have let me take a bullet for you without caring or sacrificing us, you've… changed. You care about us, and we care about you all the more because of it."

Viktoriya-as-Tanya kept hugging her, pressing herself into her opposite, and she just kept crying. It was like when they'd first met in this insane world, only twenty times worse.

At some point, Tanya-as-Viktoriya fell asleep in Viktoriya-as-Tanya's arms, and she did too.

-OxOxO-

When the light of day woke them up, Viktoriya was back in her body, wiping tears she hadn't cried from her cheeks.

Tanya's face was stained with tears too. She must have cried in her sleep. Viktoriya licked her thumb and wiped them away in a moment.

"Cough cough."

Viktoriya felt an eye twitch at the audacity of two people saying the word 'cough' twice, in unison. She stiffly turned her head to see that Lorelei and Lolisa were staring at them. Lolisa's wing, head, shoulder, and leg all had bandages on them. She looked uncomfortable, but she wasn't dead, thankfully.

Viktoriya looked at Lolisa. "Is Tanya asleep?"

The Succubus thought, for a moment, about lying, but she really didn't want to invoke her wrath, if the upset expression on her face was anything to go by. She shook her head, and Viktoriya sighed.

"Are you alright, Lolisa?"

The Succubi gave her a diminutive nod. "Yeah. This isn't my first rodeo. I've been alive for a few centuries, and things like this have happened before."

Viktoriya nodded. She didn't believe her for a minute – she had a… look in her eyes that reminded her greatly of the bedraggled veterans fighting in the Russy Federation – but their actions, the reason that Tanya was lying in bed, unconscious bade her to ignore whatever the Succubus was feeling.

She glared at them both. "If either of you try anything like this again…"

She sighed, and she felt tears well up in her own eyes. "I tried. I promise, I tried, I really _tried _to talk to her about a relationship with her, but she made it _clear, _and she even gave me an out so we could move past it."

She sighed unhappily. "I've come to terms with the idea that Tanya just _doesn't _love people like that… even if she is attracted to women…"

She trailed off, and they looked up to see stormy unhappiness. "If you try and prove the presence of something that _isn't _there, I will make what happened last night look like _child's play_. You will regret being born if you make her suffer like that again."

The fact that she looked ready to do just that forced them both to stiffly nod.

Viktoriya pointed at the door. "Leave. I don't care what you do, just don't do it here. Tell the servants they've got a day of paid leave, too. I'm…"

She trailed off and turned to look at Tanya again, and they both left quickly.

Viktoriya stared down at Tanya for half an hour before she decided to do anything but send out Observation spells.

Maybe… _maybe…_

She shook her head. No, she'd made her peace with the idea of Tanya's love. She would move on and forget about it, as Tanya obviously had.

Tanya began to blink slowly, and then she blushed as she realized her head was resting on Victoria's lap. "V- Visha-"

She shook her head. "It's alright, Tanya. You're safe."

Her blush didn't fade completely, but she did sigh. "I- I'm going to tell you guys everything. I… I can't risk you being blindsided, and if that… 'Johanna of Berun' ever comes back, you have to be able to get me back. You need more information, and if I keep not-talking about it, I get the feeling that that thing will only get more powerful."

Viktoriya nodded sadly, and Tanya sat up. "It's too dangerous to keep my secrets locked up. I'll… stop putting it off."

"I'll talk about everything. Tonight."

-OxOxO-

They were walking through a nearly silent mansion. The servants, after those two had fallen asleep, had come into Tanya's room to inquire about the ruckus.

Lorelei had ordered them to patrol the grounds and to look for intruders, just in case. Now, she'd have to go to each of them and tell them to have a break.

She sighed. "Well, that was a bust. Sorry for causing so much trouble for you guys," she said to Lolisa.

She should have known things would go this bad with Tanya's Luck being in the single digits. Honestly, she should have left it alone.

Maybe she should just get her a regular gift instead of trying to play matchmaker?

Lorelei was startled out of her thoughts by giggling. She turned to stare down at Lolisa, who was staring at the far end of the hallway.

"Uh… Lolisa? Are you okay? Do you need Tanya to Heal you?"

She shook her head and began to speak. "No. I'm just fine."

Lorelei almost audibly groaned at the weird way she said that. A swift movement of her head revealed that the Succubus was staring all the way up at Lorelei, and the beastman got a foreboding feeling in her gut.

"Those two would create enough Lust to feed the Succubi of Axel for years! We're getting them together, no matter what. Some of us might die… but it'll be worth it, to even experience even an iota of their lust and love."

Lorelei stared dejectedly at the ground. No doubt about it, she would be pulled into this. "Is there really no one else you can do this for?"

She shook her head. "Nope! What they've got going on is a relationship, buried for years and chock full of unreleased tension and pent up feelings. I have no doubt that if we actually had any baby-making organs, we'd get twenty consecutive orgasms from the sparks that would fly from that union."

Lorelei felt a blush overcome her face. "Well… whatever. I'll help, but Viktoriya _will _kill us."

Lolisa shrugged. "Oh well."

Lorelei groaned and fought the urge to weep dramatically. She really should have just gotten Viktoriya a conventional gift as thanks for being friends. This had already shot well beyond complicated and all the way into 'they'll write tragedies about this shit later…'

-OxOxO-

Kazuma gave the receptionist one last glance – this time aimed at her chest – and then he turned around.

"Alright. I guess we're done. Until Darkness gets her armor back, we don't have many quests." He told them unhappily.

Darkness jumped forward. "What about taking on some Giant-"

"NO!" the three of them shouted at her angrily. She gasped in pleasure at being refused, and Kazuma quickly left, thinking about the past few days.

Three days ago, he met the hopeless Crusader that now called their party her own. He'd tried to subtly tell her that they were a horrible party, and that they wouldn't really be worth her time, even _if _his eyes had been nearly glued to her chest the entire time.

He had thankfully driven her off, and he'd slept in until near lunch the next day. Then, when he'd been wondering how he was going to learn skills, a silver-haired Thief had offered to teach him what she knew, for a price.

They'd gone behind the guild, where they kept monsters that were captured for quests, and she'd shown him tons of skills. More than he could learn, at any rate.

Steal was what he was most interested in, but the Thief, who had soon introduced herself as Chris, had continued to show off tons of skills, even when he said he didn't have the Skill Points to get so many.

Enemy Detection. Lurk. Bind. Escape. Wire Trap. Detect and Disarm Trap. Lockpick.

He'd been suspicious that she would show him so much without first naming a price, but her request afterward was only just worth all the skills. She had a letter she wanted to be delivered to that Crusader, and she wanted him to let the Crusader join his party.

Darkness was apparently a friend of hers, and he'd agreed to let her in and give her the letter. That hadn't seemed like too much of a hassle.

Well, after he'd demonstrated his latest skill in front of the entire guild by robbing Megumin of her panties – and she was even Chuuni enough to wear black ones – Darkness had begged to join.

He'd let her in and given her that letter. All of her perverseness faded in an instant, and she'd run off to try and find some guards to warn about the Thief.

Megumin had informed Kazuma that there was a very high bounty on a silver-haired Thief named Chris that had tried to kill the Governor and that had armed terrorists. Everyone thought she had escaped into the countryside, but they were happy to have another chance to catch her again.

Kazuma subsequently denied ever having taken anything from the Thief, not that anyone seemed to care that much.

Kazuma was mystified as to why Megumin seemed to be so angry at the Governor and why she wouldn't mention her by name, but they'd been distracted by the Cabbage quest.

Megumin, halfway through, had talked to a much more powerful party headed by some guy named Rex. Megumin had seemed to be under the impression that they had left, and their party's leader had mumbled something about wanting to try and convince a girl to go out with him.

His two friends – Terry the Monk and Sophie the Spearman – had been teasing him relentlessly about something.

Then, Darkness had been attacked by the cabbage. At some point, Megumin had been knocked out – the work of the nefarious Governor, according to her – Darkness had been bombarded by Cabbage enough that her armor was destroyed, and everyone else did what they could to get Cabbage.

Kazuma had captured a very large number, thanks to his Steal skill, and he was hoping for a large payout.

However, with Darkness's armor destroyed and sent away for repair, he had taken on the quest to banish a Zombie Maker so Aqua wouldn't be quite as useless. They had met Wiz – who was doing the job of the apparently money-loving Priests of Axel – and they had taken the card with her name and directions to her shop on it.

Early the next morning, they had come back to the guild. He had to explain to Luna that there wasn't a Zombie Maker at all, but an 'Archmage' named Wiz sending the restless souls of the undead to heaven.

He'd tried to argue that they should get compensated for their wasted time, but she'd just pointed to the imposing looking Knights by the desk that were now constantly on guard and asked him to take it up with them.

Aqua chattered in his ear as he thought, and he sighed unhappily. Maybe he'd just lie around for a while? He'd gotten a small bit of cash for providing information about the location of Chris too, even if he hadn't known she was a criminal. Lazing around for the rest of the day wouldn't really hurt him at all…

Though, trying loiter around the front of the guild and stare at the passing females also seemed like a good idea. Dust had even-

Suddenly, he found himself impacting something soft and being sent to the ground. He managed to land on his ass instead of hitting his head, and he looked up, squinting.

The sun was shining behind the figure's head, and she was talking. "Ah, are you okay? I'm so sorry, I was so distracted. I'm looking for someone, and I wasn't looking where I was going."

They offered him their hand, and he took it, rising up from the ground. He dusted off his clothing and squinted at the…

Total hottie! She was wearing a white blouse that proudly displayed her chest – not as big as Darkness's, but he didn't mind much – and black pants that hugged her wide hips. He dragged his unwilling eyes up to her simple, lovely face and bright blue eyes. He must have bounced off of her ample-

"Ah, you _are_ sorry, right? That means you must feel bad! Please, give us some money so that he'll be compensated for-" interjected the annoying, useless Goddess.

Kazuma felt one of his eyes twitch, and he hit her over the head. "Shut up! I won't let you ruin something else!"

He turned back around, making sure to only glance at her chance for the moment where she was distracted by Aqua's whining. "Y- You hit me! You need to stop doing that! Treat me with a bit of respect, you stupid NEET! I'll-"

The woman blinked. "Ah, actually, could you help me? I'd be willing to pay you, of course, but if you can direct me to a specific adventurer, I'll be sure to make it… worth your time."

Kazuma found that his head was bobbing vigorously, stealing glances at her chest every time his head was bowed at its lowest. Aqua was still complaining, and he turned her out easily.

"Alright. Um.. I'm looking for Satou Kazuma? He's got dark hair and dark eyes, a party of four, and his only redeeming feature is his Luck," she said.

Kazuma glared at her. "Hey, my name is Satou Kazuma. You said some really rude things right there."

She blinked. "What? But… your hair isn't that dark, and neither are your eyes… though…"

She trailed off, tapping a finger against her chin and shifting uneasily. That shifting did wonderful things to her breasts, and Kazuma only looked up when she began to talk and stopped thinking, which was an unfairly short amount of time, in his opinion. "I guess, compared to the people in Axel, those are quite dark colors."

Kazuma nodded and cast a quick look around. Everyone's hair here was anything but normal. White, gray, and anything on a rainbow seemed to be the norm. He'd only seen a small group of three in the guild with black and brown hair, while he, Darkness, and Megumin also had somewhat normally colored hair.

Everyone else seemed happy to do whatever they wanted with their hair, as long as it wasn't blond, black, or brown. The same went for everyone's eyes, which were odd colors like gray, purple, and orange, instead of normal colors like his green ones or Darkness's blue eyes.

She shrugged and then smiled happily. "Ah, if you are Kazuma, then I'd like to hire you."

He grinned. "Of course! I suppose that it was inevitable for me to gain great fame. What great task would you like me to take on?"

She blinked. "Um, actually, I need to see your Adventurer Card first. Can't just accept you at face value," she said, shrugging apologetically. Her smile hadn't seemed to fade, though.

Kazuma nodded eagerly and handed over his card. She looked at it and smiled. "Excellent! My name is… Sasha."

Kazuma nodded and quickly took his Adventurer Card back. "Ah, will you walk with me while we go to the area where the quest is?" she asked while tilting her head.

He nodded happily, while Aqua continued to talk about some nonsense about suspicious people. This person wasn't suspicious.

She hadn't even known who he was, in the first place, and she hadn't tried any of the typical 'hey, don't you remember me?' scams. He tuned out Aqua and walked slightly behind the woman in order to stare at her ass.

"I'm sorry to say that this isn't some grand quest." He blinked, and he focused back on her head. "What do you mean?"

"Actually, I need you to do something much more simple. You see, around a week ago, I purchased a new magic ring, to help with my defenses. However, when I left the shop, I was attacked by Crows."

Kazuma blinked. "Crows? Why would they attack you?"

Aqua jumped in. "Hey, Crows are much more dangerous in this world. They go after people and take their belongings. They usually populate trash heaps, though the smarter ones will take people's stuff and hold it for ransom."

The woman had stopped, and Kazuma waved off her concerned gaze. "Ah, I'm not from around here, so I didn't know that," he said. That excuse had worked every other time he said it to cover his lack of knowledge.

The woman shrugged, accepting his excuse. "Anyway, it took me a week to track down which of them was holding onto it, but I found it. I'm a Spearman, though, so I can't get it back with Thief skills, and the regular Thieves charge too much."

Kazuma nodded again. "It'll be-"

Then he stopped and stared at her, thinking furiously. She continued to stare at him innocently, and Aqua continued to natter on unceasingly, but he ignored both.

They charged her more than she would give him? He glared at her unmoving, unapologetic expression. "Hey, wait a minute. How much would _they _charge you?"

Aqua was also glaring at her now, and he snorted derisively at the behavior. She might not be doing anything to help in quests, but she'd mooch off of Kazuma shamelessly if he had more money. Which he would get if he did this.

She just smiled sweetly. "I'm offering you easy work, right? If you're confident in your abilities, this will only take you a few minutes, and then you can get back to whatever you were doing, right?"

He and Aqua continued to glare at her, and she sighed, pouting cutely. "Alright, fine. I wanted this to be a bit cheaper, but they'd charge me for every attempt, regardless of what they managed to take. If it were what I wanted or a handful of feathers, they'd still charge me. You can get it in one."

Her expression almost distracted Kazuma, but he shook his head and glared. "I knew it! You don't even look like a Spearman-"

She cut him off with a raised eyebrow. "I do have more than one set of clothes, and you certainly don't seem to mind _these _clothes too much. Really, could you make your staring anymore obvious?"

He began sputter out excuses – and _not_ blush, since he wasn't sorry or embarrassed at all – and she continued. "Anyway, just aim at the largest Crow – the Honcho Crow – use Steal, and get me my ring. You'll get a bit of money after that."

He glared angrily at her, as did Aqua, but then Kazuma smirked as a new idea came to him.

He smiled at her. "No problem!"

He ducked into the alleyway she was motioning towards. He'd get the ring, alright, and then he'd keep it. Maybe it would be worth more?

No, that would be against the law, probably. Well, he could use Steal on her and take her panties. She'd be much more likely to give him lots of money after that. He would have used that idea on Chris, probably, but she hadn't really given him an opportunity to, with how quickly she had left…

Which really should have set off warning bells in his head, but, really, who could blame him? He hadn't known.

Aqua spoke up from behind him. "You know that Crows travel in large groups and are the size of your old world's vultures, right?"

Kazuma's confident steps faltered, and he almost tripped.

Crows as big as vultures? That attacked in groups and were smart enough to steal specific items and hold them for ransom?

He shook his head. "Hey, I've got you to Heal me if anything goes too badly, and I only have to use Steal once, right?"

They turned the corner, where Sasha had pointed, and they saw…

Nothing. It was a maze of alleyways, but there were no Crows. He turned back to her, only to see that she was blocking the entrance. "Hey, where are the Crows? Did they fly off, or-"

"There are no Crows."

He and Aqua spun around to find the voice that had come from directly behind them, only to find-

Nothing. They both looked around a bit more. Where had that voice come from? Were they farther-

"Down here, dipshits."

They both looked down, and Kazuma saw a tiny little girl.

She was wearing a cap that looked like it had been plucked from some military officer's head. She was wearing tiny black gloves and a mantle that looked like his own, except that the border was black instead of yellow.

She was also wearing a simple white shirt and black jeans, though the shirt was more like a t-shirt in length than his.

Kazuma continued to look around, and the girl seemed to grow angry. He focused on the girl.

"Hey, are you okay, little girl? You know, a dark alleyway isn't the best place for someone like-"

_Click_.

Kazuma blinked and looked down from her face to find that the barrel of a…

A gun.

"Uh…"

A voice came from behind him. "They were super easy to fool, Tanya, even if this… piece of shit couldn't take his eyes off of me."

The girl in front of him smirked nastily. "No worries. If we kill them…"

He jumped up, no longer leaning over the girl. He noticed that 'Sasha' was glaring angrily at him and that she now had on a green jacket that hid her wonderful body, and, much more relevant to his current situation, a rifle. She was walking forward, making sure that Aqua, who had tried to run-

He glared at her. "Why you… you stupid Goddess! You would have ditched me here? I'm going to get you replaced! I swear I will when I-"

"You aren't going anywhere," said the small girl. Kazuma flinched, scared shitless, until he noticed where her gun was pointed.

She wasn't looking at him, though, but at Aqua.

Said useless Goddess was now blubbering. "N- No! Please, don't kill me! I-"

In fact, she walked right past Kazuma, aiming her pistol at Aqua instead. "Finally… I have one of you ineffectual losers at my mercy. How… cathartic."

He looked down the alley, into a confusing maze of alleyways that were beyond them. If he ran…

But he'd have to leave Aqua behind… to possibly get shot…

'Sasha's' voice rang out behind him. "Piece of shit, if you run, we'll have to shoot you."

He stayed put and turned towards the tiny girl, who was advancing on Aqua and quietly chuckling. "Ehehehe… Hahaha… I have a self-proclaimed goddess at my mercy."

She was laughing creepily, the other girl was smiling and looking on, and Aqua was sitting on the floor, trying her hardest to stay away from either of them. "P- Please…"

She looked at Kazuma. "Don't let me die, you stupid NEET! Save me!"

He stared warily at the woman with the rifle and the loli with the pistol. "Uh… maybe they won't kill you Aqua? Th- They haven't killed us yet, at least."

Kazuma didn't exactly want to contemplate his chances, but he was sure they were bleak. He didn't think the alleyway they were in was exactly good for maneuvering a rifle, but Kazuma couldn't dodge bullets like some stereotypical overpowered anime protagonist.

Tanya cast a pleased, skeptical look at Kazuma, and then turned back to the Goddess. "Kill you? Why would I _kill _one of my tormentors, when I could do so much more? What's the idiotic saying, about killing everyone and letting 'god' sort out the rest?"

She shrugged and smiled. "Well, how about I _sort_ _you out_ and let Being X try and put you back together?"

Aqua stopped with the excuses and began to wail. "Waaaaaaaaahhhhhh! P- Pleeeease!"

The loli was laughing maniacally again, while the taller, better-looking woman was still just smiling at the loli.

After watching that for a few moments, he wondered if he could just sneak away, but the loli seemed to calm down a bit. "But, as a person that really just wants to live a peaceful life, I might allow myself to be convinced. Please, try and persuade me that I shouldn't just stick this gun in your mouth and pump you full of lead."

Aqua took a few seconds to recover – amazing, since all of the tears she had shed up until this situation were undoubtedly fake – and the girl talked in the meantime. "Honestly, your attempt at convincing me to come to this world was better than any attempt at converting me that Being X tried. I'll let you try and convince me again, just for the amusement you provided me."

Aqua nodded, suddenly encouraged, and then she brought out a familiar seed and cup-

Kazuma facepalmed. "You stupid useless Goddess! She's not going to care about party tricks!" Kazuma shouted.

Aqua's face fell, but before she could start to argue with him, the other two stared at Aqua in amusement. "While it would be quite hilarious to see you reduced to acting like some busker, I think not."

They lowered their weapons, and Kazuma brought out his Adventurer Card. He hadn't gotten it yet, but if he used his last experience points to get the Escape skill, maybe…

Aqua put away the seed, and touched the tips of her fingers together. "Um… when I get back to Heaven, I could put in a good word fo-"

The pistol was back, and tears welled up in Aqua's eyes again, as did a whine at the back of her throat. "Keep trying. It's honestly kind of amusing, but you're starting to drift into pathetic territory, like… a dog that needs to be put down."

"Um… well, I have lots of skills, so I could be of use to you that way. I- I even know Resurrection-"

Tanya scoffed. "I'm not getting out of heaven ever again after you got me out of there – thanks for that, by the way – so… _keep trying_. I might need to test the extent of your powers, however, and that would require me to wound someone."

She looked between Kazuma and Aqua, and he fought to keep his bowels together at the appraising look she sent him.

Just as Kazuma was about to learn the Escape skill, however…

"Ah, right, you're actually a guy in a woman's body, right? Um… if you don't kill me, there's a cult full of people that-"

_BANG!_

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Kazuma pressed down on the picture of his head, learning the skill, but she had missed Aqua by a few inches. "Your disgusting cult is infested with _pedophiles_, Aqua. I'm more interested in exterminating them than I am in killing you. Keep. Talking."

Kazuma interjected. "Wait, you're a guy? You look like a lol-"

She aimed her pistol at him, and he snapped his mouth shut. Kazuma might have been a NEET – which was debatable anyway, since he'd died outside – but he wasn't a complete idiot. Pushing his Luck here would probably get him killed.

She sighed tiredly. "Well, I don't suppose you gave your contract more than a cursory look, right?"

At his slow nod, she rolled her eyes. "Whatever. If she convinces me, I might fill you in on what's happening. I'll have to keep a close watch on her anyway."

Then, she shrugged noncommittally. "Of course, it isn't like I ever cared about any of the others all that much-"

Aqua suddenly brightened up. "Ah, that's right! Because I'm here, Heaven can't send down any more Reincarnates."

The loli blinked, and her conversation with Kazuma dried up in an instant. "Oh? Prove it."

Aqua's happy expression faded a small amount. "Um… well, because of all the complicated contracts that hold Heaven together, if I don't officially renounce the position I have, then I am still the only one with the authorization to send people down."

Tanya raised an eyebrow, and the self-proclaimed goddess continued. "Yeah. If you kill me, uh…"

A very serious expression crossed her face. "Uh… I might die permanently, but I also might just respawn in Heaven after a bit. The Gods and Goddesses will be really angry at you either way, and they'll begin to send down some _very_ strong weapons, in addition to more Reincarnates."

Tanya nodded slowly. It was interesting, if she was telling the truth, but Tanya wasn't convinced. "And Being X?"

She shrugged. "No one but me can do it. There was something about 'abuse of powers' and 'overstepping authority,' but I got bored of reading that packet, so I made samurai armor out of it."

Tanya couldn't help the incredulity that bloomed on her face, and she sighed after the unapologetic look on Aqua's face. That only really helped her if… someone in her position were to aid the Demon King.

Although… regardless of what side she was on, the Reincarnates would probably try and kill her.

Kazuma raised a hand. "Uh… could I please know what's going on?"

Tanya blinked, and then she smirked at Aqua. "Though… if Kazuma declines his contract, then all of your power might leave you, like with the weapons."

Aqua blanched, and Kazuma groaned. He didn't know what 'declining' his contract would entail, but he wasn't tossing away his only cheat since he was so weak.

They glared at him again. Of course, if he had to save his life…

Tanya grinned evilly again. "Ah, but if the process is as painful for you as it was for Viktoriya and Takashi, you might just _prefer _death."

Aqua began to wail again, and Tanya rolled her eyes. Honestly-

Kazuma stepped between them and Aqua. "He- Hey… is there really a need for all of this? I mean… killing people is against the law here, right? You wouldn't want to be in prison, especially since you're a-"

_BANG!_

He had been about to say 'trap,' but now he was just screaming and waiting for the pain oh God why him why was this stupid loli trying to kill him and why was she ruining the fantasy vibe of this place even more than his clothes did and-

"Shut up, you stupid Reincarnate!"

Oh. Had he said all that out loud?

He peeled open his eyes. The trap was blushing and glaring, while 'Sasha' was incredulously staring at the ground. Aqua seemed relieved. Then, he realized that they were staring between him and…

Well, it might have been a Crow a few seconds ago, but now it was a mangled mess of feathers, blood, and, presumably, a bullet.

He blinked. "Uh… did you miss?"

Tanya shook her head numbly. "I shouldn't have."

She looked up from the Crow and-

_BANG!_

He winced, and watched as another Crow hit the ground after intercepting the bullet. He opened his mouth-

_BANG! BANG!_

He ducked his head and winced in rapid succession, only to stare as two more Crows intercepted the bullets.

Before she could do anything else, he began to shout. "Would you stop that?! I don't know what kind of intimidation tactic this is, but-"

Tanya grabbed Victoria's rifle, taking great care to aim for the center of his chest. She wouldn't miss this time-

_BANG! BANG!_

He ducked preemptively, and she watched as her next two bullets hit the clasp of his mantle. She watched as one ricocheted into his boot and another hit Aqua in the leg.

Tanya looked down at her rifle. How…

Meanwhile, Aqua was quietly staring at her leg for a moment, and Kazuma hurriedly picked up his mantle as she-

"WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"You stupid Goddess. You can cast Heal on yourself."

"I saw that bullet. It didn't hit a bone or anything, so just cast Heal."

Tanya and Kazuma blinked in confusion and then stared at each other for a moment.

After that, Tanya just sighed. "I should get paid to deal with this shit…"

She shook her head and glanced at Aqua. "I'll let you live for now. If someone in my position joins the Demon King, you get to live as long as you like, but if I side with Belzerg, I might have to force Kazuma to renegade on his contract."

Aqua stopped crying in an instant and hurriedly cast Heal on herself, and she smiled brightly up at her, as if the pain hadn't even been there. "Ah, we actually removed that feature of the contracts. I got tired of having to deal with whiny brats that were afraid of you or the Demon King. Instead, the contract can't be backed out of, for any of the parties, and it ensures that you simply _can't _decide to seriously side with the Demon King, unless they get pushed really far. It alters your brain chemistry!" she finished cheerfully.

Tanya raised an eyebrow, and then turned to Kazuma. He shrugged. "I wouldn't want to do that anyway. That sounds like too much trouble."

"HikiNEET," Aqua spat out. He rounded on her, glaring, and Tanya sighed.

A NEET?

How idiotic. They weren't, by any means, a _large _part of the first society she'd been a part of, but she disliked them regardless.

As the two of them continued to bicker, Tanya turned around. "Come on, Viktoriya. I want some lunch, and dealing with these two wouldn't be hard in the slightest. It wasn't even as cathartic as I thought it would be."

She nodded. "Yeah. She's a Priest, right? She couldn't hurt us with most of her abilities anyway, and that KazuTrash is honestly pathetic."

They ignored the brief pause in their hostilities to shout "Hey!" at them, but they didn't even turn around. There were better things they could be doing with their time – like attempting to convince a rock that it could talk, maybe – and they were busy people.

"I'll show you. STEAL!"

Tanya turned around, Victoria's rifle in hand. She would run him through with the blade if it were the last thing she-

She blinked at the sudden absence, and she looked down at herself. No, it wasn't there either, so-

She looked up. Viktoriya's rifle was now in the hands of the NEET. He looked just as surprised as Aqua did.

Then, he triumphantly turned to Aqua. "See? I didn't steal her panties, which means that what I did to Megumin was completely accidental."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "No, it probably just means that she really _is _a trap. Though, whether that's because she's a girl dressed as a guy, or a guy in a girl's body is debatable."

Tanya was in front of him in a second, swiping away Viktoriya's rifle. "Do that again and I'll drain your body of its fluids using magic."

He nodded rapidly and unerringly, and Tanya spun around, hurrying away with Viktoriya.

She handed the woman her rifle back and sighed. Honestly-

"Ah… Tanya? What is a… 'trap'?"

As Tanya tripped and impacted the ground, she wondered if she couldn't go back and kill them anyway.

Their stupid insistence on using those terms meant that Tanya was now going to have to explain the deep, dark rabbit hole of the fetishes born thanks to anime, the internet, and the human race's insatiable curiosity that wouldn't be abated by anything less than total revulsion.

Oh, some of the stuff on the World Wide Web might have had historical ties as well, but she was damn sure that the word _trap _hadn't been invented until modern times.

Regardless, she was going to have to explain it now, and she was _not_ looking forward to this.

-OxOxO-

Tanya smiled at Viktoriya from under her hood. "You know, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be."

The woman who had once been her adjutant nodded and then looked around nervously. Tanya didn't blame her, but it was necessary.

After Tanya had ducked into a different nearby alley, explained what horrors the future had wrought upon people, and consoled a seemingly disillusioned Viktoriya, they'd left the area in the dust.

Unfortunately, they'd been attacked by a veritable horde of Crows, probably angry that Tanya had killed some of them. They had been forced to use their Reinforcement spells to run for it, and they'd only just managed to duck into a somewhat nice looking establishment for a bit of lunch.

Five Cabbage had jumped from the kitchen and tried to bombard them. Tanya had accepted the owner's offer of a free lunch.

Things had gotten worse from there. The windows had been broken by Crows attempting to get them, which had released the Cabbage again. Tanya had been forced to hire Dust – who had apparently decided to spend the money he hoped to earn from the Cabbage and had gone into debt – Taylor, Lynn, and Keith to protect them.

Still, the food wasn't half bad, and she'd managed to strike up a conversation with Taylor. Viktoriya was talking to Lynn, while Keith and Dust were staring at them all and muttering.

Finally, their check came. Tanya paid for a bit of it and slipped Taylor some cash as well. "For your services."

He nodded gratefully, and, as they stood, Dust spoke up. "Stupid loli Axis Culti-"

She pointed her pistol at him. "Please, Dust, continue to speak. I'd love to buy up all your debt and charge you an outrageous amount of interest. Maybe ten percent increase a _day_, this time?"

Viktoriya seemed to be blushing – probably from the hot meal and being mistaken as a follower of the pitiful person they'd beaten soundly just an hour ago – while the others were staring at her. Dust had frozen and was just staring at her silently.

He remained silent, and she sighed. "Let's go, Viktoriya. We've got things to do today."

She nodded, and they set off, scanning the area and making sure that nothing else _unlucky _would attack them.

Luck was, of course, what had protected Kazuma. His immense Luck and her nearly nonexistent Luck meant that she… might not be able to hit him with a projectile unless she was resting a gun on his forehead.

She didn't want to believe that Luck – something that was random and helpful and unhelpful in equal portions – but what she had seen proved that it had to exist in some capacity, for Crows to jump in front of her bullets like that.

She shrugged. Oh well. They needed to get a few things before their…

Tanya scowled. She supposed that the only phrase for it would be 'Tanya and Viktoriya's history and past that they didn't really want to talk about', but that was just…

Depressing.

She shook her head and continued on her way. They were headed somewhere to see if they could get a bit of… magical help, to lend credence to her and Victoria's words.

"Hey!" came a shout to their left. They looked and saw that Lorelei was waving them down and charging through a crowd. She seemed… oddly chipper, considering what happened last night.

They both greeted the beastman, and she walked next to them towards their destination. "So, you guys said we were going to Wiz's shop, right? Why?"

Tanya sighed. "I… want to get an item that might… prove what we're saying is true."

Lorelei began to digest that, and Tanya was left to her own devices for a moment.

She had no doubt that, despite the fact that Viktoriya had told her that she would have believed her if Tanya had told her she was forced into a second life by a thing that claimed to be god, even her friend would need a bit more proof than just her word.

In that case, Tanya was a smart girl who'd joined the army at a ridiculously young age. In this one, Tanya was technically an adult who might be seen as crazy for what she would say.

If she was going to try and prove this, she wasn't going to go through any long, drawn out process that involved crying and pleading. She was going to do something that would save them time, if not money.

She pushed open the door to Wiz's shop.

-OxOxO-

"What are you trying to do now?" he asked as he slapped Aqua on the back of the head.

"Ouch! Stop hitting me! You did that in front of that devil! She'll kill me in a moment if she detects even a hint of weakness, and her words are just as hollow as her heart… or your head!"

As she continued to shout at him, he just shook his head. It was only because of those two that they were even here in the first place.

After he and Aqua had finished arguing with each other, Aqua had immediately begun picking through the corpses of the Crows, looking for stolen merchandise that she wanted to resell.

Kazuma used Steal on them and got a handful of very impressive looking jewels and pieces of jewelry, which he returned to the Guild. Thanks to that, he'd been given tons of money from a number of quests posted by upset adventurers and _nobles_, even.

He was planning to use that money to get something to protect himself in this shop, but Wiz had offered to teach him a skill as thanks for letting her go last night and for not killing her, as an Adventurer might want to do to a Lich in the employ of the Demon King.

He couldn't learn it _yet_. He didn't have any Skill Points left, but he would learn Drain Touch in the future, if for no other reason than it might be very helpful when fighting that loli.

He'd had another idea too. The other Reincarnates didn't need to worry about their money and living spaces, since they all had useful cheats.

Kazuma, unfortunately, did.

However, he could market items from his original world in order to make money, and while he didn't know how he'd do it yet, he wanted to discuss the idea with Wiz.

That idea had been shot down, almost literally. All over her store, everyday items from his last life – lighters and band-aids and Swiss army knives and fans and even pocket watches – were being sold.

Someone had beat him to the punch, and if the image of a small, blonde girl being used to market the products was anything to go by, he could guess who it was.

He began to grab a few of the items off of the tables, intent on studying them to see if he could make anything she hadn't thought of.

He shook his head as one of the cardboard cutouts declared to have the most useful adventuring items in all of Belzerg. He would say that he was surprised that Aqua had accidentally reincarnated some sort of homicidal loli atheist into this world… but that would be lying.

The sound of the bell on the door ringing reached his ears, and he turned, with Aqua and Wiz, towards the door. He blinked in surprise.

"What are you doing here!?" he shouted. The… 'girl' in front of him – Tanya von Degurechaff, according to Aqua – gave him an expression that looked just as shocked as he probably did, if more annoyed than he was scared.

"I could ask you the same," she commented blandly. She stepped in and glared at Aqua, who shrank back in fear.

She chuckled and turned to Wiz. "So, you-"

She cut herself off and stared at Wiz. Then, she turned to Aqua, glaring for real this time. "What did you do to her? Why is she translucent?"

Aqua was beginning to cry again, and she just turned to him and Wiz. Wiz touched the tips of her fingers together. "Um… well, I demonstrated a skill to Kazuma so he could learn it later, and… Aqua might have held onto me for too long?"

Tanya nodded and turned to Aqua, who was now heading towards a small table near the brightly colored glass. She froze, and Tanya rested a hand on her pistol. "If you exorcise Wiz, I'll throw you in prison."

Aqua cringed away, sent a look at Kazuma, and hurriedly jumped behind him. As he tried to get her off of him – he wasn't taking a bullet for her if he could help it – she held onto him with a surprising amount of strength.

He finally accepted his position, and she began smirking at Tanya. "How? She's just a dirty, God-defying Undead, kind of like you. She's a General of the Demon King, so the town would give us tons of money-"

Tanya shook her head. "First of all, she's helped save the town using her… odd products before, so the town would be angry. Second, I am the _Governor of Axel_, and while the Dustiness family might help me run the surrounding lands, I technically have final authority here."

Then, she actually began to contemplate putting them in prison. "Actually, if you're safe behind bars, I don't have to worry about you dying when I don't want you to." She grinned at them.

The woman behind Tanya and her friend stepped forward, though Kazuma could easily see her face and… ears above the heads of the other two. "Uh… you guys know each other?"

Tanya rolled her eyes as Kazuma began to think. "Yes, we know each other, Lorelei. Though, they must certainly _wish _that I were anywhere else."

She cast a look back at Lorelei, and she sighed tiredly. "She… Aqua, the one with the blue hair, has a part in my past."

Lorelei nodded in understanding, and Kazuma smirked and stepped towards Tanya. "You don't want us to die?" he asked her. Tanya nodded slowly, and he grinned.

"Fine! I'd like a mansion and lots of money and some maids. I'll stay far away from adventuring-"

"I could also throw you in prison for attempted coercion, NEET," she said, cutting him off with a glare. He shut his mouth.

He glared back at her and poked her forehead repeatedly. "Hey, I died outside, which means that I am _not _a NEET! I even technically have a job now, so that phrase doesn't apply to-"

He felt his hand suddenly stop jabbing her in the head, and he looked down at his hand. It was being gripped by her friend, Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. He looked towards her…

"I'd stop that if you want to keep your hand. Of course, we could also see how far Heal functions."

She bent his hand back, and he began to call out uncle. She didn't care. "We don't know if it works to restore limbs, after all."

-OxOxO-

One last time, Megumin readjusted her hat and her cloak. She needed to make a grand entrance if she wanted to one-up this copycat.

Because that was what she was. Degurechaff might not know the actual ultimate spell, Explosion, but she had shamelessly ripped her off.

How else could it be that everyone compared them?

Thanks to her, she hadn't been able to get a good party for three weeks, though the one she headed now was pretty good.

In that time, she had been compared, time after time, to a _different _Explosion-obsessed loli. She had been insulted, under the breaths of everyone, for not being able to do anything after using Explosion.

Then, Megumin had met the copycat, and she had been unlike anything she could have prepared for.

She wasn't dressed expensively like a noble, she spoke with a generally neutral accent – kind of like Kazuma, actually – and she wasn't dressed as a proper Mage either. She even dared to use blades and buffing magic that no true Mage would ever be able to wield.

She obviously had some sort of odd niche job, though her proficiency in various, completely different areas suggested that she was using items and not skills for _something._

She'd also met her in their battle against Hoost, where she'd been completely dismissive of her Explosion spell.

The Governor had demonstrated some odd skills and spells – the ones they used against Hoost, that did physical damage were interesting, as were her smaller explosions – but Megumin didn't really care. She wanted to know where she'd seen something more impressive than her Explosion, to be so easily dismissive of her spell.

Could she _cause _that kind of explosion, or had she run into the big-breasted, mysterious woman like Megumin had? Did she know where that original provider of the ultimate spell was?

She shook her head. Well, right now, she was going to be compensated for her defeats. She had been forced to use some of Cecily's money to pay back the guild, and the girl wasn't even a proper Mage.

This would be a cakewalk, especially since she'd been following them since they had passed by her while being chased by a swarm of Crows.

She threw open the door, and she took in the scene in front of her.

She blinked. "Wait, Kazuma? Aqua? What are you doing here?"

Indeed, Kazuma and Aqua were sitting quietly at a table and sulking while a beastman leaned against a nearby wall. The Governor and… someone else whose back was to her were talking to the owner of the shop…

Her eyebrows rose as she recognized the owner. "Oh, you're Wiz right?"

She walked out from behind the other two and smiled. "Ah, Megumin. Are you here to join your friends, or do you want an item?"

Megumin continued to look at the Lich. There was something about her that seemed familiar…

She shook her head and then glared at the back of her target's head. "No, I'm here for a different reason."

She walked forward, ignoring the tables filled with odd looking items, and managed to brandish her staff and swirl her cloak around her. "I am Megumin, the top Crimson Demon and wielder of the most destructive magic in all the world! I am here to challenge Tanya von Degurechaff!"

Everyone in the room glanced towards Megumin, including her target. Megumin scowled at the annoyed look on her face.

She seemed uninterested, and Megumin's anger began to flare. She got a good look at the person next to her.

Her eyes widened. "Ah… it's you…"

Degurechaff looked at the girl at her side. "You know her Viktoriya?"

She blinked, tapping a finger against her cheek, and then she let out a small exclamation of remembrance. "Right! I saved your friend from that pedophile, right? The police _did _have a warrant out for him, it turns out, and he's been thrown in jail for the rest of his life, however short that is thanks to the other prisoners."

The room was very quiet, for a moment, until Kazuma leaned towards Aqua. "Hey, I thought you said she was a stupid, naive girl who was only anything because of the loli. What gives? She's looking scarier than the pipsqueak."

As the aforementioned loli began to shoot Kazuma looks that could peel the skin off of a Giant Toad, Megumin licked her lips nervously. The taller girl was… scary, to say the least.

She'd seemed ready to kill that guy, and if she was friends with Degurechaff…

The blonde shook her head and looked towards her friend inquisitively. "You… you helped her? And she tried to blow you and Hoost up?"

She tilted her head, but Megumin felt the staff in her hands begin to shake a little. That had been her?

Degurechaff rounded on her, furious. "You better be here to apologize for that."

She gulped nervously. "B- But… if I had taken out Hoost, wouldn't it have been worth it?"

She shook her head. "No. I _should have_ thrown your stupid cat to him instead of going along with that plan to fight him. It would have been safer for everyone involved, and it would have cost a single mangy fleabag."

Ignoring Kazuma's questions – "You have a cat? And who's Hoost?" – Megumin glared at her, for a second, before looking past her and at… Viktoriya, Degurehaff had called her. "I'm sorry for not looking out for you. You would have been killed in the blast of my awesome Explosion.""Hey, she doesn't sound that sorry."

Megumin rounded on the Adventurer of her party. "Hey, don't talk! Shouldn't you be supporting me?"

He and Aqua immediately shook their heads. "Not a chance. I'd rather fight this 'Hoost' person you keep talking about," Kazuma said in a completely flat voice.

"Yeah, trying to take on the Devil of the Rhine seems like a really fast way to commit suicide," Aqua added.

Megumin glared at them and then rounded on the small girl. "Well, I don't need their help to take you on."

She smirked. "Yes, it would be incorrect of me to beat you using help, since you're…"

She paused, and brought a hand up to her face to cover the side with the eyepatch and smiled at her. "…My rival!"

"Chuunibyou," Tanya and Kazuma said in unison. They gave each other a quick glance, until Megumin gave up on her pretenses and stomped her feet.

"Shut up!" she shouted. Tanya rolled her eyes.

Even if Megumin was… wait, was she even an adult yet, by the standards of _any _of Tanya's worlds?

She shook her head. It didn't really matter. She was immature, and Tanya might ordinarily accept that and ignore her, but she also had the power to destroy an easily measurable portion of the town.

Now, Lorelei spoke up. "Hey, if you're going to fight, can you wait for Tanya to build a fighting ring in the guild or something?"

Tanya glanced at Lorelei curiously, before considering the idea. It might be a good idea to get something else in Axel for entertainment, so that the adventurers wouldn't just cause havoc and pour their money into alcohol and gambling and committing exceedingly petty crimes.

Megumin hurriedly shook her head. "W- While I haven't yet used my Explosion spell – which would definitely blow you away – travelling somewhere away from town to use it would be a problem-"

Tanya cut her off with a glare. "Like you care? You've used that spell several times in the past few days close to Axel, most notably to beat Hoost. You even tried to use it next to the gate of Axel to beat those Cabbages, which would have caused massive property damage to the windows of every building in the vicinity. Do I need to level another fine on you?" she asked rhetorically.

She rapidly shook her head, and Tanya sighed, shaking her head. "Whatever. I don't really want to fight anyway."

Megumin smirked. "Good! An Archmage as pathetic as you couldn't ever beat me! I mean, look at your weapons."

She pointed at Viktoriya's staff and the pistol strapped to her waist. Tanya raised an eyebrow, and Megumin continued her rant. "Those things don't look like they have a single piece of good wood. How effective can your spells be if your not using a staff made from a mana-imbued tree?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Did any of the spells that you saw me use seem weak?"

Megumin rolled her eyes. "No, but they obviously could have been better. Speaking of which…"

She pointed at Viktoriya's staff again. "You have a blade strapped to your weapons? What kind of Archmage does that, besides a bad one?"

Tanya still didn't react outwardly, besides a small frown. The Crimson Demon seemed to swell with pride at getting that much out of her, but Tanya was more amused than anything.

Firstly, she'd heard worse from Being X. Secondly, if the girl was going to give her good advice on how to appear normal in this place, she would take it. Every little bit helped, after all.

"And what kind of Archmage teams up with another Archmage? I mean," she said, pointing directly at Viktoriya, "she's not even as good as you-"

_Twitch_

Tanya glared. "I am an Adventurer."

Megumin's speech was interrupted, and she blinked owlishly. "What?"

She nodded. "Yes. I am not an Archmage or Mage, or anything like that. I am an Adventurer."

Megumin looked back at Kazuma. Was it possible…?

He glared at Degurechaff. "Hey, she's a flagrant cheater. She has guns and stuff – which totally ruins the already tattered fantasy vibe of this place, by the way – who probably watched Dr. Stone fifty times to memorize all the stuff he made 'just in case.'"

Tanya blinked in confusion, trying to decipher what he had said – just what in the world was he talking about? – until she just rolled her eyes at him and the Crimson Demon. "Oh well. At least I don't have to rely on a one-shot Mage to do all the heavy lifting."

Megumin felt her glare intensify, and she thought back to her mental list of things she could insult her about, should the situation arise.

Megumin glared at her. "At least our Adventurer has good Luck. You got attacked by Crows and Cabbages repeatedly. What kind of bad Luck do you have that they'd try such a thing instead of giving up?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, taking a step towards the Archmage. "What, did you spend part of your day stalking us? Do you really have nothing better to do?"

She felt her face heat up. "As… as my rival in becoming the Best Explosion Mage, it's expected that I'd figure out what some of your weaknesses are."

There was a pause, as Tanya digested that tidbit. She raised an eyebrow, and she scoffed. "So, this is really about that title?" she asked.

Megumin nodded slowly, and Tanya shrugged.

"Okay. You're the 'best mage of explosions,' or whatever. I don't care."

Megumin blinked owlishly at Tanya, who turned around towards the counter. "Since you don't have a truth-telling device like the Police do, Wiz, would you please tell me how much these Magic Canceler scrolls are? I want to get out of here."

Megumin stepped around the tables arranged around Wiz's shop to come up behind Degurechaff. She reached out a hand-

She was forced to stop by the woman at her side, who was glaring at her now. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Megumin," Kazuma called out. She tried to take her hand back, and the woman let her go.

She didn't back away, though. "You can't just… give up! Where's your sense of coolness?"

Tanya blinked. What?

She continued on, taking another step towards Tanya. "You can't just 'give up' a title as awesome as that one! As Archmages, we're supposed to fight for it, compete with each other, and drive each other to new heights of power attempting to claim the title! We're-"

"_I_ am not from your village, and I already have far too many titles," Tanya spat out. Megumin simply raised an eyebrow.

"How many titles could a jumped-up twelve-year-old daughter of a noble have? You're not even older than I am."

Tanya heard Aqua whimper and Lorelei groan, but she didn't spare them a glance. Instead, she stared into Megumin's eyes and began to pace forward.

"I am six- actually, I'm _seventeen_, now, even if I haven't celebrated my seventeenth yet."

Megumin blinked, and then she stared Tanya up and down. She tried, for a moment, to say that at least she wasn't as flat as Megumin was…

But…

She wasn't as flat as Megumin, true.

She was flatter.

Tanya took another step towards her, and Megumin's appraisal finished. She tried, once again, to think back to the teachings of her village.

While this girl wasn't from her village, she must still think that titles were good to have. You only got those by doing incredible things…

Megumin tilted her nose up at Tanya. "Oh yeah? What are your titles then? I bet none of them are even half as cool as 'Best Explosion Mage.'"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, and then she rolled her eyes. "Do you want a full list, or just the first _ten?"_

Megumin blinked. Ten? How could a seventeen-year-old have that many titles, especially since she was just an Adventurer?

Tanya sighed. "Fine, I'll give you as many as I can remember."

"White Silver, Argent, and… _Mithril_," she bit out, "are all variations of my first title. After that…" she trailed off and took a deep breath.

"Ace of Aces, The Desert Geranium, The Savior of Tiegenhoff, The Salamander's Flame, The Seer, The Lucky Queen, The First Mage around the World, Tranquility Destroyer, Banisher of Amalgamations, as well as all of the official ranks I was awarded throughout the war, from Second Lieutenant all the way up to Major General, were the ones I wore proudly."

She cracked her knuckles and began to advance on the girl, who seemed entirely too dumbstruck. She backed up, into a wall, but she couldn't hide from Tanya's furious gaze.

"Rusted Silver, Mad Dog, Devil of the Rhine, Butcher of Arene, Flying Death, The Bane of the Bloody Valkyrie, the Blacker Death, the best soldier to have ever been born, and The Atheist were the ones that I would rather _not _have gained."

She was now staring into Megumin's eyes, having advanced on her with every name. "The moment you learn that titles are born out of fear and awe instead of some silly desire for fame, the better."

She expected many things, at that moment.

She expected that Megumin's expression, frozen into panic, would shift into fear as she sank down to the ground, or that she would nod quietly while not making eye contact. She expected Wiz to say something about her scrolls being done to distract her, or for either Lorelei or Viktoriya to ask her to stop.

She didn't expect Megumin's friends to try and help her. They both knew, at least vaguely, what the cost of that interaction would be. They did not break her expectations.

Megumin did.

"That was… so cool and intimidating! You have to teach me how to do that thing where everyone backs away in fear. It felt as if the spirit of an ancient Demon was backing you up!"

Megumin's face shifting from panic to pure, unadulterated awe was _not _what she expected.

Kazuma looked at them from where he was sitting, casting an appraising eye at Tanya's dominant position over an awestruck Megumin. Tanya glared at him, and he opened his mouth.

That he could speak at all was somewhat unexpected, but…

"Trap on loli porn… I haven't-"

_CRUNCH_

Tanya sent her fist into his face and sent him tumbling into a corner of the room. She backed away from Megumin and turned to Wiz. "Please, would you _just _let me pay for my-"

But Wiz didn't. "I know! We can settle this quite easily!"

She ran to one of the shelves while Tanya contemplated just… inventing cell phones. Or maybe Amazon.

How hard would it be, and wouldn't it be _so _worth it to not have to interact with people she would really rather not see, let alone talk to?

Wiz went over to one of the shelves. Said shelves were somewhat dusty, compared to the tables in the center of the room. "Thanks to all of the business Tanya's products provide, and all the money she spends here, I was able to buy this item early!"

She gestured towards an orb that Tanya thought looked vaguely familiar. "This is the Friendship Crystal! Only skilled magic users can use it effectively."

Tanya shrugged noncommittally. "I don't see the reason to make friends."

Lorelei raised an eyebrow in the corner, and Tanya rolled her eyes in amusement as she caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. She then focused them on the small girl. "With her."

She turned to the other three in the shop. "I think I dislike _you _on principle, and I'd actually be lobotomized if I ever enjoyed your company," she spat at Aqua. She pouted, and Tanya didn't really understand why, because she should probably dislike Tanya too.

She pointed at Kazuma. "You can't possibly be _that _bad, and you might be bearable if you ever add the word _subtly _to your dictionary and learn even an ounce of civility." She didn't even wait for the NEET's response, but she was sure he was probably glaring.

She turned to Megumin, and then she shrugged. "You don't seem dumb, even if you are… free-spirited, but I try not to associate with career criminals."

Megumin crossed her arms and smirked. "Well, I guess I'm the better Mage, then."

Tanya raised an eyebrow. Some title about being better at blowing stuff up was just… inconsequential, but a flat-out, better-at-manipulating-mana Mage?

Tanya sighed. She would probably regret encouraging her, but maybe she'd get out of here faster if she humored the girl. "Better Mage? I don't know about that."

Megumin opened an eye, and Lorelei sighed in the corner. "Yes. I am a better Archmage than you are, considering you haven't even taken the class-"

"She's twice the mage you'll ever be!" Viktoriya interjected. Tanya gave her an appreciative smile, and then she stepped towards the 'crystal'. "I am better than you at being a mage, and I don't need some silly crystal to prove it. Yunyun, at least, knew more than a single, widely telegraphed, inefficient spell, and she came to me for help. Ergo-"

Megumin raised an eyebrow. "Ah, so you've lost your nerve?"

_Twitch._

Tanya scowled as everyone's gaze was drawn to her head. Even hats didn't stop her stupid _ahoge _from responding, and it might even be more noticeable when it moved her entire hat.

Tanya gave the shiny rock a blank stare and sighed. She wouldn't drop it, and she had no desire to put up with her all the way back to Alderp's mansion. "So, what, how does it work?"

Wiz smiled, and looked to everyone else. Lorelei was just shaking her head, while Viktoriya was scowling at Megumin. Aqua seemed to be using Heal on Kazuma after Tanya punched his face.

"Ah, could you all clear a bit of space?" she asked. They all did begin to clear the four tables stacked high with Tanya's merchandise that dominated the floor of the room, while Tanya inspected the rock with an Observation spell.

It seemed… odd. Almost like a spell given physical form, in how it seemed to only desire mana. In that way, it also seemed to resemble the Computation Jewels that she had imported to this world.

She shook her head as Wiz brought a pedestal out from behind her desk and set the thing on a padded cushion.

Tanya shook her head. "We're wasting our time here. I can use more than one spell, which automatically makes me a better Mage."

Megumin scoffed, held up a hand to her face, and struck a triumphant pose. She opened her mouth, and-

"It is not the size of the boat, but the motion of the ocean!"

Kazuma spat out post-nose-breaking tea, while Tanya had to take care not to let her jaw hang from her head.

They both stared at her, and Megumin shrugged. "It's an ancient Crimson Demon proverb about the ability of an Archmage being more important than the number of spells they know. Like: 'It's not about who has the bigger arsenal, but who can use what they have most effectively.'"

Tanya shook her head while Kazuma muttered something under his breath to Aqua, but then she remembered something. Wiz had said that Crimson Demons were good at crafting, right?

She smirked. "Well, if you promise to help me make a few powerful magical items, I'll allow you to try and take me on."

Megumin scoffed. "Only if you win… but fine."

Megumin would just point her towards her father as revenge, if she did lose.

But she wouldn't!

Megumin said nothing, for a moment, but then she flicked her cape and said, "I'll demonstrate for you the power of an actual Archmage!"

Tanya just rolled her eyes and held up her hand, ready to-

"Come on! Where's your witty retort!? You have to have a witty retort set up when you're facing enemies!" she shouted at her, dropping a hand.

Tanya shook her head and facepalmed. "I guess people here still think that war is glorious or something? Your village might have the leisure to do that, but talking to your opponents is a good way to watch your comrades die."

She held up her hand, and Megumin shrugged and grudgingly did the same. "Eh. I guess that's good enough…"

The girl across from her began to shout, and Tanya watched as the ball in front of them began to give off an eerie purple light.

Megumin cast her gaze up, for a moment, but she continued to shout dramatically. Tanya just shook her head at the act. Honestly, what was the point in wasting your breath like that?

Still, she poured in mana. It was a moderate drain, something she might have to use for an Artillery Shot, but-

"So, you can keep up with this, even though you aren't a Crimson Demon? Excellent!"

She began to shout louder, and Tanya poured in more mana, mirroring Megumin. Alright, this was starting to get a bit draining, but, in theory, this was nothing more than-

"Alright! You've forced me to go even farther! I'll pour everything I have into this, to prove that I am better!"

Tanya rolled her eyes and began to sweat. She grit her teeth and brandished a second arm in front of the crystal. She'd only lost this much when she had to break out the Circlet and during the times she couldn't remember her usage of the Type 95, so this was really getting to be a bit extreme. Could this thing even _take _this much?

Megumin seemed to be gritting her teeth, and the others seemed to be growing concerned. Megumin finally shouted, "Now, crystal, demonstrate your power!"

Ominous purple-black lines of power began to sprout from the orb, and a great wave of illusionary images washed past her. She cast a look around, even as the thing – which now resembled a fucking _black hole_, with an event horizon and everything – continued to absorb her power.

White… screens, like with the higher power versions of her Observation spell, burst into being all around them. A handful, then dozens, and then well over a hundred of them formed around them. The other five of them began to look at each of them.

Wiz made idle commentary as Tanya began to look around. The Friendship Crystal was no longer taking their mana, but this was incredibly… foreboding…

"What is… this?!" Kazuma shouted. She looked, and one of the screens – probably the one he was staring at began to enlarge until it forced all of the smaller screens to the side. Tanya blinked in astonishment.

It was… like a television. A younger – and hardly any smaller – Megumin was tiptoeing through a house. She crouched down in front of a basket, and…

Tanya's inquisitive stare flattened. Megumin was stuffing bread crusts into a suspiciously nondescript burlap sack, munching down on a few occasionally.

As the screen began to recede, Kazuma said something summarizing the scene, while Megumin-

"Aaaaaaaayyyyyyyy."

Tanya shook her head. So, what, did it show their memories? Tanya might have… quite a few she didn't exactly _want _people to see, but…

"Wait a minute…" muttered Aqua. Tanya turned her head to see her staring at a different one. The screen began to enlarge again, and-

"Ah… well, I suppose that someone should explain this to you…" came a grainy recreation of the 203rd's medic's wonderful voice.

Tanya's eyebrows furrowed. When had she ever-

"Tanya, since this is your… first period…"

Memory-Medic cleared her throat as she blushed. The memory-Tanya also blushed, and actual-Tanya felt her face begin to burn as if on fire.

Oh no.

"Your uterus discharges menses and blood around every month…"

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" actual-Tanya shouted. Kazuma, Aqua, and Megumin were also shouting at the image, while Wiz, Lorelei, and Viktoriya just blushed.

Tanya rounded on Wiz, even as another screen widened to show Megumin stealing food and being praised by another, smaller child. "Wiz, what the fucking hell is this?! This isn't fucking friendship!"

Another of her screens began to enlarge…

_Oh no._

It was a hot spring. Specifically, the hot spring in Bidin-Budin, where the men had a bit too much alcohol and-

"Ah, ignore them, Viktoriya. We'll just stick over here, where no one else is."

The image of Viktoriya nodded, and Tanya watched as her mirror image blushed and stared quite obviously at the memory-Viktoriya's _ass_. Tanya's face began to _really _heat up when memory-Tanya _licked her lips._

Wiz. "Ah…"

Kazuma. "OH HO!"

Aqua. "Breast-padder!"

Viktoriya. "…Tanya…"

Megumin. "…Damn you, father…"

Lorelei. "Oh COME ON-"

She didn't dare look at anyone other than Wiz for fear of bursting into flame. "Explain. Now."

She felt her eyes flick towards a heavily blushing Viktoriya, even as Tanya's memory self blushed and looked away. She would apologize for this travesty later.

And she'd give them all amnesia.

Probably.

If she hit them all hard enough, anything was possible, right?

"WIZ!" she shouted. The Lich looked away from the screen as Tanya walked away from the stupid orb. Unfortunately, the place didn't collapse around them. It seemed to be self-sustaining.

Wiz touched the tips of her hands together nervously as another memory of Megumin's – lying in bed while Yunyun spoke to her not-sleeping form – played behind Tanya.

"Uhm… This is a highly valued item that deepens feelings of friendship and love by exposing past embarrassments, actually…" she trailed off.

Tanya was glaring at her and trying to resist the urge to kill either her or herself. "Why wouldn't you tell us that _first_, you stupid, airheaded-"

Another of her own memories began to widen. "Lieutenant Colonel, this is…"

Tanya's eyes dilated as she recognized the voice of Grantz.

Departed, torn-to-pieces above the Russy Federation Grantz. "Bu…"

"I… _damn it_, we aren't responsible for the orders of our superiors," memory-Tanya shouted to the rest of the flying 203rd.

The rest of the Salamander _Kampfgruppe_ was below them, fighting doggedly against a Russy force.

"But… Lieutenant Colonel… this is… against International Law," came the voice of Weiss over their Communication spell.

Tanya watched as memory-Tanya grit her teeth and continued to fire down at the hordes. Finally, she could offer no clever solution or workaround for this one.

Memory-Tanya shouted gutturally into the open sky.

That had been the first time she had completely lost control of her anger in front of her troops. "Just do it! If we do end up in court, our superiors in the General Staff will be blamed. Barring that…"

Her image grimaced. "I promise, I'll take the bullet, if they can't be blamed. Follow orders. Just like Arenne…"

The excuses were weak, but her promise was worth more than its weight in gold. As one, those near her frowned, but they were good soldiers, and good soldiers followed orders. "Chemical Conversion spells prepared, Lieutenant Colonel."

Tanya turned away and glared at Wiz. She knew the answer, but…

"And if we there _aren't _many feelings to deepen, Wiz?"

Wiz turned away from the screen, staring at Tanya. No one even watched as Megumin caught cicadas to eat. "Then… it'll show memories of deeper embarrassment in order to create them…"

Tanya grimaced. 'Deeper Embarrassment' was a nice, flowery shield for what was _really _going on.

_Shame._

_Humiliation._

_Degradation._

She blinked as another one came to the front.

Degradation…

She made a mad dash for that stupid orb, to try and destroy it, _now_, but-

"_Tanya von Degurechaff…"_

Oh.

Oh no.

She was frozen. She couldn't move as the screen expanded before her. She felt cold, like her blood and mana weren't with her anymore-

"_You are mine! You belong only to me, and, for your last hours of life, I am your master!"_

She collapsed. It-

She shook her head. "No please not again never again please…"

But it didn't stop it wouldn't stop he wouldn't stop she couldn't stop him it was out of her control she had nothing she was just a speck and she was going to die and be raped and no one saved her and oh why why why why why-

"**Oh holy lord in heaven, please, deliver me from hardship and allow me to meet you!"**

She was in a ball and he was still shouting at her, screaming her name, and the damn prayers were everywhere and-

"**Allow these foolish men to pass quickly from this world, and deliver them to your holy kingdom. It is a beautiful place where they can rest and I cannot."**

"**Help me! Don't let these pitiful, godless heathens escape."**

"**Please! Please! I'll do anything! Just please, save me!"**

She glared at the ground and at her hands – her shaking, _useless_ hands that she couldn't do anything with.

She couldn't escape or fight or live or survive she would die alone and in a bedchamber of a _monster _and-

"_**You cannot escape me! You cannot escape me! You cannot escape me!"**_

_CRASH!_

Like a TV screen, the entire room around the fizzled out of existence. Viktoriya was standing next to a broken orb, while everyone else was staring at her, seemingly shocked.

She didn't much care.

Viktoriya took a knee and picked Tanya up in her arms, glaring at all of them, considering. She took a deep breath.

"It goes without saying that speaking of anything you just saw, to _anyone_, will result in punishment. I don't think I have to be the one to stereotypically inform you all that death is much better than a number of things, but I will anyway."

They all nodded as one. She glared at Wiz. "If you _ever_ bring another one of those things into town, Aqua will exorcise you."

Aqua stepped out of line. "What? But I don't-"

Viktoriya glared at her, and Aqua wisely shut the hell up. Viktoriya looked at Lorelei.

She flinched back, and Viktoriya sighed defeatedly. "Just… be back soon. Please."

Viktoriya strode towards the door, opened it, and sighed. She looked down at the nearly catatonic form of Tanya von Degurechaff. "She needs all the friends she can get."

Lorelei nodded, and Viktoriya was gone, a Flight spell on her lips and an image of their mansion in her mind.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1:** Tanya has a bit of a realization that she's _not _fine, we finally get the meeting, hyginks ensue, and, of course…

Here we are. After over 35 chapters, we're finally getting the full story of 'what the hell happened to Tanya?' Sorry for yet another cliffhanger, but if I don't cut it here, there's too much going on between the resolution of their earlier altercation, the meeting, and… that.

Things will be… different than the very well-written 'Hostage' by TheVideoGamer – look it up, check it out. In that, the Empire is defeated and the dickbag comes to steal away his prize, while the Federation is collapsing in this one.

Tanya will reveal some stuff to her friends, and things between Tanya and Viktoriya will become closer. They're really just looking for one last push, but I don't think that will be for a little bit. Probably.

Anyway, what did you think? I'm trying my best with these scenes, so getting a bit of feedback would be nice.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the happier sections of this piece – Kazuma and Tanya finally meeting, a faster introduction between Kazuma and Wiz due to fear of Tanya, a bit of banter and such.

**A/N 2:** Speaking of feedback, I have a confession to make:

I, uh… could use a bit of help writing relationships. I don't exactly have anything in my own life to base it off of, so I have been guessing and using other things I've read as examples.

That said, if anyone has any recommendations for good examples of literary relationships or how to write them, I'll probably take a look at them.

**A/N 3: **And wow! A lot of you seemed to think that Lolisa would be kicking the bucket. All I can say for those of you that thought that she talked to much should realize that Johanna of Berun – and I'm sorry if there's a better name I should have used – is a melodramatic bitch, just like Being X.

A/N 4: Oh, and I also utilize the Friendship Crystal that was in the anime and not in the Light Novel. Obviously it was in the anime to speed up how much they knew about each other with the limited runtime of an anime in mind, but I actually thought the idea was pretty good.


	37. …and Terrifying Memories (plus more)

**A/N 1: **WARNING

SCENES INCLUDING ATTEMPTED RAPE ARE UP AHEAD. IF YOU DON'T WISH TO READ IT, ctrl + f AND SEARCH "Viktoriya sighed tiredly." NOTHING AFTER THAT. OTHERWISE, READ ON.

-OxOxO-

Viktoriya quickly landed on the tall tower that jutted out of Alderp's mansion. She pushed past the door she saw and began to make her way down the staircase.

Soon, she was in the attic. She quietly walked through the suffocating maze of unused space that was meant to confuse invaders and buy time for defenders to make it to the roof, making sure not to jostle the girl in her arms.

Then, she reached the wooden hatch. She kicked it in, ignoring the splintering of the wood, and floated down into yet another unused room.

She pushed the door open and began to walk through the corridors. The guards and maids and servants that they encountered seemed worried, but Viktoriya paid them no mind – really, they hardly registered – and continued walking.

Then, she was in front of Tanya's room. She quickly opened the door, threw the sheets off of the bed, and placed Tanya on it.

Her face looked grief-stricken, for a moment, and Viktoriya took an unconscious step back. The grief faded, though, and she turned her back to Viktoriya and huddled under the covers.

"Leave."

"…No."

The silence stretched on, for a moment, until a soft knock sounded on their- no, Tanya's door. Viktoriya quickly rushed forward, opening it a crack to welcome in-

"Ah… is everything right with my Lady?" asked the woman. Victoria's frazzled expression faded, and she sighed.

"Um… she's not really up for… anything, Shelly," Viktoriya told the older housekeeper of Alderp. The woman frowned at Viktoriya's casual usage of her first name, but she said nothing else, for a moment.

Just like every other noble – which included many of the guards and servants in this mansion – she had blonde hair and blue eyes.

Unlike them, she showed signs of aging with wrinkles on her face and a few gray streaks.

She had been the one to help them around the place and suggest changes and what would and wouldn't be proper. She also hadn't believed that Alderp was dead, which pointed to her observational skills being top notch, if she could catch either Tanya or Viktoriya in a lie.

She was, in the words of Tanya, useful due to her knowledge and annoying because she seemed to have a very good bullshit sensor, one which likely went off as long as she was in the same building as Tanya and Viktoriya.

"Viktoriya, _leave_."

Viktoriya looked back at the small lump surrounded by a forest of blankets in the middle of the continental bed, biting her lip nervously. She turned back to the housekeeper.

The housekeeper gave Viktoriya a long, unflinching stare, and then a nod. Viktoriya sighed thankfully. "Alright. Shelly's here, though."

Tanya poked her head above her blankets a small bit, watching Viktoriya practically knock the old woman down as she rushed past her. With nothing more than a practiced readjustment of her hat, she stepped into the room. Tanya stared at her wall, an order on her lips.

She saw it coming. "Now, now, My Lady. There will be none of that." Tanya heard the woman's steps echo on the marble – Tanya vengefully reminded herself to get carpeting installed soon, or to invent it, if only to keep her feet warm when she didn't feel like wearing her boots.

Tanya was startled out of her thoughts by the woman's weight coming to rest on her bed. "I'm not talking to you," Tanya said, a little louder than necessary.

She could practically hear her shrug. "You don't have to. My presence distracts you while your young Miss is gone."

Tanya opened her mouth to argue – Viktoriya was _not _hers – but she just sighed unhappily and stared at the wall as her thoughts drifted back to the room and the orb and _him_ and-

The door burst open, and Tanya turned to glare…

She blinked and inhaled through her nose deeply. She breathed out, and she felt her frown fade.

Just a bit.

Viktoriya didn't smile, despite the wonderful smell of coffee, and she sat down in the place that Shelly quickly vacated. She propped up the small, bed-in-breakfast table that held a full pot of coffee and a few pieces of chocolate.

Viktoriya poured it as Tanya nibbled on one of the chocolates. This…

This was better. This was what they should have done on their break day.

Going out, eating somewhere, buying materials… that felt more like a relaxed work day than anything – though getting knocked out by a cabbage certainly made her life feel just that bit more ridiculous.

Tanya sipped on her coffee moodily. She should have just… sat in bed. Eaten a bit, yeah, but she should have just given herself a chance to relax and forget…

Forget…

How could she forget _that _and him and being weak useless _helpless-_

Viktoroiya pushed a piece of chocolate into Tanya's hand, but she was lost in her memories. Viktoriya frowned.

She held it there, for a moment, waiting diligently for Tanya to take it, but…

Viktoriya tried not to cry out as the hardly-touched coffee sounded off of the bed-in-breakfast table while tears began to well up in Tanya's eyes.

Viktoriya grabbed Tanya's left hand.

Tanya tried to pull away, for a moment, but then…

She let it be. She let her hand rest in Visha's. She didn't protest when the Russy woman began to rub circles into her hand or fiddle with her seemingly forever-warm ring.

She opened her mouth, to thank her for the coffee, but a choked sob came out instead. Visha rushed in to hug her, and Tanya took a deep shuddering breath, trying not to flinch.

She wasn't… she wasn't Loria.

She was… was _Visha_.

If there was one thing that Tanya could trust in, it was not some far-off existence like Being X. He was a liar, a cheat, and completely, utterly wrong about being 'god.'

It was not her magic and her prowess in the air and with a gun, nor was it her logic and willpower. Those might not have failed her often, but they had still failed her.

It was not even her promise never to acknowledge Being X as god.

It was Visha. She was the _one _person she could trust to always have what she thought of as Tanya's best interests at heart, no matter what happened to them or what Tanya thought. She had proved that over and over again and again.

Tanya blinked, and she realized she was crying like she was a newborn again.

"Huh…" she managed to say as she wiped away her tears with one hand and continued to grab at Viktoriya with the other.

She pulled away, and while Tanya wanted, at that moment, to beg her not to, she let her go. Viktoriya looked at her, and Tanya shook her head.

"It's… odd, really. I might be one of the only people alive to vividly remember every moment of my life from before I was two years old." Viktoriya blinked at her, and she only shook her head, chuckling.

"Tanya… you think of the oddest things." Tanya simply raised an eyebrow at her former adjutant. She opened her mouth to ask her what she meant, but she was interrupted.

Not by someone barging in, or by Shelly bringing them a dinner that Tanya wouldn't be able to stomach, or anyone else, really. Viktoriya held up a single, quieting finger, and began to walk towards the door.

Tanya just tilted her head and activated an Observation spell. She glared at the door as she sensed two faint, familiar mana signatures behind it.

Viktoriya threw the door open, and Tanya watched as both Lolisa and Lorelei retreated back from her. Tanya just rolled her eyes at their lack of discipline – who would get scared of Viktoriya? – but they walked past Viktoriya and stood next to Tanya's bed.

She sighed. The idea to ask for dinner – even if she couldn't stomach it – so she could put this off for even a second longer appealed to her _greatly_ – anything to get away from those memories – but…

She shot a disgusted look at her bed. No, this needed to be done. They were concerned about her, and while Lolisa might not be able to do anything official about this, she could…

Tanya shook her head.

No, _no_… Tanya wasn't really all that worried about what they could do if she didn't tell them. They wouldn't do anything too harsh.

She… she _needed _to talk about this stuff. She'd been holding herself together for a little over seventeen years using logic and by forcing her emotions to the back of her head.

She'd done it a few times during her first life, whenever she wanted to tell her manager that he was asking for unfair hours, or her boss that his decision was wrong, but that had only been brief flashes of anger.

She'd been pushing fear and anger and hate far to the back of her head constantly during her second life. She had known that it would be unhealthy, but she'd done it anyway to survive.

She took a deep breath, and then she crossed her legs and made room on the bed. "You might as well sit down. This… this will take a while."

Lolisa jumped on the bed, bouncing a bit, while Lorelei sat on the edge. Viktoriya stood next to the bed, wringing her hands and looking at Tanya with concern and…

Tanya shook her head. Well, even if this _was_ a bit pitiful, she didn't mind if Viktoriya looked at her like that. Tanya had to trust her judgement that pity was warranted, in this case.

She took another deep breath, and she began. There was no deliberation over where to start – the beginning was both logical and the easiest by far.

"On July 24th, 1981, I was born in Osaka, Japan."

"I was an only child, and my parents, who spent most of their time working but made sure to give me plenty of attention, could not have asked for a more obedient child."

Tanya paused, looking to Viktoriya for a moment. She gave her an encouraging smile, and Tanya continued. There would be no going back after this.

"At the age of 18, I graduated from High School and went to college, getting a bland degree and using the connections I had with acquaintances and teachers to eventually land myself a job working for a company in the capital, Tokyo. The company wasn't too large, too wealthy, and it never improved or failed enough to become embroiled in a scandal or rise to stardom."

Lorelei and Lolisa seemed to be confused, and Tanya couldn't blame them. She had told Lorelei that her age was seventeen, and she was fairly sure that it was obvious she was a veteran of a war.

She opened her mouth again, but she blinked, and reached a hand towards her Type 97. Using it, she displayed an image of herself.

Her _old _self.

Tanya smiled nostalgically at the image.

"I worked there for a decade and a half. At the age of 32, as a worker in the company's Human Resources Department, I fired a man that didn't meet company standards. I walked to a train station, intent on going home and coming back to fire people and work in Human Resources and live my life in the same way, every day, until I keeled over and died, a relatively unimportant and thoroughly safe man."

She summoned forth the image of that train station. Them and the bed they were on stayed the same, but everything else changed as the image expanded around them. The same people, birds, and train surrounded them. Tanya watched as the man ran up behind a fake version of herself and pushed her into the tracks.

"Then, the man that I fired pushed me onto the tracks of a train," she said. The screaming of the crowd began to pick up as they realized what had happened, and the train came rushing into the station. "I, Mizuho Wakatsuki, was killed in an instant."

The train station faded away, replaced by crumbling ruins and white clouds. She saw that her illusionary double was standing in front of her. She looked over her shoulder to glare at what Lorelei and Lolisa were staring at and terrified of, respectively.

"This thing claimed to be god. And not just any god, but the mightiest one know on Earth. He asked why I had never believed in him. I… told him that I didn't think he was god, called him Being X, and…"

She growled, and the image around them faded again, replaced by a familiar room. The wailing – her wailing – reached her ears. "He put me in a new body. No longer was I a tall man dressed in suits with dark hair and dark eyes, but a blonde-haired, blue-eyed little… _girl_."

And she continued. She spun the story as to how she had grown up, been practically forced to join the army so she could rise to the top. She detailed her training.

Then, she began to skip around. She showed them the Rhine front, where she had met Viktoriya. She showed them scenes of her training, of being forced to wear the cursed Type 95 – that seemed to have now gained a mind of its own, thanks to the other Divine Relics – and of fighting through battle after battle with the 203rd.

She showed them scenes from her battles against the Free Republic's forces in Africa. She showed them her fights against Mary Sioux, the Bloody Valkyrie. She showed them the pitched, drawn out battles on the Eastern Front.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "Then, it was the beginning of the summer of 1931. We were finally beginning to beat back the Federation. The Suez canal had been taken from the Albish by our Middle Eastern allies. The Akitsushima Empire was pushing them from the East."

She looked down at the bed, and all of the images faded away. "And then, my greatest enemy revealed himself."

-OxOxO-OxOxO-

Tanya grit her teeth, watching, unable to do anything but glare.

This battle near some Soviet backwater had been unexpected, but the Bloody Valkyrie didn't care what she had to do to try and kill them. For months, she had shown up within a day of their deployment to wreak havoc on whatever operation they attempted to carry out.

During those months, they had expected her attacks. She didn't exactly try to hide her mana signature, and dozens of mages would lose their moral if they caught so much as a whiff of it.

To hopefully get Tanya to where she could do some good away from the bitch, they'd been swung from the north to the south to the central front, and there were actually more mages in both the south and northern fronts against the Russy Federation. Logic dictated that she'd stay where she could do the most good, regardless of her hatred for Tanya.

Thus, they were surprised by her next attack – this attack.

The surprise worked in her favor.

She had killed six of them with an opening salvo, and she had proceeded to outpace Tanya for over ten minutes as she killed over a _quarter _of the 203rd.

Tanya had been able to hold out. She hadn't wanted to pray to Being X, no matter how false the praying was, due to the side effects _it _seemed to be gaining. She-

Grantz, as strong and loyal to the Empire as any of the oldest members of her battalion, had been the last straw, however, and Tanya had begun spewing prayers as fast as she could, matching her opponent in output.

She wondered, sometimes, if they were saying the exact same words.

The tide had turned a bit. Tanya had destroyed the _heavy machine gun_ that the bitch tended to favor these days, forcing her to switch to her rifle.

It still hadn't been enough. Tanya just wouldn't believe in Being X, and the additional _half_ of the 203rd that died while Tanya tried to fight her proved that.

She continued to try and hit her, but this bitch had advanced well beyond her pathetic efforts on the Southern Continent and her paltry ones in Moskva and Tiegenhoff.

Her fighting was a match for Tanya's, and her prayers let her outstrip the rest of the 203rd.

So Tanya fought, shouted prayers – though they were completely false, they _were _helping – and _waited_. She waited for an opening, or for _anything_. For her to slow down, or for reinforcements.

But…

But Tanya broke first. She had to pause, to stop changing her acceleration air for a moment and stop shouting false prayers and to draw in a breath and become _predictable_. Tanya glared at the woman as her eyes flicked to Tanya-

No, she was looking… past Tanya. They were staring behind her, at… Viktoriya!

Tanya jetted upward, bringing her rifle up, yelling. It was a waste of breath, she _knew _that, but she didn't care because that bitch was _killing her friends!_

Tanya stabbed her in the shoulder, and the bitch just grinned. She grabbed Tanya's rifle, and Tanya fought to bring it away from the horrible, horrible-

If Tanya had the gun she had lifted from the woman's father – or so the bitch claimed in their fighting, anyway – the bitch would be dead, but she had destroyed it well over a year ago.

They began to fall, and Tanya fought and punched and kicked, but the bitch managed to disorient Tanya with a headbutt and rip away her gun, flinging it towards the ground. Tanya was forced back.

Tanya saw vicious triumph shining in her eyes. Tanya felt hopeless despair at being deprived of her weapon as the woman took her time aiming at her, smirking. She could hear the others – too far above them to be of any use – shouting.

Within one second, Tanya realized that the bitch's look at Viktoriya had been a ploy to get her away from the 203rd.

Within three, she was flung into her memories as she remembered similar situations.

A girl stood over a defeated enemy, assured of her victory, despite the pitched battle.

A wounded veteran, deprived of their gun, who had shining yellow eyes.

Tanya, out of time and options and ammunition and facing an enemy she couldn't defeat conventionally.

She blinked. The secret attack on Orsefjord, the sneak attack against her battalion following the encirclement of the Republic's troops in the Lowlands, and her first battle in Norden all flashed behind her eyes. They all seemed eerily relevant, and they all had something in common.

Yeah, that could work.

It would, at least, give the others time to get down here.

And, as Mary Sioux fired, Tanya didn't wait idly to die. She didn't put up an Active Barrier in an attempt to forestall an attack that could break anything she put in front of it and that was expecting a shield.

Instead, she did what she did best: she exceeded everyone's expectations.

She rushed _forward _and began to pump as much mana into her Type 97 as she could.

Sioux, with prayers pouring from her lips, fired, and Tanya was barely able to grunt as the round _didn't _impact her shields.

It went straight through her, and Tanya didn't stop.

Too late, the bitch realized what Tanya – who was beginning to feel lightheaded from the mana and exhaustion and _pain _– was trying to do.

She was too late to try to bring her own gun up between herself and Tanya, but she tried it anyway, letting a hand fall from her rifle to try and get some other weapon.

She failed.

Tanya was propelled forward with as much force as she could muster, and then she _squeezed_ the girl who was now in her arms.

Her own Reinforcement spells were stronger than this girl's, who relied on Being X to keep her from dying so she could focus on killing his enemies.

Before she could pull some trick – like Tanya had when this girl's father had done the same – Tanya channeled mana into her fingertips, ripping through her gloves and into the girl. There would be no way for her to create an Active Barrier now.

Tanya continued to squeeze the life out of her – continued to squeeze even as she heard bones begin to pop and crack – and Tanya watched as the bitch cried out to Being X once more.

Tanya snarled, continuing to _squeeze… _as the Bloody Valkyrie's eyes began to glow red.

Tanya's glare faded.

Uh oh. That might be much wors-

_BOOOOOOOM_

-OxOxO-

She was falling, and she gasped as she was forced into consciousness. Someone was screaming 'Colonel' in the distance, but Tanya was tired, and even the distant roaring of something in her ears couldn't rouse her attention or mana or-

_THUMP_

Tanya was thrown out of her shock as yet more pain assaulted her body. Her vision was foggy, and it was dark and cold, with the new moon covered by the slightly overcast sky.

She took in deep breaths and tried to remember where she was. She wasn't falling, she was surrounded by trees, she could hear the sound of distant gunfire and-

She blinked and looked up. Flashes of light lit up the night sky, and she watched, horrified, as her decimated battalion was forced out of her sight.

She rubbed her hands together as best she could, suddenly aware of how alone she was and how little of her warm clothing was left and how much she was bleeding.

She took a deep breath and tried not to hyperventilate. She…

She was out of mana. She would have to pray to Being X again in order to retreat, and without the Bloody Valkyrie to fight, she would be sure to suffer from the mind-altering effects of the cursed Type 95.

On the plus side – she needed something to keep her warm, and some positive thought would do that – Tanya was fairly sure that, if that bitch thought she would kill Tanya by sacrificing herself, she was probably dead.

She tried to sit up, and she had to take another deep breath instead.

She couldn't move.

She was hoping that her spine or legs weren't broken, and that it was just her muscles or something related to an imbalance of hormones or mana or _something_, _anything_, but she honestly wasn't sure she-

Shouting interrupted her thoughts. The people – whatever mages the communists had managed to scrounge up – were coming down. They could probably chase her due to the residual mana and her unique, well-known mana signature.

Tanya gulped. This wasn't…

No, this wasn't just not good, this was _bad_. They were coming, and she didn't have any mana left. Even now, she was fighting _not _to give in to the despicable **being of pure light and-**

NO! She shook her head. She wouldn't give in to him, no matter what. She couldn't, she had-

The sound of heavy boots and heavier men impacting the ground was the last thing she heard, besides the blow to her head that someone delivered.

-OxOxO-

"_I want her AWAKE!"_

Tanya bolted up, trying to move. Someone was yelling, and she needed to stand at attention-

She couldn't. She looked down at herself-

She was… she was being _operated on._ There was a mass of open wounds on her legs, on her sides, at the place where Sioux had shot her. Her head whirled around.

Two men wearing sanitary face masks and medical scrubs were staring not at her open body or the implements in their hands – used by Medical Mages when healing patients, if she wasn't mistaken – but at a portly man in a military uniform with small, round glasses and an odd scar on his balding head.

One of them pulled down their face mask. "_You may be responsible for our release, Loria, but we are not part of your NKVD. We will put her under and fix her, as our oaths compel us to."_

Tanya's eyebrows furrowed. They-

They weren't speaking Germanian. They weren't speaking English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, or anything else she even _vaguely _recognized.

Her eyes widened. They- they were Russian. Or, they were speaking Russy, she supposed.

Then, she blinked, thinking about the specifics of what she'd just heard. She didn't know the language – though she had been thinking about asking Viktoriya for some lessons – she did remember her last life…

It sounded like he'd said four… syllables? Letters?

Four _something, _pronouncing them specifically. Four specific letters, with the last two sounding like 'V' and 'D'…

Her eyes widened. Was it their secret police? Enough reports told her that their famous NKVD was the only reason the battle for Moskva had been so protracted.

She began to fight against her restraints. Sense – because there was nothing _common _about this situation – indicated that she probably couldn't get out of here, and that the holes in her legs would ensure she wouldn't get far, but that didn't take into account who she was.

No, she'd killed many, many Communists personally. Hundreds, perhaps. They were going to torture her, and as long as she had even a moment to get away, she had to try and escape and-

"_FINE!"_ the man shouted. He turned around, and Tanya belatedly realized they were all moving. Her surroundings didn't look like they were in a truck, but-

The doctor that had pulled his mask down shook his head and put it back on, and Tanya felt a haze begin to build in her mind.

She shifted her head to the left, to see that the other doctor was pressing some kind of tool to her head. She tried to protest, to tell them that they couldn't…

She could see the man's eyes wince. "Sorry," he said softly. She couldn't respond, and she lost the fight against unconsciousness.

-OxOxO-

They looked down at the camp, waiting for reinforcements. It had been hours since they'd been finally forced to retreat by the Federation's mages.

They waited to feel the pinging of mana signatures on the Observation spells.

They waited to see new troops arrive.

None of that happened, so they waited, for… something.

Anything.

Weiss looked to Viktoriya. As the Colonel's second-in-command, he might technically be supposed to give orders with the… disappearance of the Colonel, but they all knew that Viktoriya was the second best in their battalion, and that she was the closest to the Colonel.

No one begrudged her for wanting to take over operations for now.

He shook his head. Really, she would probably have won herself just as many awards and names as the Colonel had, if she wasn't overshadowed by her.

Of course, she also wouldn't have gotten as good as she had without the Colonel…

Their radios crackled, and those of them that were left all smiled. Viktoriya answered it, and-

"What are you doing? Land, now."

Viktoriya glanced incredulously at her radio. "But what about-"

A new voice came on the radio, just as familiar as the normal radio operator. "I will talk to you down here. Now."

Viktoriya couldn't resist the order, and she went down. The others – those that had survived – followed her. She took off her rifle and dropped it in the dirt, running towards a small, unassuming tent.

She shot a glance over her shoulder. "Do not put away your things yet. Wait for my order."

She disappeared, and Weiss glanced at Koenig and Neumann. They both seemed uncomfortable, and he wasn't much different.

He turned to the others. There were twelve of the 203rd left – five higher officers, including Tanya, and seven regulars – and it was… horrible to think about all they had lost.

He wouldn't lose more. "Baumer, you're in charge. We're following her."

The small, unassuming male mage nodded uncertainly, and Weiss took off, followed closely by Koenig and Neumann.

Viktoriya, meanwhile, was staring at the large tent in front of her. Standing orders were that no one was to go inside without orders, but…

She shook her head and pushed open the tent flap. She stared at the man in front of her.

Rerugen stared back at her.

He was not standing next to a map, nor was he helping a higher general. He wasn't standing near the radio, ready to contact the General Staff as his job dictated.

He was sitting in a chair, staring at the entrance she had just pushed open.

He was waiting for her.

"Sit, Serebryakov."

She walked closer to the table in front of him, but she did not sit. He sighed heavily, and he brought out a sealed brown envelope and stared at the table.

"These are your orders. We have sighted more mages in the north, and Moskva, despite heavy resistance, will fall any day now, especially without… the named mage that was just eliminated. Your troops will prove invaluable-"

"What about Tanya?"

He closed his eyes, and he sighed slowly, and he said, eventually, "Sit down, please."

Viktoriya's hands shook. "What about _Tanya_?"

He brought out another envelope. It was colored purple, and it reminded her of… the letter Tanya had gotten during her invitation to one of the Kaiser's holiday parties.

"This is an order containing the personal signature of many members in the General Staff, as well as from the Kaiser, Frederick Otto von Hohenzollern-Hapspurg. You are to _go north_ and participate in the siege of-"

"WHAT ABOUT _TANYA?!"_

She heard boots pounding on the ground outside the tent, and she placed a hand on her Type 97. She didn't have a gun, but-

She calmed down. Weiss, Koenig, and Neumann were all there, glaring at Rerugen.

Viktoriya turned stiffly, and Rerugen sighed. He brought a plain white envelope out of his jacket next. "This…"

He took a heavy breath. "This is…"

Viktoriya slammed the table, and he jumped back, flinching away. He was terrified of her, of that damned girl's most faithful soldier, but he couldn't-

"_Please._ What about Tanya? You can't just-"

"Pray."

They blinked, and he looked at them- at her, in the eyes, for the first time. "Pray…?"

He took another deep breath and stared down at the table. "Pray that her last, final attack on her enemy forced the Oxygen from her lungs and burnt her into an unrecognizable crisp. Pray that her luck finally caught up with her and that she couldn't do anything to save herself from the fall. Pray that, when she hit the ground, she perished in an instant."

"Pray that your precious Colonel is in a better place than this cruel, horrid world."

He stood up. She noticed that his hair was unkempt, that his clothing was horribly unfitting, and that his breath stank of alcohol.

She noticed the fear in his eyes, and the terror coursing through him from facing her and… thinking of what Tanya might face.

"Pray, Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, that Colonel Tanya von Degurechaff is _dead_."

She was stunned into silence, for a moment, and then she advanced on him, pushing him into his seat and standing over him. "WHAT DO YOU _MEAN!?"_

He was whimpering again, but he just pointed at the white envelope. She took it up, tore it open, and let the other three read it over her shoulders.

He began to speak again, apparently well aware of what was on the paper. "Last year, when we finally took the last of their warm-water territory in Finlandia, we raided several NKVD bases. They were, apparently, off the books. We found proof – letters and missives and watch orders – that suggested something… _horrible_."

Viktoriya's hands began to shake as she heard his words and read the words on the piece of paper.

"Over time, as the summer wore on and turned into fall, a highly-placed NKVD officer turned traitor. He barely made it to our lines, and he provided us with facts about their secret service and how to exploit the cracks…"

Viktoriya shook her head as she read the paper. She looked up at Rerugen, but he was staring down at the table. "He also told us that the Head of the NKVD, Loria, was a… pedophile that has an obsession with… _obtaining_ Colonel Degurechaff. Ever since her raid on Moskva, he has been doing everything within his power to increase the ability of the Federation to fight us off, all in the pursuit of the young Colonel."

She shook her head, but he just continued to stare down at the table.

Not…

Not Tanya. Never Tanya. N-

No.

She took a breath. No, she could _not_ afford to panic right now. She needed her wits about her, and she needed to keep a calm head.

She stuffed the letter in her clothing, and headed towards the door. The others followed her, and they left Rerugen.

They got outside before he barreled out of the tent to stop them. "Wait, you can't just-"

She turned on him, furious. The others in the camp – men and women who fought on the ground in trenches or behind artillery or in tanks – were coming out, no doubt to gawk at Tanya or prepare for an offensive or… whatever.

She didn't give a shit about them.

Her hands were shaking violently, and she stomped over to her rifle. She snatched it off of the ground, and marched back to Rerugen.

He backtracked, but he hit… a wall. He turned around, and Neumann was standing in front of the tent, blocking his retreat. Rerugen turned back to her.

She could see his fear in his eyes, the-

She threw the rifle at his feet. He stopped silently praying to God, breathless, and looked up at her.

She ripped her Type 97 off of her neck, snapping the cord. She threw it at her feet and glared at him and crossed her arms. "There. There's nothing stopping you anymore."

He looked between the rifle and her, seemingly confused.

Viktoriya put on one of her nastiest smirks. "What, coward? You won't stop me? You'll huff and puff plenty, but the minute I _dare _you to shoot me for my insubordination, you _bow out?"_

He couldn't speak, and she turned, slowly, towards the rest of the staring camp. "Well? Will any of you shoot me? Imperial Doctrine orders soldiers to fire on known traitors if they are planning to disobey orders, if a commander is refusing to do the deed. I am planning to do that, to save her."

She whirled around. None of the regular soldiers were looking up anymore. She felt something stinging her eyes besides the harsh cold of the homeland she hadn't ever really known. "Will none of you try and stop us from saving Tanya's life? From saving Mithril? From saving a sixteen-year-old girl from the poisonous clutches of a monster?"

No one said anything. She kept spinning, building up more anger and hate and frustration and-

"_WILL YOU!?"_

They all flinched back, and she turned back to Rerugen. His head was bowed, and Viktoriya bent down to pick up her rifle and Computation Jewel.

"The Kaiser… the General Staff… they won't stand for this…"

She stopped, and she nearly collapsed at the thought. But she sank to her knees instead and grabbed Rerugen's face. She made sure he was staring at him in the eyes.

"Then they should be here, with us, _freezing to death_ and _dying _for the country they profess to 'love' so much. They should be trying to save the best soldier – the best patriot – they've _ever _had instead of ordering us to hope that her corpse is too disfigured for that bastard to _want _anymore!"

He hunched down again, and Viktoriya stood up, adjusting her rifle. She walked over to the other seven, with Weiss, Koenig, and Neumann in tow.

"And what happens if you save her? And how _can _you? You'll still be shot for dereliction of duty!" he protested.

He prayed that they wouldn't throw themselves away. She was gone, and they couldn't change that.

Viktoriya scoffed. "I can track her _anywhere_, Rerugen. I am doing as ordered and attacking Moskva. _Right now_."

She bent down, preparing to launch. She sent him one last stone-cold glare. "As for your second concern, if they want me dead so badly, I'll put a pistol in the Kaiser's hands, and I'll _dare _him to shoot me _himself!_"

And then, they were gone. She was trying to resist the urge to go back and punt their liaison with the General Staff into the Urals so he could try and do half as good as Tanya had, but it was hard going.

Luckily, the others had a question for her. "Ah… Serebryakov… can you really…"

She took a deep breath, and then another. She prayed that this would work, that her Observation spell, pushed to the limit of what the Type 97 could do, and even beyond that limit, would find Tanya, would find-

Her eyes flew open, and then she knew. "Tanya is currently one kilometer outside Moskva, travelling at twenty kilometers an hour. They're travelling on a bumpy road, or they have a bad driver, based on the variation. She is… weak, so incredibly weak, but I can still track her as long as she has mana."

Weiss stared back at Grantz, to taunt him about his bet that they woul-

He turned back around when he noticed no one was there. Grantz was dead.

He was thinking about that for a long while, and then he took in a deep breath and stared forward, ready to-

He quickly altered his Flight spells as Viktoriya stopped abruptly. He stared at her shaking head.

"I… I can't feel her anymore…"

Then, she was gone again, going faster than ever. He hurried to catch up, hoping that she wasn't as good at this as she thought she was.

She could practically read his thoughts. "If… if she's…"

Her voice echoed through their Communication spells. "All of Moskva will _burn_ if we cannot recover Tanya."

-OxOxO-

Tanya woke up slowly, and she began to run through what she liked to call her diagnostic ch-

"_Guh-_"

It was not an elegant sound, or even a meaningful one, as far as language went, but it certainly fit the characteristics of what someone hit in the side of the head might let out.

Her vision swam before her, but she didn't let herself fall into unconsciousness. She tried to look around, to understand the people around her.

"_-rest! She is currently dying_, _Loria. If you don't give her time, then she will not last through the night!"_

She couldn't understand them – why hadn't she asked Viktoriya for those lessons? – but one of the doctors was trailing them. He was mostly clean-shaven, with dark, restless, sunken eyes and a ratty head of hair that seemed like it went on forever.

Tanya only realized then that she wasn't walking, or being carried. She was being _dragged_ across a cold floor.

She tried to find her feet-

"Ugh…" she ground out as her head was hit again. She heard the doctor curse – Viktoriya said some of the same words, when she let her anger get the best of her – but he soon stopped.

Tanya looked up. There were… two men, wearing red and black uniforms that seemed to resemble the one the man dragging her was wearing. They didn't even give Tanya a glance.

She eyed the handcuffs in their hands warily. They looked… normal enough, if a bit… brighter than regular metal, but-

"Restrain him, then do the same to her. Shoot him first, of course."

Tanya's eyes widened at the familiar words. Not Germanian, but English – Albish, it didn't matter. The first target was obvious, but-

She tried to use her flagging strength to warn the man behind her. If he could escape and get help…

She shouted out, told him to run in the languages she knew the word in, desperately tried to make signs of distress, and then-

"_...Loria? What are you-"_

His question was cut off with a grunt, and Tanya felt her arm twisted around. She was forced to look at the doctor.

He was wearing the cuffs – not delicate things that police of the future would carry, but thick, heavy, Medieval-style irons. He was staring down at them in shock, shaking.

She wanted to scream at him to run, to save her using his magic, but he just looked up from his chains as one of the men pulled out a pistol. He looked between her and the man and his executor.

He put his all into glaring at the man twisting Tanya's arm.

He snarled.

He scared Tanya with the fury, pain, and anger _burning_ in his eyes.

"**Burn in Hell. You-"**

_BANG!_

Tanya watched as the defenseless man was executed, and Germanian reached her ears. "And so ends Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the last vestige of the bourgeoisie and the despotic Tsars. Have his body burned."

Tanya blinked, and then she felt the cuffs that had been on him snap down on her own-

She began to choke. Where-

Where was her mana? Where had it gone? What-

"Ah, is my Germanian good, my little doll? I've been practicing especially for this moment." She looked up into the eyes of this… Head of the NKVD, confused.

He grinned at her. "Don't you know who I am, my little doll? Didn't…"

He saw confusion clouding her eyes more than her ongoing pain, and he shook his head and chuckled. "So you weren't even _told?_ About me? Despite the fact that one of my highest officers turned traitor?"

She didn't look any less confused, and the balding man chuckled. "Well, this makes things _interesting_. I thought I would have to work at your terror, but progressing straight into fear is even _better."_

He grinned at her, and she recoiled as much as her handcuffs would allow her. While he talked, she realized they were Mithril.

In her last life, the metal had been invented for a fantasy book she couldn't remember the name of, but it had become a staple of stereotypical fantasies. Here, where she had gained it as a name, it was a bit more interesting than just being something to make armor out of.

It could be used to drain mana, though it was horribly expensive to manufacture. It-

"My little _doll_," he said unhappily. She winced minutely, and he shook his head, apparently… _amused_.

"My name is Loria, Tanya." He said it as if… as if he'd been _practicing_ it. Staring at himself for hours as he said nothing but those words, over and over.

Tanya continued to stare up at the Head of the NKVD in confusion, and he smiled at her.

"There is no way out for you, Tanya," he whispered into her ear, she felt her eyebrows crumple in confusion, and he dragged her towards him.

"I love you, Tanya."

With those four words, Tanya's thoughts ceased for all of two seconds

Then, he tried to… to _grab_ her, to lean forward unmistakably, and she panicked.

She rushed forward and bit down into his neck as hard as she could. Blood filled her mouth, and-

"_You stupid little bitch!"_

He shouted something, but the fist in her abdomen was more pressing than his words. She crumpled to the ground, clutching her stomach. She began to retch, and-

The blood in her mouth was forced out, along with the snack she'd eaten before going up against Sioux. It touched her hands and her knees and-

"Ho… look what you made me do, my little doll…" he trailed off, and Tanya found herself being dragged to her feet by the handcuffs.

She tried to use her momentum to plant her feet directly in his stomach, but he grabbed her throat. Her diminutive size was only helpful for avoiding bullets in the air, not in this kind of combat.

He whipped something out of his pocket and pressed it against her face. She felt her legs give out, and she was reminded of the vivid image of a specific chemical compound…

Chloroform…

It wouldn't knock her out in seconds like in the movies, but she wished, for a moment of terrifying certainty about what was coming, that it would.

Unconsciousness was better than what her mind told her was the logical endpoint of… _this._

She tried to fight it, but she couldn't breathe through anything but the rag on her mouth and nose and…

And…

And…

She shook her head, trying to fight him off, trying to fight against the _weakness_, and Loria chuckled again. The rag came away stained in blood, and she tried to take in deep, heaving gulps of air and-

"Now now, my little doll. As we say, 'we are always pressed for time, here in Moskva.' Let me take you to… _our_ room."

He was laughing now. He was maniacally laughing. He wasn't…

She was taking in more air. She had to breathe, to fight.

She couldn't.

No time, no energy, no thought beside _fear_ and _certainty_.

She looked to her surroundings, desperately searching for a weapon or _anything_. Marble and stone and windows that showed a dark street with craters where shells had hit. She caught a glimpse of a red flag through a window, emblazoned with the yellow tools of the Communists of this world and illuminated by the light of the hallway she was being dragged through.

She turned her attention towards the hall. There were…

Her eyes widened as much as they could. Propaganda – red and yellow flags and symbols – could be seen everywhere, but they weren't important.

There were guards. She…

She was still breathing in and out and in and out and in and out and-

"Ah, the panic is setting in. I wanted to take this so much slower, you know…"

She shook her head and tried to stand, to look to one of the unmoving guards, to-

"I was going to break your will. Torture you slowly, and take pleasure in your every fear, every mote of panic. In the end, you would _ask_ for me to _take you_, to make everything go away!"

She paused in her struggle and tried to digest what he'd just said, and she fought all the harder against her cuffs, sending pain through her arms trying to pull away. He just pulled her back, and she hit her head against the ground as she stumbled.

"…went wrong. The damned Albish had to fight their colonies and didn't want to aid us until they had prepared. The damned American's wouldn't join us without provocation, and they were _far _too late. Too many damned mages died in the _lageri _because the damned Empire took too long playing in the sand down south with the damned Francois and you didn't reveal yourself to me until _after _that…"

She was shaking her head, and he dragged her past a guard. She went to grab his leg-

She grunted in pain, and she realized that she had been kicked in the stomach. She doubled over again, retching _uselessly, _and Loria laughed.

"You think I haven't thought of everything? These men _despise_ you for what you've done to the Federation. They'd sooner _join _me than help _you_."

She shook her head to try and clear it, to try and come up with a plan, but the sickening sound of doors being opened reached her ears. She-

She pushed, she tugged, she fought with every ounce of her strength and _no mana_ and-

_CRACK_

She felt something in her arm twist wrong, and she cried out. The doors were shut, and she felt herself flying through the air and landing on a too-soft bed.

She looked around. Red and yellow dominated every facet of this opulent room, and-

She shook her head and tried to back up and ignore her broken arm as Loria smirked at her. No, nothing in the room came close to Loria in presence. He grinned at her, and she backed into the headboard, trying to grasp at anything that could-

He ran towards her, and she flinched away. He-

He grabbed her cuffs and attached them to something behind her head. She tried to turn around-

_BANG_

She flinched, and she cried out for a moment before she choked it back.

Wide-eyed, she looked down to see that her leg had been shot. Loria was grinning at her with a pistol in hand-

She launched herself forward, ignoring the pain in her leg and arm and wrists and body to get the gun, to _shoot him_, to-

He laughed again and threw it to the other side of the room. She couldn't ignore the pain anymore, and she gasped out.

He laughed harder, and then the cloth was back, strangling her, choking the air from her lungs and-

And he was laughing laughing laughing laughing.

And then he stopped.

She felt something wet touch her forehead, and she pressed herself away from his suddenly too-close body.

He'd _kissed _her head.

She was shaking now – why couldn't she stop shaking? why couldn't she think? why why why why – and he wiped his mouth and stared down at her. She couldn't move, she could hardly think because of that damned Chloroform.

He sighed. "You are safe from outsiders. This room… I spent _millions_ on this room. It is lined with Mithril. Every inch was painstakingly made so that no matter what, _you_, Tanya von Degurechaff, would not escape me."

He chuckled. "I sent millions to their deaths so that Moskva didn't fall. I put every volunteer the imperialist scum sent us between the Empire and Moskva. I spent millions in cash putting every man, woman, child, mage, gun, and tank in the Federation between the Empire and this room, all so that you. Would. Be. _Mine_."

He silently stared at her, for a moment, before advancing.

"Now, let me get you out of those ruined, soaked clothes." He said it mockingly, with a tone that said he was trying to be sincere and that still seemed _too _nice and fake and _false-_

She shook her head, trying to back away, to get away from him, to do anything-

She couldn't. She…

She was helplessly trapped in her own mind, hardly able to comprehend him slipping her out of her tattered jacket, pulling off what the doctors had left intact.

Then, he pulled off her tattered uniform and jacket and-

It was cold. She didn't have her mana, and everything was so, so cold and she couldn't do anything and she was trapped and-

"Tanya von Degurechaff…"

She was helpless and she couldn't do _anything_ but watch as she was violated raped tortured-

"You are mine!" he shouted. He stepped forward and reached down towards his belt. Her shaking head only shook more.

His pants dropped, and she retreated farther, trying to fight the Chloroform and him and get away get away _get away-_

He grabbed a flailing leg with one arm and snapped it straight. She cried out, yelling nothing, and he laughed as he secured it to the bed. She stopped flailing, trying to use her last limb to keep herself hidden modest _safe-_

He didn't care. He grabbed the other leg, he snapped it into place, and he looked at her. She was crying, and her head was still shaking back and forth and she was-

Spread eagle.

Naked.

Defenseless.

He licked his lips and he advanced towards the bed and she shook harder against her restraints and against the pain. "You belong only to me, Tanya von Degurechaff, and, for the last hours of your life, I am your master!"

She was still hyperventilating and shaking her head and trying to get away from him to make him stop to stop stop stop stop _stop-_

She was crying, shaking her head. Her lips quivered, she-

He stepped closer.

She broke. She was sobbing. She-

He grabbed a bedpost.

She was crying. She-

He smiled.

_She was_ _begging_.

"**Please! Please! I'll do anything! Just please, save me!"**

He continued to laugh at her. He dragged himself onto the bed, inching closer. He touched her thigh-

"**Oh God, please, SAVE ME! Don't abandon me! I give up, just save me! AN- ANYTHING ELSE! Deliver me from here, please P- PLEASE PLEASE-"**

He just grinned and lowered a hand and lined up and inched forward and no no no no no _no __**no-**_

_CRASH_

He had not done it and he whirled around, but she didn't couldn't _wouldn't _stop. "**PLEASE! WHERE ARE YOU GOD DO NOT ABANDON ME DO NOT LEAVE ME! **_**PLEASE!"**_

_BANG_

Tanya stopped, for a moment. Just outside the room were not more men to join in, but Viktoriya and Neumann and Weiss and Koenig and-

They saw her staring at her looking at her they saw they were **seeing **no no _no no __**no-**_

Viktoriya was holding up a pistol, pointing it at him. There was a bleeding hole in his shoulder. He cast a surprised look at it and-

He turned to her and no no not again, please no never again no please "**PLEASE STOP STOP STOP SAVE ME ANYONE PLEASE-"**

And he was gone and everything was cold and naked and bare to the world and why why why _why-_

"Tanya?"

She jerked away. "NO NEVER NEVER PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE-"

"COLONEL!"

And she was back and everything was clear and…

She wasn't chained up. She was swathed in a blanket, but she could move and stay hidden and hide under it. He wasn't there.

Viktoriya was staring into her eyes. Weiss and Koenig and Neumann were standing around the room, glancing at her and-

"SHE'S MINE! GIVE ME BACK MY DOLL!"

Tanya flinched away, back to the back of the bed and _shaking_, and Weiss stomped on something.

She took a breath, and then another and another and another another another and in out in out in out in out in _it _was coming in into _her in out in out in out-_

"_Please_, Colonel. Breathe slowly." Viktoriya took one of Tanya's hands in her own, and her breathing evened out.

In. Out. In. Out.

She was calm and fine and okay. She looked at Viktoriya…

She was crying too, and trying not to. She was bleeding from what looked to be a gunshot to one of her arms.

Viktoriya made no sudden movements, so Tanya did. She leaned forward, into her adjutant. She grabbed her, covered her shoulders with the same blanket Tanya had on, and she leaned into her shoulder.

She wept.

"Please. Never again. Please, don't do it. Please, why didn't you save me-"

Viktoriya choked back a sob, and Tanya winced and gripped her all the harder.

Where was He? Where was…

Where was God?

She'd _meant _it. She'd _believed. _Why hadn't He saved her? Had she cried out to Him too late?

"Colonel, I'll always save you. No matter what, we'll be together. I'll always have your back, no matter what." She spoke into her shoulder, and Tanya kept crying and crying and crying and-

"GIVE IT BA-"

Weiss stomped down again, and Tanya pulled away. Viktoriya looked torn, for a moment.

"I _HAVE _TO KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE INSIDE YOU, DOLL! I NEED TO KNOW! YOU ARE MINE, FROM NOW UNTIL THE END-"

She rose from the bed, and Tanya flinched away as the blank look on her face, so wonderful for poker, gained a _cold _aspect to it.

Viktoriya was no longer torn.

Weiss shut him up again. He dragged the man up from where they had slammed him into the ground. A thousand insults and ways to kill him using magic and his weapons and his bare hands flashed through his head and-

Viktoriya grabbed Weiss's arm and stared him in the eye.

"Leave. I do not imagine protecting this place with seven mages is easy. Go help the others."

Tanya blinked, and the sound of gunfire and explosions finally reached her ears. She took another deep breath, trying not to think to _imagine _in out in _out i-_

She was in Moskva, with… _him_. He was there, staring at her, wanting her waiting please no no-

When Tanya began shaking, Weiss did not reject the orders, and he fled the room, quickly followed by Koenig and Neumann. The door slammed shut, and Loria, dropped on the ground, grinned up at Viktoriya, despite the bloodied face and shoulder and bruises.

"_Do you want her, I wonder? I could easily let you help m-"_

She kicked him in the stomach before he could finish. She kicked him again, and again, and more and more until she finally launched him into a wall, her fingers itching for his neck.

He was coughing up blood, but she was not done. She bent down, and dragged him into the air, knocking all of the ornamentation on the wall to the side.

He opened his mouth, and Viktoriya reacted. "Dehydrate."

The word wasn't necessary, but she said it anyway, so he would know-

It didn't work, and he laughed through the blood, his eyes pointing over her shoulder-

Viktoriya slammed a fist into her throat, squeezing as hard as she could. When his face began to purple, and his eyes finally looked at her, instead of at the Colonel, she let him drop.

"Now that your vocal cords are too damaged for you to _dare_ hurt Tanya with words, I believe that there are several million displaced Russy that desire your death."

She glared at him, and he recoiled. "I will _gladly_ carry out their will."

Tanya watched, entranced, as Viktoriya lifted him by the neck and slammed him into the ground. He cried out, but Viktoriya didn't care.

She sat next to his writhing body, and Tanya watched – and rocked back and forth and _back and forth – _as an Observation spell sputtered and then failed. She growled and glared down into his eyes. "First, for maximum pain before I _really_ start, I will make sure you can't _ever_ hurt her again."

She took the bayonet that had been attached to her rifle and jabbed it into his hand. He cried out feebly again, but she didn't let move the hand that was holding down his body effortlessly. "I will break every bone in your hands, your arms, your feet, and your legs."

She stabbed him in the leg, and he writhed more. "Then… then, I will run my blade over every inch of your body for what you've done."

He cried out as she stabbed down into his other leg, and she sighed. "You deserve worse, but you won't even get that thanks to your location. That'll just give me motivation, though."

She stared into his bulging eyes once more, decided she didn't like what she saw, and began.

Twenty minutes of his tortured screaming later, Tanya, clutched against Viktoriya's body, was showered in broken masonry as they exploded out of the ceiling of the room and into the night.

She was shivering – she would not _look at_ a single article of clothing in that horror house and wouldn't put it on and wouldn't wouldn't _wouldn't _– but she was alive.

But she was _broken _and _pathetic _and-

She was in Viktoriya's arms, and they were racing… anywhere but here. Away, towards a hospital or a warm bed or a secure tent or a hole in the ground, as long as _he_ hadn't been anywhere near it.

She cried out at every gun flash, at every death caused by their attempt to rescue her, until she couldn't go on any longer. Tanya faded into unconsciousness.

-OxOxO-OxOxO-

Viktoriya sighed tiredly. "After that, we went to our allies in Ucraine to rest. I went to Berun, for a short few hours, and Tanya spent nearly a month healing – two weeks physically and an additional week and a half mentally – and then…"

She smiled sadly. "We went to a city called Dresdun. She was to meet my friend Elya Roth and have her first taste of alcohol, but the Cordiale attacked. She died instantly, and I died a few minutes later, killing as many of the bastards as I could."

Tanya was quietly leaning into Viktoriya's side, trying not to cry too much.

She wasn't doing very well on that front, but at least she was being quiet about it. And, she was more busy thinking than trying not to cry.

She'd…

She'd done it. She'd told them everything.

She'd admitted to them that she had nearly been raped, that she had been terrified and petrified and… broken, and that she had given in to the allure of Being X.

She had broken her promises to herself never, _never_, to acknowledge him as god. She'd tried to use him to get out of the most degrading, horrifying thing she had ever been forced into.

She had _lost_. She had given in to him, and she had been forced to realize what being trapped in a body not her own _meant._

Viktoriya rubbed Tanya's head. "She woke up here, and I arrived nearly two months later. Aqua sent us here-"

Lorelei, for the first time, held up a hand. "Do you mean the actual Goddess Aqua, or…?" she asked quietly, her eyes glued to Tanya. Lorelei didn't want to say something that suggested that that idiot in the shop-

Viktoriya giggled. "Ah, they are one and the same, actually. Kazuma brought her down as his designated 'cheat item.'"

Lorelei stared at her for a moment, and then she nodded slowly, and Tanya took another deep breath.

"I…"

She smiled humorlessly. "I never knew you were all so worked up about me…"

She hadn't ever asked about what they had done – she hadn't learned that they'd rushed straight from camp to save her – in her effort to forget what had happened. Understandable, perhaps, but-

Viktoriya sighed tiredly. "Tanya… of _course_ we'd be devastated. I-"

She winced at the confused look Tanya sent her, and she began to slowly eke out her next sentence. "I _did _go to Berun, when you slipped into a coma, and I… um…"

Tanya raised a concerned eyebrow. Viktoriya gave her an apologetic smile. "I put a gun in the Kaiser's hand, moved it to my forehead, and… dared him to shoot me? In front of the General Staff and his court?" she said. After every word, her tone increased in pitch as she moved back slightly.

Tanya blinked incomprehensibly at her for a moment, until she glared frantically. "Wh- Why would you _do _that!? You technically completed their order, and-"

She bit back another sob, and Viktoriya drifted closer. "I- I can't lose you, after I've broken, I n-"

Viktoriya hugged her swiftly, and Tanya grew silent.

"Tanya, you are _here_. You didn't break, and you're not worthless, or tarnished, or anything like that. You might not be okay now, and you won't ever forget it, but you _will_ get better. I promise."

She leaned into it and hugged her back. Viktoriya rested Tanya's head in the crook of her neck. "I won't let you get into a situation like that again. You'll never have to think about… about compromising your body instead of breaking your promise, or the other way around either."

"I…" she trailed off, and she sighed resolutely. "We'll _always _be by your side. We'll always protect you, like you'd do for us."

She wanted, for a moment, to refute her. To point out that she couldn't keep those promises, that Tanya would always be in danger, and that Viktoriya couldn't guarantee that they would protect her.

She wanted to ask. She hadn't ever wanted to know how they'd found her, and she didn't know how they _could have_ found her, with all that Mithril.

Tanya didn't know if she wanted the answer.

Then she decided she didn't care about logic or unanswered questions right now. She let herself believe those words and buried her questions. She nodded to her friend. Things…

Things weren't okay with her, not totally. She was doing better, though, and she could continue getting better at living beyond her past and focusing on the future.

-OxOxO-

After trying to digest what they'd been told for half an hour, Lorelei and Lolisa had asked to be let out. Tanya, who had fallen asleep, was put under her covers and allowed to rest, while Viktoriya cleared up some confusion.

They did not, for a second, express even an inch of doubt, even if they were somewhat skeptical about a few things. Tanya had created her illusions using her 'Type 97,' which were so lifelike Lorelei couldn't have told the difference between them and the real deal.

Furthermore, Viktoriya's description of what she had done to the pedophile – and what she _would_ have done to him, given enough time – convinced them that she might be scarier than Tanya.

Still, they had questions, so instead of doubting her words, they silently agreed to ask to be shown all the 'interesting' stuff from her world, to see what it all looked like.

Viktoriya easily agreed, and they saw images and things they'd never imagined.

Planes and Tanks and Battleships and guns and artillery and Computation Jewels were terrifying and reminded them of the Mobile Fortress Destroyer. They had promised to explain to Viktoriya what that was, too.

Now, Lorelei was showing Lolisa out of the house. Lolisa did her job as a Succubus to look after, of course, but she seemed… preoccupied.

Lorelei sighed. "Maybe we _shouldn't_ try and get them together. Tanya is probably-"

She shook her head. "No," she said, correcting herself, "not probably. She _is_ very traumatized by that, and she might not… you know… _want_ anything like that. Including… with Viktoriya."

Traumatized didn't cover it, but it was all they really knew to call it. Lolisa seemed hesitant, for a moment, but she shook her head. "No, I really do think they'd do well together, and…"

She sighed at Lorelei's skeptical look. "Our powers aren't as wishy-washy as you might think. I am almost positive that Viktoriya wanted very much to admit to something back there. Did you hear the way she trailed off after saying 'I'? She changed her sentence to say 'We'. The whole thing says to me that they would be good for each other."

Lorelei sighed tiredly. "Fine. But Viktoriya seems pretty set on trying to find a guy to date. Even said something about talking to a Mitsurugi…"

Lolisa scowled. "I don't think he's been to the shop. I don't recognize the name. We'll need to sabotage-"

Lorelei shook her head. "No! If she's alright with him, we aren't going to interfere. She could be plenty happy with him."

Lolisa glared at her. "She'd be more happy with Tanya!"

"We can't interfere that much!"

"If they'll be happier afterwards, then why _shouldn't _we?"

They continued to stare unhappily at each other for a few moments, and then they sighed simultaneously.

After a moment, Lorelei waved goodbye. "See you later…" Lorelei muttered.

Lolisa grinned cheekily at her and waved back. "See ya!"

Lorelei watched her fly off into the night, and went back in. It was getting cold, and she wanted to go to bed and try not to think too hard about what she had been told.

Tanya was… nearly fifty years old, mentally. She'd been through more than anyone in this world likely had, and Lorelei didn't think she had the experience with… life in general to deal with this…

She had to try, though. They were her friends, and though Tanya had been the focus of tonight, she wasn't entirely sure that Viktoriya didn't also have some memories she'd rather not have.

She sighed. Those would all be problems for tomorrow. For now, she was going to try and get at least a few hours of sleep.

-OxOxO-

Predictably, breakfast was… a quiet affair. Shelly probably told the servants and the guards that something happened, if their… unusually nervous – well, more nervous than usual – actions were anything to go by. Tanya didn't honestly mind.

She sighed contentedly as she sipped on Viktoriya's coffee. She felt…

She stared down at her plate of half-eaten food – some Japanese dish she didn't care to remember the name of that she'd shown the chef – and frowned.

She felt better and worse. More people knew what had happened to her, what had almost been done to her, and she _hated_ it.

She wished that no one knew she had given in, and that she could use one of Being X's stupid Divine Relics to go back in time a stop it from ever happening at all.

At the same time… it felt… _good _not to have to… _repress _it anymore. They knew, sure, but she… she didn't have to pretend that it hadn't happened.

It had, and she'd never hate anything more than that _thing,_ but her friends knew, and they knew why it was doubly disgusting, to have been scared of being r- raped enough to give in to Being X.

She sighed.

She could… move past it. It wasn't trapped inside her, which meant that she could try to learn to leave it behind her, now that it wasn't so close.

Hopefully, anyway. She wasn't an expert on these sorts of things, and she had a sneaking suspicion that the most anyone here could do for her is cast Heal in the hope that it worked on mental trauma as well.

She looked up from her food and pushed it aside. "Come on. We've got work to do!" she declared.

Viktoriya smiled at her from across the table and rose as well, while Lorelei simply raised an eyebrow at them both. "We do?"

Tanya nodded. "I… well, despite how it ended, I'm… _fairly _sure I won that competition yesterday, so I want to go to that Crimson Demon and learn how to make magic items."

Tanya heard the sound of spraying liquid, and she offered a napkin to the pair of them without turning around. She looked over her shoulder to see that they were both staring at her with… concern in their eyes.

She smiled happily. "I'm fine, really. I feel…"

She smiled genuinely. "I feel… more free."

Lorelei and Viktoriya shot each other dubious looks, but they quickly followed Tanya to their rooms, where they donned their adventuring clothing.

Tanya came out looking feeling fine and-

"Ah… Tanya, do you need new clothing?"

Tanya blinked and looked down, trying to see if anything felt as uncomfortable as Lorelei seemed to think it did. She frowned.

"Well… I suppose that my pants are feeling a bit tight, but everything else seems okay to me…"

Lorelei squinted at her, and asked her what her clothing's measurements were. Tanya raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You already know my measurements."

That did not satisfy her, and after a moment, Tanya told her.

Lorelei shook her head. "All of the things you're wearing are too small, besides maybe the mantle. I should have expected as much from someone masquerading as a girl."

Tanya raised an eyebrow and held up a hand as they walked towards the west wing. "Hey, I don't want anything different. Just-"

Lorelei scoffed. "Of course. But… your gloves are carrying daggers, right?"

Tanya blinked in surprise. They didn't poke out, so how-

Lorelei smiled at her. "I was training to be a Tailor, Tanya. I might have had to give up most of my skills to switch to being a Warrior, but I still know a thing or two that changing Jobs can't take away, and I can… tell. I'll make some additions to that, maybe I'll…"

Tanya just sighed as she got on her bandolier with her spare ammunition and other items.

She snapped her fingers. "Viktoriya, did you-"

Tanya's voice cut off as she realized she was glaring at Lorelei for some reason. Tanya took a wary step towards her, and waved her hand in front of her. "Houston to Sereryakov, do you copy?"

She blinked, and sent her the look nearly everyone did when Tanya said something about the future that they didn't understand. "What?"

Tanya opened her mouth to tell her to ignore her turn of phrase – Lorelei didn't know they were from a different world…

Then her eyes widened, and she smiled again. But she did, which meant Tanya could explain that to the girl.

Tanya shrugged and continued the conversation. "Well, I wanted to know if you grabbed the Magic Canceler scrolls."

She shook her head, but Lorelei's head bobbed up and she grinned as she reached into her coat. "I did! Wiz was… apologetic, and offered them at a discounted price!"

Tanya looked at them and grinned. "Good. Then, I think it's time we meet that Crimson Demon."

They quickly left the mansion, and Tanya turned to Viktoriya. "Ah, I wanted to know, Viktoriya."

She turned her head towards her, attentive and concerned and waiting for what would come out of her lips.

Tanya sighed, for a moment – she was still the Devil of the Rhine, no matter what had happened to her. She wasn't made of spun glass.

Still, she quickly asked her question. "How did you read the words on the back of the Body-Switching Relic?"

Viktoriya blinked owlishly, and she pouted, for a moment. "Um… I wanted to… you know, learn a bit of Japanese, so… I purchased a few of the books you translated, opened the originals, and tried my best to learn the language. You had a dictionary in there, too…"

Tanya's eyebrows rose, and then she shook her head. "I can teach you, you kno-"

She pouted again and began to sulk and pout adorably. "I _know_, but I wanted to surprise you for your birthday…"

Tanya blinked and tried not to make her whiplash too obvious. "You… were going to learn a whole language in _less than a month…_ as a _birthday present_?"

She nodded slowly and muttered, "I wanted to do something special, since you're seventeen now…"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "You know that I'm actually closer to fifty mentally, right?"

They continued to talk for a bit longer – Tanya extracted a promise that they would learn each other's first languages in the next few months – unaware of the twitching of Lorelei's ears or the looks everyone else seemed to be sending them.

Based on the distrusting, suspicious, and, in a few cases, scandalized glares they were getting, she was guessing that one of the people from the restaurant they'd eaten at had talked about that blond-haired adventurer's accusation of them being Axis Cultists.

Of course, half of the people looking at them like that were also looking at _her _like that, so Lorelei decided not to care about the staring, like her friends…

Or were they just oblivious?

…Who was she kidding? Of course they were just oblivious and didn't real-

"WHAT!?"

Lorelei's attention jumped back towards the conversation to find that Tanya was nodding. "Yep! The Americans made it to the moon in '69. They planted their flag up there and everything!"

Lorelei was trying not to pick at her ears to see if Tanya had said what she thought she had, because-

"That's so cool!" she shouted, and they were talking about all of the advances in science and technology that Tanya had seen in the future, without even a hint of care about everyone around them.

Some would call that being self-assured. Lorelei would call it obliviousness, because they would probably both be scooting away from each other if they realized just what everyone else thought they were seeing.

Lorelei just sighed. Hopefully, Viktoriya wouldn't find out and think the entire town was in on Lorelei's attempts to get them together, or things might end up going very… badly.

Still. They were having a bit of fun, and Lorelei knew that Tanya deserved some of that.

-OxOxO-

Tanya raised an eyebrow at the assembled Succubi.

They were wearing unfamiliar clothing. Instead of their 'work' clothing – the skimpy fishnets that might count as clothing in the X-rated version of something like Mad Max – or even the more familiar clothes they chose to wear whenever they all visited, they seemed to be wearing something more… formal.

A mixture of suits and dresses adorned the Succubi arranged behind the one that was heading their procession. Standing in front of them, Lolisa had her head bowed. She was wearing a rather spiffy dress that completely hid the fact that she was a Succubus.

"We're very sorry for what we did! Um… I didn't tell them anything specific, other than that you had a very bad reaction to having your Mental Defense ring removed," she uttered quickly.

Tanya sighed. At least she wasn't kowtowing like Revi had. She cast a glance at Viktoriya…

Tanya tilted her head. She didn't seem all that soothed by their apology. Tanya turned her head to look at Lorelei with a raised eyebrow.

She was staring hard at the Succubi as well, but when Tanya looked closely, she sighed and joined the Succubi, her ears lowered with the rest of her body.

Tanya smiled appreciatively. "Really, this is…"

She frowned. She didn't want to dismiss their efforts – they seemed rather uncomfortable in such formal clothing – but she _did_ want them to do a bit of work for her…

She smiled again. "Thank you all for the thought. Ah… if you all are uncomfortable as you look in that stuff-"

Tanya never got to finish her sentence as they all ripped their clothing off in a glorious display that had Lorelei clawing at her hair from the wasted, high-end clothing.

Meanwhile, Tanya was trying desperately to run through as many math problems and remember the most dry, boring pieces of paperwork from _any _of her last lives to distract herself from imagining them tearing off what little they had left on as well.

She cleared her throat. "WeLl-"

She coughed into her hand and tried to ignore how horribly her voice had just cracked. They were all staring at her, and she cleared her throat again. "Puberty."

She glowered at them as they all leveled a stare at her that told her they were about as convinced by that explanation as Tanya was that Being X was a rational, sane person.

She cleared her throat again. "Anyway… I'm not going to thank you – that would imply that what you did was in any way acceptable – but I _did_ open up a bit, so I appreciate that outcome at least."

They all nodded, while Lolisa, clad in her tissue paper once more, stepped forward. "Are you… okay?"

Tanya beamed at her. "Yep! I'm feeling much better, actually-"

Lorelei leaned towards Lolisa and whispered loudly into her ear. "She probably hasn't properly digested it yet. She'll remember to be furious eventually."

Lolisa grew pale at that, and Tanya just rolled her eyes. Really, she was feeling better-

She frowned. Actually, had she already reached acceptance in the five stages of grief, or was she in denial?

Before she could contemplate that worrying thought – she didn't often deny anything about herself illogically – Lolisa spoke up. "Ah, as… um, compensation, we were wondering if you'd like good dreams?"

Before she could respond, Viktoriya stepped forward. Lolisa began to back away, and Lorelei placed herself between the Succubi and Viktoriya, looking like she was about to talk her down.

Tanya rolled her eyes. Honestly, how could anyone be scared of Viktoriya? She only brutally tortured people who deserved it like…

Like… like L- Lor- Loria…

Red and yellow and bedposts and no mana left and unending laughing ringing in her ears and…

And it was all in the past now. Loria was dead – killed by the woman next to Tanya – and she wasn't even in the same world she'd met him in. Some form of Communism wouldn't arrive in this world for over a century, if it ever came at all.

She took a deep breath, and she mentally thanked Viktoriya and Lorelei for having a standoff and drawing their attention away from her, even if it was genuine.

Tanya took another deep breath. Still, she needed to address their offer.

She placed a hand on Viktoriya's shoulder. "Viktoriya, come on. I'm not exactly opposed to the idea, but I don't think they'll be able to regardless, unless they want to remove the ring again."

Viktoriya stopped and turned on Tanya, wild confusion in her eyes. Tanya raised an eyebrow, while Lolisa quickly stepped to their side, eyeing the two of them. "Of course we can do that! The only reason we had to remove that ring was because we wanted to look at your dreams without your… consent."

Lolisa petered off at the end, and grimaced as memories of Lori- Loria made their way into her mind at her pronouncement of her last word. Honestly-

She blinked, going over the Succubus's statement. She glared at Lolisa quickly. "Hey. Why would you want to look at my dreams in the first place? And, now that I think about it, how did you even _get _into the mansion? The guards are the best they've ever been."

She crossed her arms and glared at the assembled Succubi and Lorelei. All of them looked like a rather large spell was hurtling towards them about to end them in a few seconds. Tanya was a rational person, however.

She'd give them a chance to explain themselves before that happened.

Then, suddenly, a great… _scheming _look passed between the Succubi and Lorelei. Lolisa stepped forward, and-

Tanya frowned and looked towards Viktoriya. She could feel the barest hints of what felt like uncontrolled mana.

Meanwhile, Lolisa had retreated back into the fold with the other Succubi, who were all cowering.

Tanya raised an eyebrow at Viktoriya when the burst of mana didn't abate for the longest time. "Serebryakov."

She blinked, and the mana died off. Tanya sighed in disgust, and Viktoriya tilted her head in confusion.

"Viktoriya, I might not be your commanding officer anymore, but our adventuring party _d_oes have standards. At least for us."

Tanya suppressed a smirk as Lorelei sent her an affronted glare at the insinuation that there were no standards for anyone else in their party, but she moved past the teasing and raised an eyebrow at Viktoriya. "Honestly, broadcasting mana like that without using a spell? Did I train you and fight by your side for nearly eight years or not?"

Viktoriya finally seemed to realize what Tanya was talking about, if her downtrodden expression was anything to go by, and Tanya sighed. "Well, whatever," she said as she turned to the others. "I'm still waiting for an explanation."

Lolisa thought quickly. She had been about to tell Tanya _exactly_ why she had been there, thus forcing the issue out into the open, but the killing intent that Viktoriya had leveled at them had convinced her that doing so would probably get her blasted into oblivion.

She smirked. If she couldn't give the real explanation…

She stepped forward again, only this time, she looked at Lorelei with an expectant smile. The beastman blinked in confusion.

The other Succubi were not slow, and they were also staring at the beastman now. She dared to look at Tanya…

Who was now staring at her as well. Lorelei gave her a nervous smile, for a moment, until-

"You stupid Succubus! I'll dress you in a nun's habit if it's the last thing I do!" she shouted as she pounced on Lolisa. She was shaking her shoulders back and forth, glaring down at the tiny girl for trying to throw her under the cart, resisting the urge to pick her up and chuck her through-

"Lorelei…" came Tanya's warning, and she sighed. She stood up, dusting her clothing off, and tried to smile nervously.

Tanya didn't seem to buy it. Lorelei sent a glare over her shoulder at Lolisa, who stuck her tongue out.

Repressing the urge to jump her again, she rubbed the back of her head in a show of nervousness. It would buy her time as she tried to come up with some excuse. "Ah… well, I, um…"

She sighed again, letting her shoulders fall. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't trying to… use me… is all…"

Tanya merely raised an eyebrow. "'Use you?'"

She nodded, praying that she'd buy this. Somehow. "I was hoping you weren't trying to exploit my friendship to try and get away with something in the future, or that you didn't have expectations of me being in the employ of the Demon King. I was nervous, alright?"

Tanya shook her head, walking towards Lorelei. "Really? That's _it_? _That's _what this is all about?"

She nodded, and Tanya shook her head again. "Honestly, why would I try and use you?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but something about the way she had delivered that sentence seemed… _off_.

Tanya spun around and began to monologue. "Really, if I wanted to use someone to contact the Demon King, then I'd probably just talk to the obviously demonic Succubi or that Undead Mage that's taken up residence in the castle Verdia owned."

"Furthermore, if I wanted to exploit someone's friendship for power, I'd probably just talk to Darkness or Iris or Revi. They all have much more influence and power than you do."

Lorelei's confusion was now twisting into annoyance. "And, if I wanted the party to get stronger, I'd recruit or hire someone from the guild using my position as Governor to get the best of the best before I would try and manipulate you through our friendship. There really is no reason for me to want to exploit you in any way."

_Twitch. Twitch._

Viktoriya, who had been watching Tanya's delivery with a fond smile, nearly burst out laughing as Lorelei's ears twitched. It was the slightest thing, but it reminded her so much of Tanya's odd strand of hair that she only just stopped herself.

"Hehehehehe…"

Her own ability at keeping a poker face in place did nothing to help the Succubi, who were all snickering at Lorelei, both from Tanya's speech and Lorelei's ears.

Tanya finished and twirled around, only to tilt her head. Lorelei seemed more irate than she had at the beginning, while the others seemed to be laughing at something.

Lorelei shook her head and uttered, "Gee, thanks," under her breath. Tanya mentally shrugged and turned to the Succubi.

"_Speaking_ of the Demon King…" she began, waiting for the reaction of the others in the room.

Viktoriya already knew what was coming, and the lack of change in her facial expression proved that. The others, however, were not quite as nonreactive.

Lorelei was staring at Tanya with a concerned expression on her face, while the Succubi were either curious, confused, or, in the case of Lolisa, nervous.

She opened her mouth, and then she felt something in her chest clench. She scowled.

That damn contract was still affecting her, then? It was a bit hopeful that that problem would disappear with either the appearance of that crazed thing that took over her body, but…

She turned to Viktoriya, smiling.

"Could you tell them? I'm still bound by that contract, and I'd like to be more direct," she explained. Viktoriya nodded dutifully and stepped forward.

"…can one of you go to the Demon King with a message from Tanya please?" she asked. There was a moment of silence.

All of them appeared to be trying very hard not to react, if the involuntary twitch of eyes, noses, and tails was anything to go by.

Lolisa stepped forward. "Um… can we ask why?"

Tanya nodded towards Viktoriya, who snapped her heels together, as if she were giving a report on the 203rd's latest battle. "Of course. We're thinking of joining him if it looks like Belzerg will lose, so we've been cultivating allies on both sides of this conflict. She needs one of you to deliver a message for her about recent… events. Does that clear things up?" she said, finished her statement with a question and an innocent expression.

Pandemonium.

"WHAT!?"

"Oh come ON! I wanted to _avoid _that stereotype, you stupid-"

"There's been a stalemate for over thirty years, and you decide that _now _is the best time to be splitting hairs?"

Tanya weathered the scorn – directed at them both in equal measure – all with a mirthful smile as she gazed at Viktoriya. She knew the power a few words could have – her leadership the 203rd and the Salamander _Kampfgruppe _showed that.

She had worked soldiers in a frenzy, bolstered their spirits, but she hadn't ever considered the chaos a few well-placed words could cause, mostly because she was rarely in a position for that sort of thing to occur… without having seriously negative consequences.

She supposed that was a result of her general disdain for chaos… but having a bit of fun was fine every once in a while, as long as it didn't do any lasting damage.

"Ah, also, if you all can't help, there might be dire consequences…" Viktoriya added. Tanya nodded along.

She- uh… one in her position had already struck a deal with the Demon King, after all. Or, he'd sent said person a letter. Such a person would want to cultivate allies on both sides, and said person might not have responded yet.

Tanya blinked her eyes, and she realized that Lorelei was now standing in front of her, peering down at her with an expression that was rapidly shifting away from worried to scared.

Tanya tilted her head. "You alright, Lorelei? If you want an explanation, I could provide one later, but-"

She opened her mouth, for a moment, and then she snapped it shut with a snap. She twirled away, and Tanya found herself staring at the Succubi once more.

"Yeah, you all really should do this. You invaded her dreams, after all. It might have been at my request, but I couldn't have done any of that without you," she said.

Tanya's brow furrowed – Lorelei sounded really vindictive, for some odd reason – but she was distracted as, once more, Lolisa was pushed forward appeasingly like a piece of meat. She smiled nervously. "Uh… are you sure you won't just settle for some good dreams?"

Tanya shrugged. "Oh, well… I suppose that, if you can provide generally good dreams, with _no specific alterations _beyond giving them a positive tilt, then sure, but otherwise, I don't want any."

She wasn't at all disparaging of their business and what they did for other adventurers, but she wanted no part in anything explicit. At least, not until she got the item she wanted.

Lolisa raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You know, if you're so interested in getting _that _item, we could always provide you with some _very _nice fanta-"

"Completely sure."

That ended that conversation, and Tanya sighed. "Look, if you won't take the message, then… someone in my position will probably either have to go there themselves or talk to the Undead Mage inhabiting Verdia's Castle."

For a moment, it seemed that they would refuse.

Then, something must have occurred to them, as Lolisa asked for a bit of time for deliberation. Tanya nodded agreeably and turned her thoughts to other matters.

It would be lunch time in a few hours, and she was looking forward to enjoying it. She'd taught the chef about another Japanese dish. He seemed very eager to learn about the dishes she knew of, and it warmed her heart to know that someone so devoted to their art was also able to survive Alderp.

Meanwhile, the Succubi had come to a consensus. Lolisa stepped forward and bowed at the waist. "We'll take it, if you allow us to give you generally good dreams. We won't change the subject matter, unless you're having some sort of nightmare."

Tanya nodded, and then she gazed at them speculatively. "Have you all ever thought of being counselors?"

They blinked, and Tanya nodded. "Being able to help people with PT- I mean, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – or many mental disorders, really – would probably stop people from going to the Tranquility Girls to commit suicide, if nothing else, and-"

The moment the word 'Tranquility' had passed through her mouth, the Succubi had all begun grinning evilly at each other. Tanya's smile became just a bit strained as she realized that, while they might be primarily beings concerned with lust, they probably didn't mind getting some other emotions concerned with revenge.

Tanya shook her head. They were just about done here. "Anyway, I'll hire a Mage to Teleport however many of you are going as close to the front lines as I can get you."

They all glanced at each other nervously. "Ah, Tanya… we really shouldn't use Teleport. Our Luck is horrible, since we're Demons, so-"

Tanya cut Receptionist Succubus off. "Don't worry. I'll make sure they're in a secure location, or I can even ask them to come here. There-"

Tanya stopped. She had been about to say 'there's nothing to worry about,' but her experience in the Capital had shown her that if she dared some so-called goddess to align the universe to spite her, they definitely would.

She sighed. "Well, I'll mitigate as much risk as I can, anyway. Would that be alright?"

They looked at each other, and, one by one, they nodded. Tanya smiled and turned to the door.

"Excellent! Come on, you two." She motioned to the other two as she brought a letter out of a pocket and deposited it in Lolisa's hands. She spun around, followed by the other two.

With that, she left the room, talking all the while. "Now, while this might sound weird, Lorelei… one in my position has been attempting to make sure that, no matter which way this war goes, they would be safe regardless. Said person couldn't do this in their last life for a number of reasons, but they would be more than…"

The room grew silent, but they stood there, looking at each other. Only after hearing the backdoor to their establishment close did they breathe a collective sigh of relief.

"Jesus, that was scary! How can she be so intimidating?" asked one. Lolisa just shrugged stormily.

Serebryakov had proved herself just as dangerous as Tanya. Her looks and threats had forced them into doing something they hadn't done, ever.

They were going to reveal themselves to the Demon King. Throughout the twenty-odd years the shop had been around and grown, they had stayed hidden from the conflict that they only enjoyed because it took scrutiny away from their home.

They didn't want to be used by the Demon King to collect information or spy or fight. They were here to live well and run their business. But…

Lolisa didn't fight the urge to drool. Oh, if they could just get them to _look _at each other speculatively…

She shivered. _That _was why they were doing this. If they did this, and if they did other tasks for Degurechaff, then they might eventually gain enough of her trust to get her to listen to them over Viktoriya, or even just let them speak to her alone for more than two goddamn minutes and explain that she really should get _bizzay _with her friend.

She shook her head and looked at the letter in her hands. Still, they'd need to travel to the Demon King.

She shivered. It was worth it, in the long term. She just had to keep that in mind…

-OxOxO-

**A/N 2: **Yeehaw! Sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long – this stupid quarantine isn't helping my writing productivity, surprisingly enough.

Ah well. I hope that the reveal was worth the wait, and that you enjoyed Tanya getting some… help with her self image? Not sure how to word it, but everyone's supportive of her after her trauma, which is nice.

Anyway, the next chapter is coming sooner.

**A/N 3:** Also, for those of you wondering: I chose Mizuho Wakatsuki as her name because… when I looked at the 'Japanese given names' and 'Japanese family names' articles on Wikipedia, no one was named that, which means it's not the name of someone famous. Also, because neither of the names mean anything particularly special, as far as my research told me.

In other words, it's neither a special name that would make him stand out, nor is it a name that's known for being overly generic like 'Satou' or 'Suzuki' or something.

**A/N 4: **Ah, and, as a bit of compensation for taking so long on the update, I've posted the beginning of 'Five Most Loyal,' a side story to this one that's important enough to need to be separate from the Omake series.

I couldn't post it before this chapter because, well, spoilers.

It isn't technically necessary to continue to read this, just like the Omakes, but it will have a much heavier impact on the main story than the Omakes, which is why it's separate. The reason why will be pretty obvious once you start reading it.

**A/N 5:** Oh, and one last thing:

I'm not going to respond to reviews as much anymore.

It's not because there's hate or flames or anything like that – really, it's been surprising how much I _haven't _been flamed for this – but…

Look, I had this chapter mostly ready to go four weeks ago, but the thought of going through the reviews and responding to them psyched me out _so much_ that I just didn't feel like posting.

For four weeks.

So… yeah. If there's something particularly important I feel the need to respond to, I will, but, for the most part, don't expect to see many responses. I feel that you all will appreciate more chapters instead of responses, right?

With that said…

**Number Sixty-Six: **Gasing the Communists is not Canon.

My idea was that gas attacks were probably banned like in the Hague Conventions of our time line, and that all the countries stuck with it due to… I don't know, some accident that kills civilians or something and very bad PR. However, a few scientists get the idea of a spell to use magic in chemistry instead of just in physics to create a spell to convert chemicals in the air into something more concentrated and deadly. General Staff need every leg up they can get over the Federation, so they take it.

Rule lawyers would say that the agreement didn't encompass _magically created_ gas attacks, and, of course, Tanya couldn't really argue against orders from her superiors, especially since rule lawyers have backed it up. She's so against using the spell because she knows exactly how well the 'we were just following orders' defense works, and she showed a bit of genuine care for her men by declaring she'd take the fall.

**tylermech66:** Ah ha! I've been so very careful about that distinction! My time is now!

They are two separate things! _Magazines _are the things that hang off the bottom of the gun, while '_clips' _– aka 'stripper clips' – are small pieces of metal that hold cartridges. You put clips in through the top part where empty cartridges come out to reload magazines instead of replacing the whole magazine. It's mostly done with rifles, as far as I'm aware.

That is why they refer to the clips as 'small pieces of metal' and why they thought it was a bit ridiculous to conserve them – they're designed to be pretty disposable.

Skallagrim has a good video on it on YouTube, it's where I first learned the distinction.


	38. Discoveries and Opening Moves

Well.

This was it.

The time had finally come, after all these years.

The Demon King was going to legalize murder for the next ten seconds.

He never thought it would come to this…

_CRASH!_

Upon groaning loudly and confirming that yes, the things in front of him were really happening, he shook his head and tried to bury his face in not _only _his hands and arms, but also inside the flooring of his castle.

No, he _had_ known this would happen one day. Of course he'd known it would, with the company he kept. That was why the documentation legalizing murder for ten seconds after it was passed was sitting in his office, just _begging_ to be used every time he had to deal with them.

It was unavoidable, though. He just _had_ to murder everyone else in this god damned room, because-

"Holy fuck, are all of your collective ages _twelve _and collective intelligence equal to a particularly active _rock?!"_

He blinked as the chaos died down, and he sighed as he realized he'd said that out loud. Well, there was nothing for it. It was regrettable, but he just _had_ to murder-

"_Father,"_ the patient and annoyed voice of his daughter sounded in his ear. He took a deep breath, and then settled into his seat.

"You know _what?"_ he asked rhetorically. They all shut up quickly.

No one answered his rhetorical question, and he continued on. "I'm going to find some fucking drugs, and alcohol, and steal Celestina's 'secret' stash, and get abso-fucking-lutely _wasted_. Hopefully, I'll finally keel over, but on the off chance I don't, see you chucklefucks later!"

He jumped out of his seat, and his daughter immediately grabbed his arm. He bit down on the urge to begin weeping, but he allowed himself to be guided back into his seat

He took another long, drawn out sigh, and he looked around the table.

Sylvia had been _slinging food _across the table at Ragcraft, who had shifted into the form of a Many-Tentacled Horror to retaliate effectively. He had responded in kind, shifting his arms into a Chimera's substitute for tentacles.

Verdia was egging them both on and trying to brazenly hit on Celestina, who had recently arrived back from her hard retraining. She had been ignoring the Dullahan, smoking quietly, and threatening to use her Dark God's powers to enslave him after her usual 'blow smoke in their face' tactic didn't work due to his head not being where anyone else's head would be.

Wolbach was simply staring down at her ruined milkshake with a dejected expression. It was contaminated with bits of meat and salad, and it looked thoroughly unappealing.

Most of that – and the ruining of the refined air of this meal – had been prompted by the NEET coming in and stealing half the food, ruining the lunch the Demon King had carefully arranged.

He resisted the urge to growl louder than he already was growling. But, of course, they'd been staring at his hard work like it was ammunition _well _beforehand, so that _idiot's _intrusion-

The Demon King sighed tiredly. "Fine. You all want to ruin my lunch? We'll skip it. See how you all like _that…_"

He slammed his hands together, and a wave of fire reverberated across teh table instead of any sound, igniting the food and burning it to ash in moments. Ragcraft and Sylvia both sighed dejectedly before sinking into their seats, while the rest began to settle down and at least keep their commentary below a level he could hear.

He sent a glance towards Wolbach, whose body sagged as she realized it was time for business. "We couldn't find my other half. About all I could find was the place where I sealed it, but it's been broken again. It's long gone…"

The Demon King sighed and sent an angry glare at Sylvia. The man rolled his eyes. "Hey, it wasn't all bad. I _finally _figured out where the location of the secret weapon that grants invulnerability to magic. I'll need a Barrier Killer, but I can definitely access it and destroy them!"

The Demon King blinked, for a moment, and then he grinned. _Finally_, a bit of progress.

With Hans nearly done with the damn Axis Cultists and Sylvia one step closer to killing the Crimson Demons, two of some of the more… _unconventionally _powerful groups opposing him would be gone.

He sighed happily, gripping his daughter's hand. She squeezed back twice, and he inhaled deeply.

His wife had done much the same thing when she had been helping him run his Kingdom… which was what his own child was doing now.

He scowled, for a moment. Was he… being unfair to her and holding her back?

His thoughts were swept aside by Wolbach's voice. "How are things with Hans going? Is Alcanretia really going to be completely contaminated?"

He raised an eyebrow towards his daughter, and she began to quickly give a report. "Hans says that he's almost finished. His starting early really helped, especially after they were understaffed after some other contamination with… Tokoroten Slime?"

The Demon King blinked and shook his head in confusion, and looked to his daughter to make sure that she hadn't… misread or misheard a report somewhere. Who would pour that disgustingly sweet stuff into a hot spring? And who had enough of that stuff to even _do _something like contaminate the hot springs of Alcanretia?

His daughter looked up from a small booklet of her's and nodded, and he tried to think about what that could mean…

He briefly tried to contemplate it being the opening move of someone _else's _plan to contaminate the hot springs… before deciding that he had more important things to worry about and that Hans now had something else to investigate when he finished with his current task.

She continued after clearing her throat. "Ah… anyway, they needed help, and as… someone not in the Cult and working his way up the chain of command, they promoted Hans with the stipulation that he _had _to at least listen to their attempts at conversion. They've been bombarding him with conversion attempts disguised as fake robberies and accidents every morning, sermons about the virtues of the Axis Cult every lunch, and letters every evening, but the… snacks you sent were able to tide him over. For now."

He sighed happily again. This was all good. Hans doing something rash would likely end up in more problems than he wanted, and as long as he kept feeding the slime…

Ragcraft had reported earlier that Elroad wasn't declining anymore. That would have ordinarily been very _very _bad, but Ragcraft's sources were also convinced that many nobles were going missing.

Personally, he didn't care why they were disappearing – all-expense-paid vacations, executions, and sacrifices to a God of the Lower Classes were all theories – he was just happy that Elroad remained moderately unstable because of it.

They would recover eventually, but they'd be weaker for months, if not a year or two.

Celestina's arrival was also a good thing. Slipping her into one of the cities on the front wouldn't do – her identity was well known anywhere near the front, and she would be recognized there – but sending her somewhere remote to work her magic would result in more humans – some willing and some less so – to use as spies.

Speaking of whom…

Celestina blew a ring of smoke in Verdia's waist-height face, and then she sliced through the silence. "Hey, where is that 'Evan' kid you mentioned? We don't often get new hires around here," she said, talking to his daughter.

He rolled his eyes. "I told you, that's classified information, which means-"

"'ONLY I AND VERDIA GET TO KNOW.'"

He jerked back in his seat as his daughter, Ragcraft, Celestina, Wolbach, and Sylvia all shouted the phrase as one, their expressions ranging from bored to annoyed.

He glared at them as they gave him a completely innocent look. Was he really becoming so predic-

_CRASH!_

The door at the far end of the room was blown open, and they all looked towards it, their hands drifting towards their weapons, if they had any. No one was supposed to interrupt this meeting.

But someone had. A ten-foot-tall Demon, taller than anyone there, sank to a knee. "My King! Succubi, acting as messengers, have arrived! They bear news from… Tanya von Degurechaff!"

His eyes widened, and he cast his gaze beyond the Demon to those standing beyond the doorway.

From behind the Demon, he could spot three Succubi shaking like leaves on a branch, if that branch had somehow managed to steal all of a Dragon's loot and make it five feet out of its roost before being caught.

Silently, everyone at the table put on haughty, inscrutable, mysterious, or intrigued expressions. They crossed their arms, stared at them, smirked evilly, and let their power out to swallow the Succubi whole.

No matter their differences in opinion, nor how some of them were wondering just when he would finally kick the bucket so they could take over, he and his generals liked to act like all-knowing masters of power, masterfully manipulating all in their path.

The three quickly stepped around the Demon that heralded their arrival. The Demon King turned up his nose. "You may leave them here," he told the guard.

It quickly left, and the three shaking leaves began to shake harder as the Dragon bore down on them.

Then, he stopped for a moment, looking up and down the table, looking for… something.

Then, when he couldn't find it, he smirked happily. Usually, this was the point where Vanir would say something disarmingly happy or helpful, robbing them of their image and giving him potent disappointment to feast on.

He wasn't here now.

Surprisingly, not a single one of the leaves bowed. Instead, the smallest Succubi among them brought a letter out from the leather bag at her side. With a shaking arm, she handed it to Sylvia, who occupied the seat closest to the exit and farthest from him.

The Chimera took it and slid it across the table. The Demon King was momentarily thankful that he'd cleared the table with a wave of fire, or it would have been illegible from sliding through mashed potato, grease, and various alcohols

His daughter picked it up and presented it to him. He took it and grasped at one of the steak knives at his side, opening it.

He read quickly. He-

His growing smirk was quickly destroyed as all the others abandoned their images of imperious, powerful beings to crowd around his chair in an attempt to read it over his shoulder instead of waiting for him to speak.

Suppressing a sigh, he skipped down to the end, only to grumble as Wolbach let out a squeal of delight. "Finally! My other half has been located! With that, we can…"

She trailed off and made to grab the letter. The Demon King held it away from her, splitting his attention between holding her off with one hand and reading the letter held in the other. Finally, after reading the opening once more, let her have it. She flattened it against the table, and the others crowded around her.

She began to laugh maniacally. Though the Succubi were all looking at her with frightened stares, the others were all smiling fondly at her, and she ignored them all.

Celestina picked up the letter from the table and raised an eyebrow towards the Goddess. "Can you take some poor girl's pet Chomusuke away from them, though?"

Wolbach spun around and glared at her, and the Demon King tried not to groan as they sized each other up for what felt like the thousandth time.

Wolbach and Celestina had a… tumultuous love-hate relationship. One served a nearly defunct Goddess that was running around somewhere, and one _was _a nearly defunct Goddess.

Just as Celestina recruited followers among the citizens of the Demon King's lands – and failed often, since Wolbach was… right there – Wolbach tried to entice Celestina into abandoning Regina to work for her because Celestina hadn't heard from her Goddess in many years, and she might as well serve someone closer to her.

Wolbach even sabotaged many of Celestina's attempts at gaining followers by regaling those crowds who flocked to Celestina with stories of her interactions with Regina herself, many of which weren't… awe-inspiring.

Wolbach turned up her nose at Celestina. "I never named that mangey fleabag! In fact, he was supposed to be waiting for me and Sylvia, sealed up and ready to be killed. I guess someone must have released it, although…"

She swiped the letter away again, looking it over. Her eyebrows creased, and the Demon King sighed.

She was finally past the part where Degurechaff's 'assistant' had written about the 'other half,' and on to the part about Hoost.

She glared at him. "You were using one of _my _minions without my permission?"

He chuckled nervously. "Ah, well… he mentioned a contract, and he _may _have told me everything about it. I thought you'd appreciate getting more use out of him without explicitly ordering it."

She threw the letter in the air, and Verdia managed to catch it between his teeth.

His expertly thrown head continued to arc through the air as Sylvia and Ragcraft tangled with his body, shaking him around while arguing with each other.

"As the Leader of the Intelligence Division, I should-"

"As a REAL General, _I-"_

Verdia's head eventually hit a wall, bounced off the ground, and rolled to a stop next to the Succubi, where it continued to try and read the letter, with the three Succubi's combined gazes nervously eyeing the tangled group of Generals and the head in front of them.

Wolbach stared at the Demon King in the eyes as he raised a less-than-delicate eyebrow. "I do appreciate getting some extra use out of him, but Hoost was a _friend_ more than he was a Demon for my use. _I don't appreciate people using my friends."_

He shrugged noncommittally and he let a smile grace his face, making sure it didn't reach his eyes. "Hey, I don't appreciate a lot of things too. It seems I'll have to live with them for just a few years longer, though."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she paced away from him, and he continued to give her back the condescending smile she deserved for what he _knew _was coming.

"Honestly. When will you get over what Heaven did a few hundred years ago? It's in the past."

She spun around and aimed an inquisitive stare and an innocuous smile at his face.

He raised an increasingly irate eyebrow at her and smirked angrily. She knew it was more than that.

It had _always _been about more than that history.

But if _she _was going to get nasty, he'd respond in kind.

"Oh? Well, the Axis and Eris Cults both performed inquisitions against followers of two currently _defunct _Cults. Shouldn't you and Regina _forget about that_, since it's in the past?"

He saw enough rage and indignation in her eyes to remind him why she was a Goddess of Violence, and he stood impassive.

She'd asked for it. He wouldn't back down to the likes of her.

She deflated. "All this talk is making me worn out…" she sighed. She quickly left, probably to find a warm bath, and he was reminded of just why she was also a Goddess of Sloth.

The others all paused in their lighthearted squabbling as Wolbach slammed the doors open again. He used their sudden silence as an opportunity. "Wolbach. Do _not _go after your other half. You are needed for The Anniversary. After the seventh day of the first month, you may go after it, _with our reinforcements._ Until then, stick to peppering the front lines."

She made no sound indicating she had heard him, but he could sense her direction as being towards her room and not the exit. Relieved, he turned to the others. "That goes for you all as well. Stick to the front lines. Train the new undead. _Do not die_."

They all nodded their understanding. He motioned for the letter, and Verdia, after retrieving his head, handed it over quickly. With a look, they all left, muttering to themselves and scheming. Soon, it was just him, his daughter, and…

He blinked. Oh, right the Succubi. He took up the letter once more-

He grimaced at the saliva and teeth marks on it from Verdia, but he shook that off and scanned it again.

Right, there was a question or two there…

He looked at the Succubi. "Tell her that we appreciate her attempts at finding the newest Reincarnate. If it is true that Heaven has not sent anyone else down since then, and might not be able to, then tell her that keeping things that way is best," he said quickly.

He was sure that a reincarnation of that magnitude would put Heaven out of commission, and while he wasn't _exactly _sure how Degurechaff could keep that state of affairs in place, he _was _sure that he'd find out eventually, either from her or from Evan.

He could wait. As long as he got results, he didn't care enough to devote his limited resources to finding an answer when he'd eventually get it from her or Evan anyway.

They nodded, and he grabbed his daughter's hand as he sent a glance towards the giant curtain covering the mural painted across the largest wall in the rectangular room.

Behind that curtain, the heavens were painted. Constellations, stars, the Sun and Moon, as well as the planets.

Twenty years ago, he had allowed the persecuted denizens of Belzerg into his country. Painstakingly, he had gone through the refugees, resettling the innocent, giving the vengeful weapons and a direction to march in, and hiring the intellectuals.

Artists. Astronomers. Mathematicians. Archmages.

Though many of them died due to age and from the complete blackout of information from their Goddesses – undoubtedly caused by their sealing in that _stupid _village – their work lived on.

Behind that curtain, five celestial bodies were coming into alignment. The five planets currently surrounding their Sun, in fact. Soon-

"Uh… Mister Demon King, sir?"

His eyes, blazing, eyed the Succubus who had spoken. Pink hair, bluish eyes, a nice – not stacked, not flat – pair of breasts, a few sweet looking tattoos…

By all means, a regular, run-of-the-mill Succubus. And here she was, calling him _mister._

He chuckled. "Yes?"

She opened her mouth. "Um… I was wondering…"

She seemed to be trying to figure out how to say it, and he let her. If he put words in her mouth, a misunderstanding would undoubtedly develop, and he'd learned long ago that misunderstandings were Eris's lifeblood in tripping him and his forces up.

She took a deep breath. "Um… why aren't you all… you know… feasting on the corpses of your enemies? Attempting to trick everyone into giving you power instead of being… not entirely horrible? We… we know most Demon's don't actually trick people often, but… well, people talk. Even if you aren't a Duke of Hell, you're still…"

The Demon King blinked, and then he shook his head. "Then, I suppose you guys have been around longer than Degurechaff has, if you've had time to build opinions like that?"

She began to pale considerably, but he shook his head. "No, I don't blame you!" he stated reassuringly. "It's telling that their propaganda is so effective as to turn even Demons who should know better against me."

He stretched out his arms, curled them behind his head, and sank back into his chair as his daughter smiled at them knowingly. Many had had this conversation with him – the ones he'd had with refugees two decades ago and Verdia five years after them sprang to mind – and it hadn't gotten any less fun, despite how long he'd been doing this.

"Alright, how about this… how do you guys think I get food for my troops, huh? Or for myself, even."

They blinked, and he tried another one. "Have you seen much of my land? And how it _isn't _a… ah, what was the wording… oh yes, a 'stinking, sulfurous pit of unbreathable air, meant to bring about Hell in Belzerg?'"

He chuckled. "That's one of my favorite pieces of literature against me. I don't like the smell of sulphur anymore than most Demons."

He leaned forward. "I may not have many humans in my employ – Celestina is famous for being the only one – but that's only if you don't count 'undesirables' who are nearly human, if only different looking. Like the numerous beastmen races."

He stood up. "Chimeras, Ogres, Trolls, Goblins and Demons of every kind also call my lands home, as do some Elves, Dwarves, and other creatures. And while some of them have to feed off of emotions, many of them need something more substantial."

He shrugged lightly. "Thus, if I was as monstrous as the Eris and Axis Cults claimed, I would be a _Demon _with subjects and slaves, instead of the _King _of a nation."

They were still staring at him, though the idea that he wasn't the incarnation of evil itself seemed to be sinking in. He shrugged his shoulders. "We don't even kill everyone in Belzerg, either. Do you know how many border towns we _don't _destroy? While it's true that we have a treaty forbidding the action and that they provide us emotions, but they have no real strategic value."

"Now, if I _could _end the war by slaughtering a few thousand innocents in the border towns and then marshal my forces to stave off Wiz, then I would," he quantified quickly. They sent him skeptical stares, and he hurriedly continued, "But killing them does nothing. The nobles always have more to throw into place. Instead, we let them live, and they learn that everything the nobles and royals and Hero Candidates of Belzerg say isn't the gospel truth… and our resident Doppelganger sometimes gains informants searching for a better life, no matter how much of a marginal increase it might be."

The Succubus before him opened her mouth, for a moment… before shutting it again. She turned to the other two.

The flat one – and Jesus, was she _flat _– gave the one who'd asked the question an uneasy smile. "At least we know Tanya's scarier than he is?"

He raised an eyebrow at that bold proclamation. "Oh?"

The small one gulped, but she did address him. "Uh… yeah. This proves that she's scarier than you. By a lot."

His other eyebrow joined the first in attempting to hike to his hairline. "Really? Nothing I could do could-"

"Definitely not."

They soon fled out of the door after delivering their pronouncement. They could have been trying to avoid some display of ferocity, but their words seemed to ring… very true.

He frowned. "Daughter, make sure to get Evan to talk to Degurechaff a bit, and maybe scout out Axel, no matter his reservations. It would do to know what someone like that is doing, even – actually, especially – if she's indicated that she might side with us."

She bowed her head, and he was left alone in the room. He stared up at the window where his work room was, overlooking this room. He turned his head and saw the giant curtain.

He breathed in. Soon, the Anniversary would be upon them. It would never be soon enough – that would have been _decades _ago, when this madness started – but it would be soon.

And as he continued to envision the end of the war, Wolbach was thinking to the future as well.

Soon, she would be whole again.

Powerful enough to have her revenge on the Eris and Axis Cult. They called her a Dark Goddess? Oh, if the layman knew what _they _had done to her precious followers…

But it mattered not. Soon, she would avenge her followers, and Wolbach wasn't sure if she would wait until the Demon King thought it was a good time.

No, she wanted her power _NOW!_

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed for what felt like the thousandth time. She knew that she hadn't actually done it a thousand times – she had only been needled 25 times exactly – but Aya's constant complaints were beginning to progress from annoying to _grating._

She cast a quick glance at her side, and she calmed a bit. Viktoriya hadn't yet given in to the woman's jabs. If Tanya's friend could manage that, in the face of the woman's attempts at rumor-mongering, then Tanya cou-

"And also, are you two Axis Cultists, or-"

"THAT'S IT!"

The woman shrieked as Tanya stalked towards her, and while Shizuka seemed to be panicking, Takashi was as calm as always.

When Aya realized that he wasn't worried, she snickered. "Boy, it really was a good idea to pick up ol' Taco boy here. He's our built in Degurechaff insurance!"

Tanya's gaze turned towards Takashi, wondering if he appreciated the nickname 'Taco boy.' He didn't even look perturbed by it, instead choosing to shrug at her words and looking at Tanya. "I wouldn't stand in your way if you felt a need to punish her for that."

Tanya smirked as Aya picked up her pace. Tanya rolled her eyes. She had-

"With pleasure."

Tanya blinked and turned her head towards Viktoriya, who cracked her knuckles. She took off after her, and Tanya sighed tiredly, mentally wishing they had captured their prey already.

It was not some monster, or a criminal, like Chris, or even the Undead Mage hanging out in Verdia's castle. No, they were trying to get the Crimson Demon.

After a week of trying to find the small girl – during which time Tanya learned from Luna that the girl was _avoiding _Tanya, deliberately – she had finally decided that catching her out on a quest would be her best chance of cornering her.

If she was avoiding Tanya, then it was quite possible she had no idea about the creation of magical items… and Tanya would have been forced to relive L- Loria by that 'Friendship' Crystal for nothing.

She would be upset if Megumin proved to be a dead end, and _furious _that she'd relived that for nothing.

Of course, if _Viktoriya _found out, she would… probably start feeling rather murderous, if Tanya was honest with herself.

She felt an odd mixture of embarrassment and… some warm feeling as she considered Viktoriya's actions in the past week.

Ever since they'd gone to the Succubi's shop, the Russy woman had been throwing suspicious looks at anyone that so much as glanced at them, even if it was just to say hello. Tanya was… honestly touched by her concern and she had been shown, once again, that whoever married Viktoriya would wind up with a fiercely loyal and wonderful woman at their side.

Still, it was starting to get a bit stifling. Tanya didn't know exactly how to tell her to stop without upsetting her or making her start to cluck like a mother hen over Tanya and her… memories.

She shook her head, and she felt Takashi tap her shoulder.

"You alright? You seem…"

Tanya tried and failed not to stiffen, though she was able to keep walking.

Every time she was asked by Lorelei and Viktoriya if she was okay, she began to remember it all over again and again an-

And she really didn't want to think about it that much, even if it wasn't causing her to… shut down like before.

Hopefully, the lack of complete shutdowns was a sign that she was moving past it.

Tanya shook her head and nodded quickly. "Yes. I talked about… Loria. With my friends."

He blinked, and then he nodded back. "Alright, then. I know what that must have taken," he said, sending a quiet look towards Shizuka, who was currently occupied with staring happily up at the clouds and speaking to one of the Monster Baiters.

Tanya might have lashed out at someone for saying something like that sounded like a useless platitude, but considering that Takashi had _literally _seen most of her memories thanks to the power he had owned before she had made him renounce his contract, she was willing to assume that he had to talk about what he'd seen in her head too.

She frowned as more adventurers began to arrive. He'd had the memories of her past for less time than he had, but he'd talked about them first?

Grumbling, she watched as the two other Monster Baiters and other parties acting as protection arrived on the plain to find that the forward parties – which included that Rex fellow and his friends as well as Mitsurugi's troop, among others – were standing around trying to to stare at where Aya was frantically running from a leisurely jogging Viktoriya.

Since Viktoriya could have easily overtaken the woman – with or without magic – Tanya called it a leisurely jog, but quite a number of the forward party seemed to be swooning at the sight of them chasing after each other as if…

Tanya rolled her eyes at them.

Tanya stopped next to Rex as Viktoriya finally finished the farce by tripping the woman up and berating her. Tanya eyed Viktoriya for a moment.

Today was oddly hot, considering it was getting ever-closer to winter, and Viktoriya had decided to leave her jacket open instead of zipping it up. A necessity in this weather, though it seemed that all of the forward parties thought that her jacket being open was an invitation to stare at her t-shirted torso brazenly.

She turned her head and, to her surprise, found that Rex was staring at his party and not at Viktoriya. He seemed to be fed up with Terry's brazen, and Sophie was beginning her own speech against Terry's seeming inability to control his rapt attention to the women chasing after each other.

"I'm glad to see that at least one of you can keep your dick in your pants," Tanya spat.

As the reserve parties finally arrived – which included the one that Aqua, Kazuma, and Megumin were a part of – Rex nodded absently, until he woodenly turned to stare at her. The others that were watching Viktoriya scold Aya all sent Tanya a guilty – but not sorry – look.

Tanya sent them all a bright smile. "Hey, it's not like I can force you guys to fight all the oncoming monsters alone and unsupported, right?"

They seemed to reel back as one, but Tanya didn't let her smile waver.

As they all began to obtain a sudden interest in inspecting their shoes or practising their whistling skills, Viktoriya finished. Aya was brought back, and Tanya began to watch the five… _Monster Baiters_ go to work standing still as other adventurers surrounded them for protection.

Tanya sighed as the far-off treeline began to shake. Were the five people who had drank that monster-attracting potion acting as bait for monsters? Yes.

Had Tanya been around quite a bit of – to put it mildly – 'coarse language' and bleak and disgusting humor because soldiers often used said humor to cope with the reality that they could die at any moment? Yes.

Did that mean that someone with the humor of a _twelve-year-old _should get to name the role those five were playing in the Monster Rush or that she could take the name in stride? No, it did not.

Still, Tanya couldn't change the immature name without frivolously using her power as Governor, and the five of them seemed to find the name amusing enough not to object to being called _Monster Baiters._

Ugh.

She shook her head as the treeline stopped shaking. From what Takashi, Aya, and Shizuka told her, this was pretty normal.

Every Monday morning, most of the adventurers got together for a 'Monster Rush.' Though this event wasn't necessary – it seemed the Undead Mage's forces weren't strong enough to stop monsters from appearing like Verdia's – everyone enjoyed the training and money they were able to get.

Monsters would charge from the treeline, attempting to kill Aya and the other four Monster Baiters. Other adventurers would keep them from doing that, killing anything they could get their hands on.

The treeline broke. Tanya saw that hordes of goblins, dozens of Rookie Killers, dangerous animals and giant bugs in writhing masses, slimes, and even a small dragon were approaching.

Tanya would have found all of that just a _tiny _bit intimidating, if it weren't for the fact that everyone was… organized.

Prepared.

Waiting.

"Alright! Crusaders, Warriors, and anyone else that can take damage: up front and center! Keep all the smaller stuff distracted while the Rangers pick them off! Thieves, focus on distracting the larger stuff while the Mages prepare their spells! Priests, focus on buffing the front line units and the Rangers! Megumin, get ready to destroy the monsters that are still coming in from the forest!"

"Understood! Soon, all will witness the awesome power of my grand destruction!"

"Ha! This is the perfect job for a Crusader! At the front, making sure that no one else is harmed!"

Tanya shook her head as she readied her rifle. Viktoriya was also staring at the commander of this little expedition in bewilderment.

Was it Mitsurugi who was so expertly able to command their forces, with his experience in the thick of battle against the Demon King?

No. He was currently fighting against the Dragon, shooting scathing looks at Dust who was attempting to… _converse _with the beast? Mitsurugi and Dust's teammates were standing in the back, shouting encouragement and occasionally picking off the stray beast that tried to approach them from behind.

Was it Takashi, with the memories he had gained from flashing through Tanya's mind fueling such tactics?

No. He was standing next to Aya and the other Monster Baiters, making sure that the monsters that could approach from under the earth didn't touch her and the other Monster Baiters. Shizuka was doing much the same, except she watched the air for Vultures and Crows.

Was it Rex, coming into his own as one of the few people who wasn't a Hero Candidate who seemed like he might achieve something on the front lines besides dying?

No, he was fighting against a group of Rookie Killers that seemed to be trying to resist the Monster Baiters' pull, if the way they seemed to be considering retreat was anything to go by.

No, it was _Kazuma. _The NEET.

Tanya shook her head. Was he really a NEET, or was that story a ploy designed to keep Tanya from taking him seriously? She knew that this world's job system and 'experience' were similar to any fairly unimaginative RPG, but could experience with video games so easily translate to a situation like this?

If his being a NEET was true, it _seemed _so. While he occasionally took down a monster or two – even using Steal on Goblins and the like that managed to get the upper hand on inexperienced adventurers, always stealing their weapon just before any humans died – he seemed to be quite at home directing people around to combat the monsters.

If this were the Empire, Tanya bet he might have even had a decent chance at becoming a low-ranked officer.

But.

By all accounts – _including his own_, occasionally – he was a NEET, and one of the worst kinds of NEETs too: A layabout that did nothing but browse the internet and play games and drag down society and jack off to anime titties.

She shook her head. For now, she needed to focus on the enemies in front of her.

Giant Frogs were quite a bit more resistant to bullets than humans, after all, though enchanting the bullets with Explosive Vaporizations certainly fixed that problem.

A Giant Frog, a dozen Horned Rabbits, two One-hit-Bears, and a Rookie Killer were torn through in only a few minutes. Tanya checked her surroundings, and found…

Nothing. Viktoriya was currently off in the distance, watching Lorelei's back while she dealt with a Rookie Killer on her own. The Monster Baiters and Rex were doing well. Dust and Mitsurugi weren't dead. And-

"Shut it, you stupid Crusader! Keep doing the only other thing you're good for besides your slutty body!"

"Kyaa~!"

"And you! Stupid, idiot Goddess! I just told you to buff the people in the front and the Rangers! Why are you messing about with the Mages!?"

"Hey, get your filthy hands off me, you NEET! I'm proving my superiority over the weak, pitiful Eris Cultists and endorsing the Axis Cult by making the Mages strong enough to best any of the people on the front line-"

"I was right! You _are _an idiot! I should never have brought you down here! Any of those cheat items would be a thousand times better than an idiot that claims to be a Goddess!"

"I am Megumin! The number one Crimson Demon and wielder of the most destructive forces known to the world! Tremble before my almighty power!"

"Hey! I AM a Goddess! Don't you dare start thinking that I'm not just because I'm not in Heaven! I have _trillions _of followers-"

"There aren't that many people on _Earth, _there's no way this place has that many! You're a lying, stinking, money-draining piece of-"

"At least _I _don't wake up the _woman sleeping next to me_ while I masturbate-"

"EXPLOSION!"

As the shockwave of displaced air from the explosion washed over her exceedingly flat stare, Tanya nodded to herself.

Ah.

Welp.

Nope.

Tanya turned on her heel, ignoring the growing fireball, the sounds of Darkness being beaten by the few remaining monsters, and of Kazuma and Aqua screaming at each other and at the Giant Worms that Megumin had apparently missed.

She was _not _getting involved with that… _farce _of an attempt at fighting monsters. Not right now, anyway…

Then, Tanya remembered that she was supposed to be getting an answer from that Crimson Demon, and that, with Kazuma, Aqua, and Darkness distracted and the target in question immobile, she could easily get what she wanted.

She spun back around, her smile at her fortune in the situation being destroyed by a sigh of disgust at the sight of Darkness charging the last remaining Giant Toad and flinging her armor to the side as Kazuma tried to ignore Aqua's whining and save the noblewoman at the same time.

"Uh… Tanya?"

For a moment, Tanya really, _really _wanted to ignore the call for her attention, but both Dust _and _Mitsurugi had said the same thing at the exact same time, which meant that she really _did _need to attend to whatever they agreed needed her attention.

Slowly, she turned around.

She blinked in shock, for a moment…

Then, she sent out a burst of static using a Communication spell over a particular frequency. Tanya doubted that Viktoriya was currently _using _that frequency – neither of them had needed to utilize that spell in their months of being here.

Still, if she was, Tanya would appreciate it, considering the giant, fuck-off sized Dragon that was behind Dust and Mitsurugi.

It appeared that Tanya had misjudged its size when it had been charging at them all at the beginning of the battle, considering it was not small, but bigger than the guild by a wide margin.

Tanya had taken down a Dragon before, however. As long as Viktoriya got here, and she used Dust to sate its appetite for a few moments, she would be able to-

"Ahem. Uh… I happen to know a tiny bit about Dragons," Dust said as he eyed her warily. Tanya looked to Dust in surprise – wasn't he the type that wanted nothing more than to run from danger and live his life as a hedonist? – but here he was, with his back turned to the Dragon.

His friends seemed to be reacting appropriately, at least. They were standing a good 50 yards away, along with a crowd of onlookers who seemed split between watching the Dragon – and taking bets on how long Dust would last – and watching Kazuma try to corral what equated to feral cats on catnip.

She shook her head and looked to Mitsurugi, who just shrugged. "Don't look at me. I was all for using the Cursed Sword Gram, forged by the Gods and given to me to slay all evil, to smite the Ancient Dragon before it did too much damage, but…"

Dust stepped between Tanya and Mitsurugi. "No, it's nothing like that! I…"

His open mouth quickly snapped shut, and, ignoring a skeptical Mitsurugi, he leaned towards Tanya with a conniving look on his face. "Don't ask about the whys of this situation. It falls under our non-disclosure agreement."

"Have you got enough money to pay me back?" Tanya shot back. He _did _still owe her money. He nodded assuredly, and-

_WOOSH_

Tanya blinked and looked up at the Dragon. Had…

Had it just _snorted_? As if it thought the situation was… humorous?

Tanya stared at it for a moment, until she shook her head. Of course it hadn't. It was a Dragon. "Whatever. What was it you wanted to tell me?"

Dust rubbed the back of his head. "Ah… I _think _– I am no expert on Dragons, after all – that the Dragon was brought here by the Monster Baiters, as well as the faint scent of one of it's slain kin."

Tanya raised an eyebrow at what Dust continued to tell her was what he 'thought' the Dragon wanted. "It _was _resisting the pull of the Monster Baiters during the other Monster Rushes, which is obvious, since it wasn't here earlier and there's been a quest out for its capture for a while, until the person who killed a Dragon showed up in town. It decided to come down, and it…"

He rubbed the back of his head. "Well, it wanted to avenge it's fallen kin, but it was… convinced to try and negotiate to avoid a similar fate?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow at him, and Mitsurugi seemed to be skeptically boring a hole into the side of Dust's head with his eyes. He didn't flinch in the slightest.

Tanya pinched the bridge of her nose. Dragons were often depicted as being haughty and arrogant in fantasy books – kind of like a certain lying not-god – but she supposed, if it even _was _like that, that even the most arrogant could be brought low eventually. "I only helped kill a Gold Dragon in Elroad alongside the Princess of Belzerg. You don't have to worry about Axel, as long as you refrain from breaking any laws."

_WOOSH_

Tanya stared up at it again, and just as it seemed to _wink _at her, Dust cleared his throat. "Ah… well, it _probably _said that it was going to stay up in the mountains and near the quarry for a while, trying not to attract any attention so it could remain alive. It… also wants to know if it could trade?"

Tanya opened her mouth to ask him just how she was supposed to facilitate something like that – and how the hell she was supposed to get people to trust it without Dust acting as an 'unreliable' translator – but then she eyed it's nostrils once more.

She made sure to stare Dust in the eyes. "What could some overgrown, fire-spitting lizard know about trade?"

Her gaze immediately shot up to the Dragon, to catch it glaring down intently at her. Tanya smirked and decided to ignore Dust and speak directly to the thing.

"It depends on what you want to trade, of course."

It's glare morphed into shock, and it let out a little growl of… frustration. She looked to Dust.

"Uh… he's got lots of gold and jewels, as well as magic information," he replied uneasily.

Tanya looked up again… when a thought occurred to her. She looked up at the Dragon and grinned widely. "If you can tell me about making esoteric magic items, I think I might be able to ensure that you can conduct all the trade you like."

It blinked, before looking down at Dust at letting out a small huff. He blinked at it, stared incredulously at Tanya, and then spun towards the Dragon again. "I'm more scared of her than I am of you, but that's just because I'm a squishy human_. _You _can't _be-"

It snorted again, and Tanya spun around towards where Kazuma was – finally – getting his party under control. He had Megumin on his back, and they were marching towards the rest of the onlookers, who were probably ready to head back.

She opened her mouth, and then she scowled and sent another burst of static out using the Communication spell. Where was-

"I'm here, Major-General!"

Tanya controlled her flinch as much as she could and spun around to find that Viktoriya was standing just behind her.

She sighed. "Don't sneak up on me like that! You can tell everyone else to head back. I'll be here conversing with Dust and the Dragon."

She nodded, and Tanya threw in an extra order as she realized that Mitsurugi seemed to want to hang around. "Go back with them. Be sure everyone gets back alright, and… find someplace to have a bit of fun on your own."

She only took a moment to nod quickly and begin marching back to the others. Mitsurugi was heading back with her, speaking amiably with her as they strolled.

Tanya felt a brief flare of jealousy, and she quashed it. She was getting better at that, honestly-

_WOOSH_

Tanya stared into the distance and turned around to find Dust staring at her as innocently as a Dust can.

Tanya shook her head and cleared her throat. "Now… what can you tell me about magic rings and gender-switching items?"

The Dragon and Dust both blinked at her, but Dust quickly turned a very disturbing shade of green-white. "Oh Eris… I thought… and that question… a bad dream… or a horrible _nightmare_…"

The nodding Dragon, thankfully, didn't seem to be anywhere near so childish. Tanya nodded back.

That was good. If she got good information from this Dragon, then she could make sure that Megumin wasn't trying to cheat her by giving her false information.

-OxOxO-

Darkness whistled a jaunty tune to herself that she remembered from one of the plays she had attended with her father and her newest 'eligible partner.'

It was hard not to feel carefree. Besides her father insisting on her finding a husband to marry and… _Chris_, things were wonderful. She had a party she adventurered with often, more friends than she knew what to do with, upgraded equipment thanks to all the quests, and tons of fun!

Her prayer to Eris thanking her for helping her find Tanya was obviously a bit preemptive. She would need to include her newest friends the next time she thanked Eris for helping her find Tanya.

She pushed through the doors of the guild, gleefully twirling about. That Monster Rush had been exhilarating, and though she had taken a short stop back at home – to assuage her father's fears that she wouldn't come back from one of them – she was now back at the guild to feast with…

She blinked, casting an eye around herself. Where _was _her latest party, anyway?

Her friends had begun quickly getting through their paperwork and meals after finishing quests recently, though Darkness hadn't really noticed until now.

Honestly, the only thing she could distinctly remember from their meal last night, besides how fast it had been, was Megumin complaining about not being allowed to drink and Kazuma and Aqua looking ready to give in to her complaining.

Darkness had needed to step in to avoid Megumin ruining her chances of developing further, which wasn't working as a deterrent as much as it used to.

She continued to look around, and just as she was about to get worried that they were nowhere to be seen, a voice spoke up. "Uh… they're over there, you know…"

Darkness turned to her side to see a duo – they looked similar enough to be brother and sister – and followed their vaguely annoyed pointed fingers with her eyes.

Those eyes landed on a veritable sinkhole of worry and guilt, and Darkness looked at the young pair. "Who are you talking about? That couldn't be…"

She blinked, and she realized that the sinkhole was, in fact, just Kazuma, Aqua, and Megumin all staring down at the bar and surrounded by empty glasses and lazily circling flies.

Darkness opened her mouth to ask just _why _it looked like all three of them had lost a party member – she was perfectly fine, and Aqua was purported to have learned _all _of the Archpriest job's skills, so she could have even been brought back to life.

Instead of speaking, however, she remembered when she had probably looked like that, when she had been convinced that Tanya was a spy for the Demon King… and Chris had taken advantage of her sadness to trick her for the first time. She grimaced and looked back at the male member of the helpful duo.

Sure, Chris had now proven herself – conclusively – to be an enemy, but that didn't mean that Darkness couldn't learn a thing from her. Of course, Darkness would ask them what was wrong out of genuine concern for them, instead of Chris's attempt at… tricking her.

"Thank you…" she began, trailing off due to the lack of a name associated with the duo's faces. The boy blinked, and pointed to himself and his sister. "We're Rize and Reiner! Twin adventurers ready for anything!"

He deflated. "Except, you know… weird stuff. Like explosion-obsessed Mages and receptionists expecting us to go fight in the Capital despite our measly six months of experience…"

Darkness nodded and thanked them again as she slowly began to trek towards Aqua, Kazuma, and Megumin. Slowly, she began to hear their conversation.

"…C'mon, just a little bit. I'm of legal age. I want to forget about what we did just as much. I don't even have the thought of exploding anything to distract myself…"

"Hell no. We shouldn't give you alcoholic stuff. You're too young… besides, shouldn't you take responsibility for your actions?"

"Yeah. Explosion obsessed loli, take care of that stupid Demon before she decided to stop playing around and eradicate us for witnessing a moment of her weakness…"

"No! It isn't _entirely _my fault. Wiz-"

"Hey! Don't blame Wiz! If you had just accepted that stupid title and stopped trying to provoke her, we wouldn't be… like this. Speaking of which, have you…"

Kazuma swung his head around to try and look for something, only to find himself face-to-face with…

"G-Gah! She's…!"

He blinked, trying to focus. They had blonde hair, but they were dressed in yellow and had a sword, which meant…

He turned away. "Oh. It's only Darkness. Never mind. We're still safe…"

Darkness blinked and then sighed happily. Oh, to be dismissed so easily… and what would happen if she were to wed a man as alcoholic as these three currently looked…

Kazuma, ignoring Darkness's grunts of pleasure, turned back to the bar to continue nursing his drink. Honestly, how were they supposed to apologize to Degurechaff?

Aqua had already gone on one-too-many rants about how powerful that loli was, and how she had supposedly killed thousands using all kinds of spells and dozens without even using magic.

That Megumin misunderstood her rants to mean that she had killed thousands of _monsters _was probably for the best.

He sighed. Still…

His expression fell again. Maybe he should go find a gambling den to hide in and spend his money? He almost never lost when he wasn't drunk, and even inebriated, he would probably still win…

Darkness finally came down from her fantasy – which ended right as her alcoholic husband kicked her out of her own mansion until she had used her body to earn him 1,000,000 Eris – and shook her head as Kazuma snorted.

He smiled as he finished shaking his head. 10 points to Kazuma for using a complex word – 'inebriated' – that has more than three syllables. What-

"_Ahem._ What has depressed you three so much? I honestly can't even begin to guess."

Darkness turned to a surprised Megumin and pointed at her weapon. "You just got a new staff that you've been eyeing, and you got to shower in a deluge of experience thanks to the Monster Rush." Megumin glared at Darkness while stealing looks at Kazuma and Aqua's empty glasses, searching for even the slightest bit of untouched alcohol.

Darkness turned to Aqua. "You have eaten, and you're obviously drunk. That means you probably even have money, too." Aqua glared at Darkness, mostly because Megumin seemed to be angry at the Crusader, which meant Aqua probably should be too, but she wasn't hearing all that well at the moment…

She turned to Kazuma. "You got to get tons of recognition and talk to a bunch of women while they politely ignored how you were leering at them to try and get some insight. Shouldn't we be happy?"

Blushing, Kazuma glared at Darkness, because… damn, they had known that whole time, and he hadn't even been able to charge them money or panties for his advice? He should make sure not to get fooled like that.

Darkness weathered their united assault – mostly because Aqua and Kazuma's glares looked like they had been constructed with rough, uncut stone considering how sloppy they were, and Megumin's was too distracted and pouty to be all that intimidating – until they sighed as one and turned back to the bar and ignored her.

Darkness turned to Megumin – Aqua spilled secrets like it was the water in her party tricks, and Kazuma's lips became as loose as Aqua's when he had a bit of alcohol, but both seemed to be rather maudlin today – and raised a delicate eyebrow. The Crimson Demon shook her head.

That resistance didn't last long, though. "Fine! Darkness…" she trailed off. She stood up from the bar stool and left her staff resting against the bar while she fiddled with the brim of her hat.

Darkness's annoyed expression shifted into a concerned one. Megumin rarely got serious – or, serious like this. She was usually very angry when she was seriously defending her Explosion magic.

"We… or, I guess it was… mostly me… anyway, a person was accidentally harmed thanks to our actions. I challenged them for a title as a Crimson Demon and an Archmage, and the… challenge went in an unexpected direction that even I, an unrivaled Crimson Demon, couldn't have guessed."

Megumin wondered why she couldn't have just had a competition on who had the coolest poses and sweeped the annoying girl's legs out from under her with her own amazing poses. Really, it wasn't likely that-

Kazuma and Aqua both snorted in unison at the words 'we' and 'our' – they weren't at fault this time, really – but they made no other effort to contribute, besides bringing Megumin's spirits down even further. Darkness sent Megumin an encouraging look, and she fiddled with the edge of her cloak while tilting her head down to obscure her eyes with her hat.

"I… how would one apologize to someone for… making them relive… an attempted raped…"

Darkness's eyes widened at the shame and guilt mingling on Megumin's face – quite rare for her, whose usual response to embarrassment or a challenge usually involved twenty mentions of her singular spell. Darkness shifted in place, a faint blush appearing as she did.

That didn't reassure the Crimson Demon in the slightest, and Darkness held up her hands. "Well… first, you would listen to them thank you for being allowed to relive such an _exhilarating _experience-"

"She's not a slutty failure like you, Darkness!" Kazuma bit out. Darkness blinked…

And she cleared her throat as Kazuma muttered an uncaring apology. He _also _seemed… oddly serious.

"Ah… anyway… um, how bad was it…?" Darkness asked quietly.

Megumin's face was hidden by her lowered hat, but she didn't seem to have recovered at all. "I- It was… _pretty _bad. Like… she was _literally _shown the scene through magic…"

Darkness was silent for a moment, and Megumin began to jibber-jabber quickly. "It's… I couldn't imagine him ever _actually _doing it, but if Bukkoroli or anyone else ever actually messed with my sister, or the Axis Cult had even _less _restraint towards me and Yunyun…"

She began to mutter under her breath about it being a bad week and lethal anticipation, but Darkness just continued to stand there in silence. Kazuma and Aqua's empty glasses – even the ones they had just been drinking out of – and refusal to order another round told her they were listening in, and Darkness gulped.

Who could they be talking about? And, more importantly, should they be discussing this in the guild?

Sure, they were at the bar when very few other people were, but it wasn't like everyone else in the guild couldn't glance over, see that they were having an important-looking conversation, and decide to eavesdrop…

Darkness cleared her throat. "I… am not exactly sure how you would go about that, but a sincere apology is probably a good start. Gifts might be seen as… _diminishing, _and I suppose you have to hope they don't report you to the police…"

_That _tidbit seemed to scare them the least, if Darkness was any good at judging their faces. She might have been curious as to just who this was, that the police scared them less than hoping for mercy, but-

"Hi Darkness! Nice to see you here! You talking to your new party?"

Darkness turned around and sighed in relief. She'd be able to sort it out. "Tanya! You've seen a lot, right?" she asked happily. Tanya had a lot more life experience than Darkness did as a sheltered noble.

Curious, Tanya nodded slowly, and Darkness began to speak to her in hushed tones. "So. Someone in my new party has a question they need help with answering. It seems that Megumin-"

"W- WAIT!" Kazuma shouted. Darkness turned to him, as did Tanya, and his indignant expression quickly morphed into a nervous one that searched for excuses and scapegoats.

The other two also looked very nervous, and Darkness blinked in surprise at how… worried they looked, but he started talking before she could ask why they seemed to be filled with trepidation. "Ah… say, Darkness. You never told us you knew Tanya."

She blinked again, but Tanya answered for her. "Well, I _did _get here before you all. I adventured with Darkness, Viktoriya, and that two-bit criminal Chris. Did you know that Darkness thought I was a-"

"Regular old Mage and not an Adventurer! Weird, right?"

Tanya blinked as Darkness jumped in front of her, finishing her sentence and begging with her eyes that Tanya not interrupt her. Tanya stared…

Then she nodded. Darkness hadn't told them that she was a noble yet, had she?

She had only told Tanya in an attempt to prove that Tanya was a noble, after all. She was probably cagey about the subject, but…

She glanced over Darkness's shoulder at the other three. Kazuma probably didn't know about the whole 'blonde hair, blue eyes thing,' but shouldn't the other two…

Then, she thought back. Tanya, Darkness, Dust, and _Luna_, of all people, were the only people with even slightly blond hair they interacted with on a regular basis, and only she and Darkness had blue eyes…

Then, she remembered what she knew of the three of them. And what she had seen them do in their time here. And what they had done only an hour earlier.

Yeah. They might not know.

She nodded and smiled knowingly at Darkness, who sighed in relief. They were staring between them suspiciously, but they did eventually nod in acceptance.

Then, Darkness glanced between her new real friends and her old real friend. "Wait…"

"How do _you _all know each other?"

With how pained her expression looked, Tanya must have immediately taken off her clothes and dove into the nearest pit of sewing needles. Aqua was choking on her alcohol, Kazuma seemed to be looking for a lemon to suck on instead of whatever he'd put in his mouth to make it pucker like that, and Megumin was trying and failing to put up a brave front.

Tanya was the first to open her mouth, but she wasn't the first to speak.

"Ahem. Ah… Degurechaff. We're… um, sorry for what happened."

Tanya turned her gaze on Kazuma. He didn't look earnest, but he did look uncomfortable and… sorry.

She turned her gaze on Aqua, who… wasn't paying attention in the slightest and was instead looking at the menu. She hadn't quietly been listening to their conversation, but deep in thought about what to order next.

Kazuma quickly dug his elbow into Aqua's side, and when she stopped coughing, he sent a look – not even a glare, but an expecting look that looked like it didn't belong on the NEET's face – towards Megumin.

Aqua complained. "Hey, don't hit me, you NEET. Bartender! Get me ano-"

Aqua soon found her forehead connected to the palm of an increasingly irate Kazuma. Before she could burst into tears, her gaze was jerked towards Tanya by the hand on the back of her head.

She quickly swatted his hand away and stared at him in confusion. "Hey, what are you doing? I thought we agreed it was the crazy-"

Kazuma raised a hand, and the goddess flinched, expecting a hit to the head…

"Steal."

And Aqua's purse disappeared from her waist.

"I am completely and utterly ashamed of the actions of this small member of my party," she said radiantly while staring into Tanya's eyes. "I would never do anything like that, what she did in no way reflects my values… and even The Atheist doesn't deserve _that_."

The last part was muttered while she turned her gaze towards the ground, but before Darkness could puzzle out what that _title _meant, Megumin stood and struck a pose.

"My name is Megumin! The Number One Crimson Demon, a Slayer of Demons, and… a contender for the title of Best Explosion Mage…"

She trailed off at the end, sighing heavily and crossing her arms. "As such a powerful, wise Crimson Demon, I would usually stick to my morals until I went down in a blaze of glory… but I don't think there would be anything glorious about not apologizing for something like this. So… I am sorry for what happened and my actions that caused it."

Tanya stared at them all. Kazuma's head was bowed, and he glanced at Aqua, occasionally pinching her when it looked like she would grow too bored with the situation despite his stranglehold on her money.

However, Megumin was by far the most sorry-looking.

Her head bowed, Megumin hat held in front of her while her staff was propped against a table. She looked ready to bow lower than Kazuma.

All the while, Darkness's gaze, switching between her current party and the leader of her first party, was growing confused and concerned as she reached conclusions she _did not like._

"Of course I forgive you."

"…Huh?"

The united sound of four people uttering the same confused noise broke into their four wildly different trains of thought.

"WHAT?! But… you're the Devil of the Rhine! Why aren't you tearing her to pieces and using said pieces to instill terror in enemies and allies alike?" Shock. Aqua.

"Tanya… you're accepting an apology… but if they made you _relive _being… then _you…"_ Continued confusion. Darkness.

"Aha! I knew it! As a fellow Archmage, I should have expected you to acknowledge the sacred words of a rival immediately!" Hurried acceptance. Megumin.

"Are you sure? I can't imagine that's easy to for… I mean, maybe you'll want to do something later?" Skepticism. Kazuma.

Tanya frowned. Kazuma seemed just as skeptical as Viktoriya and Lorelei were that she was over it and ready not to take revenge, though he showed nothing near the amount of concern either of them or Darkness did.

She shrugged. "Well, it wasn't like you did it on purpose… although…"

Their differing expressions soon crystallized. Aqua, Megumin, and Kazuma looked to be filled with just as much trepidation as Darkness's was with confusion.

She smiled widely. "While I _do _forgive you, the newest laws that I established are very clear that causing harm – whether physical, mental, or magical – to another person, no matter who they are, results in an inquiry into whether jail time or fines are appropriate. I should follow the law and report you three."

"…Truely, a Demon in a human's skin. Aqua was right."

"Ah, remember, _Megumin _is the one that insisted on having that little show off."

"Hey! I suggest you remove that suggestion if you don't want to get blown away!"

She blinked at them – and at the fact that Darkness still looked to be staring intently at her in concern instead of offering to take their place in between moans – before rolling her eyes. "I'm not feeling very convinced. How about you all offer me some kind of… incentive, like a gift? Or some kind of compensation?"

They turned towards Darkness, irate and glaring. Tanya blinked owlishly. What-

"Stupid slutty knight with tarnished morals in tarnished armor. Should have told us to go looking for a gift. Should have known better than to trust your words."

"How could I, the smartest Crimson Demon in Axel, have been convinced to listen to the advice of a simple, neanderthal in Crusader's clothing?"

"Hey, maybe if you offer yourself-"

_BONK!_

Aqua doubled over as Kazuma and Tanya's united fists shut her up and made her regret almost revealing that Tanya was into girls.

She nodded at Kazuma, understanding in both of their eyes. "You're free to go. If she promises not to spill my secrets, she's off the hook."

He nodded back. "I still have her money pouch. She will."

Darkness – who had come down from the fantasies prompted by their insults – and Megumin stared at the two of them as they spoke. "They get along too well," Megumin stated.

Darkness nodded. "Do you think she'll convince him to be productive and sadistic, or will he get her to join him in his laziness and vulgarity?"

"AS IF!"

They stared at each other in shock, but Tanya sighed and shook her head and stared at Megumin. "Come on. We're having a little conversation about making magical items."

She blanched, for a moment, before flaring her cloak out. "Of course! As compensation – and not in a way that admits defeat in our contest yesterday – I'll help you in-"

Tanya grabbed Megumin's flared cloak, ignored her choking, and dragged her into a lonely corner of the guild. Aqua's cries echoed through the room for a moment as Kazuma dragged her off as Darkness followed behind him, uncertainly staring between them, Megumin, and Tanya.

"Now. I need some advice on making magical items. To start, let's discuss rings."

Megumin nodded wholeheartedly. She would show no nervousness or fear in the face of her rival, the one she was sworn to-

"I need to create three rings of 'High power' using a variety of gemstones and metals that I have already procured. One needs to be…"

And Megumin was blown back by a startling amount of detail that she would have expected from only a Crimson Demon.

Eventually, Tanya had to take a breath, and Megumin stopped her before she could get started again. "Hey! Wh… Where did you get all this information, anyway?"

Tanya blinked. "Well, I used 'A Thousand Different Components for and Enterprising Archmage' as a reference to start, but-"

"Wait, you used a third grade _textbook _as a reference guide?"

Tanya tilted her head. "Textbook? I thought it was made by Crimson Demons?"

"Of course! It was used as a third grade textbook, though. More impressive, enchanting books can be found anywhere in my Village, and the fact that you think so highly of something so basic is… well, what I mean to ask is if you're…"

Megumin trailed off, at the end, suddenly looking a lot more inclined to treating Tanya softly.

_Twitch._

Megumin stared at that damn piece of hair – unrestrained by her hat, which she didn't see much use for, considering the Circlet of Power was in the container with the rest of them. Tanya raised a slightly irate eyebrow, and Megumin backtracked.

Of course, she couldn't backtrack too much – she had her pride, no matter what had happened to this Degurechaff – so she simply crossed her arms, turned up her nose, and ignored Tanya's smoldering glare.

"Of course those are possible! Through the quality of any gem or metal acquired by any other than the best miner in the Crimson Demon village is bound to be variable, any Crimson Demon with the correct skills should be able to-"

"'A Crimson Demon with the correct skills?' _you _can't make it for me?" Tanya asked as a headache began to form. Honestly, if this-

"Yes!"

Megumin declared the word, nodding confidently and not noticing the tired annoyance Tanya was sending her way. "Though I know a lot about the processes involved in making magical items, I couldn't make either of those kinds of rings, even if I wanted to! I don't possess the skills, I don't have the skill points, and, of course, I would _never _sully myself to use magic for any purpose besides casting Explosion!"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you use some kind of invisibility scroll to sneak up on us during Hoost's battle?"

She didn't even acknowledge Tanya's question. "However! I know of someone in the Crimson Demon Village who definitely could make those things!" she shouted.

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" That was more than she was expecting from her at this point, if she were honest.

"My Father, Hyoizaburoo! He is the most skillful magic item craftsman in the entire village!"

Tanya's eyebrows rose. She chose to ignore the odd name and focus on what mattered. "Really? What kind of work has he done?" she asked.

She was now vaguely aware of what kind of skills would be needed to make what she wanted, thanks to that Dragon. This would be a good way to determine if she should go to him or keep waiting.

Megumin nodded again, opened her mouth…

And seemed to deflate. Tanya blinked.

Well. Even Chuunibyou drivel wasn't assured.

"Ah… how familiar are you with Wiz's products?" she asked.

"Intimately. Is…"

Tanya advanced on Megumin, making the lonely corner feel even more abandoned. "Is _he _the one that sells Wiz all of that junk?" she asked in a low tone.

Megumin nodded slowly, and Tanya felt herself grin down at the girl. "Good. I've been meaning to have a… _talk _with whichever fool provides Wiz with her products."

Yes, for a long time, Tanya had wanted to find the person who was either doing horrible business with Wiz, or who had just as bad business sense as her.

Wiz hadn't said much, but Tanya was sure that her business would pick up a bit more if she would just learn to apply some kind of logic to her business.

Of course, no matter how much Wiz tried, she still seemed to fail horribly. Tanya was fairly sure she had just as bad Luck as Tanya did at this point, if any of Lorelei's advice about the stat was to be trusted.

Regardless, even just improving the quality of Wiz's products would _have _to help her business. That meant tracking Megumin's father down…

And while Tanya contemplated just what she would try to say to Megumin's father, Megumin's eyes widened. Was she…

Was she threatening her father? The way she was staring off into space while grinning, the way she'd said 'talk,' and the way she seemed so… self-satisfied all seemed very… indicative.

Megumin, eyes narrowed, cleared her throat. "Anyway. If you know of Wiz's product, then you know all about how they have pretty… _negative _side effects."

Tanya sent a sarcastically astonished look at the Crimson Demon. "You can utilize understatement?" she asked, amazed.

Megumin rolled her eyes, let out a huff of air, and graciously chose to ignore the sarcasm. "Anyway. As long as you don't mind the side effects-"

"Why do those side effects exist?" Tanya asked bluntly. Megumin winced.

Megumin crossed her arms and stared down Tanya.

Who stared back evenly with a raised eyebrow. She wasn't backing down.

Megumin opened her mouth, poised to ask exactly why she should reveal the secrets of the Crimson Demons…

Then she remembered why they were having the conversation.

Megumin touched her fingers together and mumbled a response. "Ah, well… as you could probably guess from the Friendship crystal, my family doesn't have a lot of money, so my father is forced to, uh… make his revolutionary, world-changing magic items with fewer skill points and worse materials than is… advisable for items of their caliber… so he cuts corners to save money and makes it possible."

Tanya stared Megumin down. She didn't seem especially _happy _about being financially strapped – who would be?

So if Tanya went to him, it was entirely possible anything she had him make would be rendered near-useless, if even half of them were like the things in Wiz's shop – like the 'Friendship' Crystal, perhaps.

Of course…

"He _could _make better things, though, if he had more money and materials?"

Megumin nodded quickly. "Of course! He only puts in flaws purposefully thirty percent of the time!"

Tanya facepalmed, and Megumin shrugged. "Hey, he's the wizened, magic item artisan. He needs to be mercurial and eccentric."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "I assure you, he doesn't, but… whatever. Now…"

She trailed off, looking over her shoulder. No one was watching them – it seemed that this corner of the guild was actively being ignored for some reason – and she faced Megumin again. "Could your father build a magic item that alters the body-"

"Absolutely not."

Tanya blinked at the speed and brevity of that response, and Megumin, her stoic stare fading, glared at the ground. "I've already asked. Multiple times."

Ah. She wasn't staring at the ground, but at her breasts and body. An honest mistake for Tanya to make, and she felt the smallest bit of kinship with the girl, for a moment.

She cleared her throat. "Are you sure? What if I-"

"He would _never_. He is a Crimson Demon, resolute in his ideals. A Crimson Demon, unyielding to external pressure. A Crimson Demon-"

"How about for a few million Eris?"

"He'd do it in an instant."

Tanya rolled her eyes only a lot and then grinned. "Good. That means I can keep him quiet…"

Tanya wasn't exactly sure where she would get that much money for her own usage – new durian quests, killing the Demon King or a General or something of that nature? – but she would. She was _so _close…

Megumin blinked and tilted her head at the girl. Something about that statement about keeping her father quiet seemed… odd.

And then the earlier parts of her conversation caught up with her, and she wondered if Degurechaff would only be using money to convince her father to do what she wanted… and not other forms of persuasion.

Tanya turned around. "Good. Well Megumin, thanks for the help. I have one last thing I need to ask of Kazuma, and then I'll be off."

They went outside, only to find… nothing. It seemed they had wandered off.

"Do you know where Kazuma might be, Megumin?"

She shook her head and said she would be retiring to a room she was renting. Tanya nodded her off and then began to search for Kazuma, Aqua, and Darkness.

She had a quest for him.

-OxOxO-

Viktoriya glanced down. This was it. Her final chance.

She rolled the dice, hoping, watching…

"And… it's a Yahtzee!"

The crowd watching broke out into roaring cheers, and Viktoriya grinned at the five identical dice staring up at her.

"You sure are lucky…" her current gambling companion said, trailing off. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at Mitsurugi.

After walking back with him from the Monster Rush, she had asked if he would meet her at one of her favorite gambling spots.

After going back to Alderp's mansion – though that only seemed to be half true now, with how much it had been renovated – and changing into something more… eye catching – distracting her opponents was far too easy here compared to in the Empire – she had met him there and proceeded to demolish all the regulars who recognized her and still thought they had a chance.

While Viktoriya much prefered playing cards, she wasn't adverse to testing her Luck in dice games, and this one was particularly fun, especially considering how easy it was to roughly calculate the probability of getting certain dice.

She stepped away from the table and adjusted her hair. "Yeah. I used to play cards in my spare time on the front. I'm pretty Lucky!"

She rubbed her head and chuckled as they walked towards a darker corner. "I got us so much extra cash and supplies that way that everyone called it our 'treasury.'"

She sighed longingly. She wouldn't ever want to be away from Tanya, but she did wish sometimes that the others could have followed them.

Or even Elya! Having her around for advice would be great…

She was dragged out of her memories of her friend quickly. "Oh? Do you miss those times, during the war?" he asked.

She nodded a bit and said nothing else. He seemed content to sit and wait, and Viktoriya sighed and leaned forward.

"I do, but I don't want to focus on those things anymore. I want to focus on the future, so…" she trailed off.

She just had to say it. A few quick words, and it would be done.

"Ah, finally getting to why you asked me to ditch the others?" he asked sardonically. She blushed, but he chuckled and waved her concern away like smoke.

"No, no. It's fine. They can be a bit… stifling sometimes."

Viktoriya raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Have trouble managing two girlfriends?" she asked suddenly.

He blinked. "Wha- Oh, you…"

He began to laugh, but she just raised an eyebrow, hiding the vindication she felt. She _could _ask him… even if he seemed to be laughing at the idea of either girl being his girlfriend.

He eventually managed to stop chuckling. "No, no… neither of them are my girlfriends. The notion is…"

He chuckled again, and Viktoriya shrugged. "Okay. I just wanted to know because…"

She stumbled over the words again, and when she looked up, she found him staring into her face knowingly.

She blinked, confused. There was… something in his eyes that reminded her of someone trying to bluff but…

She shook her head. "I wanted to know if you'd like a date?" she asked, letting out the tension she had felt growing every time she thought about this drain.

She continued to stare him in the face, and he leaned back, letting a look of extremely exaggerated puzzlement mark his face. "A date, huh? I don't know…" he said, false hesitation ringing in his voice.

She blinked, and, all of a sudden, it seemed like there wasn't a reason to be nervous at all. He hadn't rejected her or anything…

And, really, wasn't she building it up just a bit too much? It was just a regular, normal date.

Anxiety gone, Viktoriya rolled her eyes fondly. "Oh come on. Keith or Dust or Kazuma wouldn't take more than a second."

He raised an affronted eyebrow. "I don't know much about them, but I do know enough," he said with a grave shake of his head. "Would you really ask any of them on a date? Because if the answer is yes…"

She shook her head sharply, once, and then shivered. Yeah, _no._ She'd never ask any of-

"Did someone mention wanting to date me? I guess I should have expected it, but for my popular period to have arrived so soon…"

Viktoriya cringed and turned her head to find Kazuma leaning over her, staring down past her eyes in a way Mitsurugi hadn't dared to. She saw that Aqua was in the background holding onto her face and fake-crying, but Viktoriya couldn't exactly bring herself to care much about the Goddess with how Kazuma's face seemed to be drifting downward to the area his eyes were glued to.

Viktoriya rolled her eyes and didn't give him a warning as she kicked out a foot with the intention to wound his shin.

Amazingly, he moved out of the way just in time, recognizing the presence of Mitsurugi before he turned back to her. Viktoriya sighed.

"No, Kazuma, I'm not asking you for a date. Leave us alone before I decide that testing Heal would really be the best use you have."

He blanched and was gone in a flash. Mitsurugi thought about asking about that…

Before deciding that the looks his teammates were sending him from the top of the staircase down into this gambling den meant he only had a few seconds. He smiled gently at her.

"Sure thing. How about… we meet at the guild in four days around… ten in the morning. Sounds good to you?"

_Twitch._

Viktoriya nodded quickly, and, while Mitsurugi quickly got up, she turned to see that Tanya was staring at them. "Oh, hi Tanya. What do you need from me?"

She blinked rapidly, looking between them rapidly. She cleared her throat rapidly and turned away rapidly. "Nothing. I was just coming to tell Kazuma something. See you back at the mansion."

She was gone in a flash, and Viktoriya turned to see that Mitsurugi was leaving.

She looked up the stairwell past him to see that his teammates were staring down at him angrily. He tossed a sheepish smile and a wave over his shoulder, and Viktoriya sighed and settled into her seat.

Well, it was done. She was going out on a date. With a guy.

For the first time in her life…

She sighed. Wasn't she supposed to feel… happy?

Though, Mitsurugi didn't _feel _like 'the one,' or anything.

Viktoriya shook her head, wishing that Elya or her parents or even the other members of the 203rd were there to help her. She was twenty-four and hadn't ever even been on a date, much less been in a relationship.

Then she shot up. Maybe Lorelei would know! She mentioned having a boyfriend, right?

She was gone in a moment, and Tanya turned back to Kazuma and Aqua after letting her gaze linger on her.

"Kazuma."

She bit it out with more force than she should have, but she didn't want to think about what she'd just seen.

He froze and spun around. "I told you, I'd get her to promise to shut up about your…"

His nervous speech trailed off when he noticed she wasn't angry. "Oh. Was…" Then, he groaned, attempting to rise from his seat. "Did Megumin do something?"

She shook her head. "No. But I have a quest for you involving her."

Kazuma blinked, and then-

_CRASH!_

"Hey, you stupid NEET! Don't push me out of my-"

"Shut it! I want more money, and she's supposed to be the Minister or something, which means she makes loads more than you do! Being mean to you probably earns me points with her, and she needs a chair anyway!"

It did, but she wouldn't be letting him know.

"There's a seat next to you that's open, NEET who died pissing himself! As if anyone else would want to sit next to-"

Tanya rolled her eyes as Kazuma silenced her with a handful of money, once again happy that she hadn't taken Aqua down with her. "Megumin's spell is a nuisance."

Kazuma nodded and didn't interrupt her with either a moronic defense of the indefensible or a falsely witty attempt at sarcasm.

"If you get her to stop using the spell around Axel, I'll pay you a bit for every Explosion she detonates that can just _barely _be heard from the town."

She wanted to make sure that she was still using it, after all. If she didn't, there was no telling what could set her off.

And, of course, if she couldn't hear it, Kazuma could claim that he had done his job without doing it.

He grinned widely, but she quickly brought out paper after paper. "Of course, I _do _know about Wiz's 'Drain Touch,' spell."

She had bought fifteen more explosive potions and promised to come up with more products in exchange for being allowed to watch. Tanya hadn't learned it – she _still _needed more skill points for everything – but it seemed to be novel.

Why use the spell in battle? Draining an opponent's energy was fine, she supposed, but getting close enough to use it would mean a bullet or knife would be much more direct methods of defeating an opponent.

Why use it to regain energy? Manatite was much more efficient for that purpose, and though Wiz was the only shopkeeper dumb enough to carry it in bulk in a town of beginners, smaller, less pure pieces weren't too tough on a pocketbook, especially if they could save your life.

She shook her head. "Anyway, you'll only be paid for the _first _explosion every day, and you're not getting _anything _if she detonates stuff close to the town or uses it more than once."

She slid the papers towards him. "More is detailed here. Sign when you're ready."

She waited, for a moment, and contemplated the deal she was offering. It really was easy work for him, it got Dust doing something and not annoying people – he was listening for Megumin so he wouldn't have to pay her as much – and it would keep people from bugging her with complaints about it interrupting business.

Many birds with a single stone… although, should she maybe specify Crows, considering how they'd been attacking her?

"Megumin probably won't appreciate it."

She glared at him. "And? Just give her some of the money or convince her not to. It doesn't matter to me, as long as she's not here."

He took only a few more moments, and then he signed it with a flourish. Tanya smiled, and turned around…

Only to spot the area Viktoriya had been sitting at and asking Mitsurugi out on a date…

She groaned. No, she _wasn't _interested in her beyond her stupid body's hormones, Viktoriya _wasn't _gay, and Tanya _wasn't _going to potentially jeopardize their relationship by asking.

Although…

Hadn't Viktoriya and Lolisa and Lorelei promised to stick by her? They could just ignore such a stupid question, if it turned out to be… misplaced-

She shook her head. _Hell no_, was the answer to that. There were some things that couldn't just be ignored…

But was a question like that really what would break an eight-year friendship apart…

Tanya grit her teeth, spun into the seat Viktoriya had been sitting in, and glared at the bar.

The barman finished serving Kazuma and hurried over to take her order. A bit of alcohol would _certainly _help her forget about her desires that weren't feasible in the slightest.

No, she'd focus on how the town was progressing, how the Demon King wasn't attacking, how Megumin was being reigned in, how she had coffee, and how…

"Nothing could possibly go wrong."

She blinked, cursed, and then violently sat down in her seat. She would regret saying that out loud, but not right now.

Now, she wanted to get drunk and forget… her fleeting, hormone-induced, unattainable _feelings _and remember what was going well. Undoubtedly, they had some stronger alcohol here than the stuff they served in the guild.

-OxOxO-

Kazuma watched as the barman walked towards Degurechaff, and he looked speculatively at Aqua.

"Hey Aqua. I've got a question," he began in a low voice. He watched Aqua clamber onto her original seat – she had been sitting in the seat on the opposite side of him during the conversation – and gulp down half her beer before glaring at him with flushed cheeks.

"NEET who pushed me off of my chair to talk to that Demon, speak to me with a more dignified tone befitting a Goddess such as myself."

"I'm gonna to buy you more alcohol."

"I don't care about your tone that much, actually."

He dismissed her words with a roll of his eyes. "Whatever. What were you saying about that Sasha girl asking that… Tsumigaru guy?"

Aqua blinked slowly. "Oh, that Demon's helper, Viktoriya? Yeah, I was saying that it was weird that she was dating him when she so clearly wants to fuck Degurechaff."

Kazuma blinked and was glad he hadn't had a sip of his own drink yet. What?

"What?"

"Oh yeah. Everyone in Heaven knows about it…"

She giggled. "Half of the time the Windbag was interacting with the world they were in, he was trying to make sure that neither of them acted on their feelings."

Kazuma just listened as she nodded to herself. "Yeah, if they'd realized it, they would have been too happy with each other to spend their time being depressed by the war and by his constant attempts at converting The Atheist, so… he spent a _lot _of time making sure they were not together."

"You have no idea how much fun I had laughing at how oblivious they are! If belligerent sexual tension exists, then they're the poster children!" she practically shouted, laughing all the while. Kazuma nodded to himself… and signaled the returning bartender for more with a wave of his hand.

He blinked at Kazuma. "What was that hand gesture… thing supposed to mean? Do you want more? I can't read minds, you know."

Kazuma sighed dejectedly as yet another of his attempts at seeming experienced and confident was once again dashed. "Yes, more, and stronger than what she's drinking now."

He nodded uncertainty and Kazuma grinned to himself, rubbing his hands together as Aqua drowned herself in alcohol.

He kind of felt bad for the both of them, considering his own interaction with his first crush…

Then he looked down at his hands, and then past them to see his plate. Or, rather, where his plate would be if it weren't buried in paper. He scoffed.

She hadn't even asked if he _wanted _the job. No, acting as if she were above conversation, she'd just assumed that he wanted it and that he'd take it.

Which he would, of course. There was good – and, more importantly, _easy _– money to be made.

He shook his head and nodded happily as Aqua continued to thank him for the drink. No, this would be something he could use… if worse came to worst and he ended up in prison.

He wasn't sure how far his Luck extended, but he didn't want to test it among hardened criminals, and her threats of locking him up to keep him safe might turn out to be not-so-hypothetical in the future.

And, if he ever really needed money, he could just offer her the information.

It was _foolproof!_

He blinked and sighed in relief. Thank goodness he hadn't said that out loud! Raising flags like that would have definitely resulted in the universe biting him in the ass later.

Content with his plan, he watched Aqua drink and hoped that she would forget that tidbit of information in a flood of alcohol.

Knowing her Luck, she'd reveal it just as he was trying to use it, but, knowing his own Luck, maybe this would give him just enough leeway to use it first.

-OxOxO-

"So… you _aren't _really interested in her?"

Mitsurugi nodded and ignored how very… well, overtly sexual this situation could look to observers.

Usually, being constrained to a bathroom stall with two women would be the apex of any prepubescent boys imagination, and the fact that they didn't wear much even when fully clothed didn't help that image.

Of course, his musings about what normal prepubescent boys would daydream about was his best guess. He wouldn't know.

The powerful sword wasn't the only reason he was different from most people, after all.

He nodded. "Of course not. If I was, our contract would have deprived me of… well…"

They didn't care about the fact that he was trying not to gag violently at the thought of being reduced to the equivalent of a Ken doll in terms of number of penises.

For a moment, he wondered where they had even gotten a contract like that, before he shook his head and smiled at them. They merely continued to stare him down before sighing.

"I suppose…"

As one, the pair of girls turned and exited the stall, giving Mitsurugi a moment to breathe.

Honestly, how those two could keep up their guise so well was beyond him. He had a hard time keeping it together.

Still, the pair of Noblewomen-turned-Axis cultists had each other. Just as they wished they had his power, he wished he could find another guy – preferably a Mage for team composition, but he wouldn't be too picky at this point – to have a meaningful relationship with.

He was reminded of his date… and the question that Viktoriya had asked him _before _asking him for a date…

He began to chuckle again.

As if! Those two had met him in the capital when he had accidentally stumbled upon a discrete demonstration of their relationship during one of Iris's parties.

When he'd reacted with understanding instead of disgust or an attempt at blackmailing them to let him 'join in,' they'd asked to come with him.

Not even for protection, really. They wanted to learn how to defend themselves, sure, but they were mostly tired of being asked by suitor after suitor for marriage. Their families were beginning to grow angry, but if they just disappeared, well…

So he'd pretend to be oblivious to the way they hung off of him, and everyone else was actually oblivious to the way they got handsy with each other when 'fighting over him.'

Not to mention what they got up to when no one was looking, or when they were all out on a quest with no one watching their every move.

It helped him ward off any rabid fangirls – who would be just as clingy, self-serving, and horny as his teammates pretended to be – that he wasn't interested in, no matter how varied they were, because he was gay.

He continued to laugh to himself, taking care not to get too loud.

Plus, he got to laugh – mentally in the moment and _uproariously _when he was alone – at everyone who thought that he was actually so incredibly dense. He really did have a hard time with that aspect of the charade – how did people _actually _think he was some kind of obtuse isekai protagonist who didn't know the meaning of attraction?

He'd expected to get called out by some fellow Reincarnate for the obvious fabrication, but they just… believed him. And every time someone cast a gaze filled with pity or jealousy at him from the way his teammates were fighting over him, he had to work overtime just to keep himself from doubling over laughing and giving it all away.

His laughter at the inside joke only he and two other people understood trailed off with a final sigh as he exited the stall and bathroom in quick succession. If only Aqua, the Goddess of the religion that welcomed homosexuals, could direct her to someone he'd like…

He shrugged. Oh well. When he finally defeated the Demon King he'd use his wish to get a soulmate.

Until then, however…

He sighed again as he thought of his upcoming date.

Or, rather, interrogation.

Oh, he would hide it – and he'd hide it well, considering he'd hid his sexuality from his parents for close to seven years – but he was figuring out if those two were racist, sexist, homophobic Nazis, once and for all.

Degurechaff was already working towards the levers of power – she was the Governor, she knew dozens of people from all walks of life who could act as informants, and she had done… _something _to get the guards and police to work together and stop taking bribes, from what he could see.

And though he'd acted like his 'normal,' oblivious self when they'd killed Hoost, he wasn't blind enough to think that the amount of time it had taken for her to kill that Demon on its last legs was reasonable.

He nodded to himself and quickly left the inn on top of the gambling den. Yes, he'd figure it out, one way or another. And, when he did…

He groaned. He'd have to take them on. Somehow…

He looked up at the sky with a determined, resolute sigh. He'd find a way.

One way or another.

-OxOxO-

Eris picked at the corner of her desk, thankful that the pain was gone for now.

Her… _Break _had been going painfully, and it hadn't in any way died down.

She had, thankfully, contacted her Most Faithful – Cardinal Gabel Montgommery, the highest ranked Archpriest of the Eris Cult and its leader for well over two and a half decades – and instructed him in a vision to figure out what was happening and put an end to it, one way or another.

He was, as usual, subservient and fast-acting, utilizing his powers to begin inquiries.

He hadn't found anything, but Eris's own attempts at finding the cause of her pain – visiting as many areas as she could in her mortal form to figure out if there was dissent and then using the prayers from that area to corroborate her findings – had eliminated the capital and most of the front lines for the cause.

She glowered. She had a sinking feeling that it had started with Axel – the one place she was completely unable to stay in thanks to The Atheist's efforts, and the place at the center of the area that had posters of her up declaring her a criminal.

She sighed happily, even as the pain began to build up again at the bottom of where her stomach would be if she were human. Her efforts at turning Mitsurugi were…

Working. He was slow to distrust Degurechaff – what he knew of her personality and his faith in humanity as a whole were holding the process back – but she was slowly chipping away at his belief that she was an odd and powerful Adventurer chosen by the Gods and Goddesses to help defeat the Demon King.

She massaged her temples. The rumors of her being an Axis Cultist were currently buried in the back of his head – and wasn't He being helpful in teaching her ways to use Mitsurugi's relative agnosticism to still affect change in his head? – but it was still progressing.

She looked over at the wall of loose paperwork sorted into cubbyholes labeled with different subjects, many of which involved the Reincarnates. It would have been nice to use someone else to destroy The Atheist, but they were all too important to the defense of Belzerg to send behind lines.

She grimaced, both from the mounting pain and from angry disappointment. Elroad was beginning to pour more resources than it ever had into Belzerg – Revi was a devout believer in her, and as long as he continued to be a believer and distanced himself from The Atheist, his attempts at centralizing Elroad's power and supporting Belzerg would continue to work beyond the wildest projections of him and his advisors.

She tapped her forehead. Maybe getting other nations to help more – like the successor states of Norse, or even the Free Cities on the southern coast – would shore up Belzerg's defenses?

She nodded to herself. Her hand shook as she wrote – the pain was continuing to _build _– but she was suddenly distracted.

Her desk, made of wood, had a small patch of metal grafted onto it in the upper right-hand corner. There were screens there, and it might have gone unnoticed save for the round yellow button and the small, nearly unnoticeable light at the center of the metal.

A small, nearly unnoticeable light on her desk that was quickly and silently blinked red.

She blinked back at it, for a moment, before-

She took in a deep breath and smiled beautifically. Resisting the urge to laugh maniacally was hard, but _this _gave her more than enough energy to ignore both the pain and her urge.

Eris didn't know what _she _had said, and she didn't particularly care. All she knew was that Tanya von Degurechaff had verbally dared the universe to wreck her, and Eris had _no _problem acquiescing to that taunt.

She pressed down on the yellow button next to the blinking light and sank back into her chair. Even the pain couldn't detract from how much she was going to enjoy grinding her Luck into the dust.

Sure, Aqua had horrible Luck, but Eris didn't _hate _her technical superior. Annoyance at her antics and the work she created was to be expected, but hate? No.

The Atheist would have to pull off something miraculous in order to avoid having a Luck stat larger than either of their boobs.

-OxOxO-

**A/N 1: **So here we are. I have literally nothing written after this besides an incredibly rough outline…

I'm not going to promise any kind of schedule, because we all know my record with those. Instead, I'm going to go on a bit of a break to reread everything I've written with a pen and pad in hand, and I'm going to take notes.

I need to get all the storylines in order, figure out what I've left to hang, and decide where this is going to go. Hopefully, I'll get everything in order before too much time passes.

Oh, and I'll probably (finally) post it to SpaceBattles. Hurrah!


End file.
